A broad green road sign reading “Ralph Carr Memorial Highway” will soon stand along U.S. 285 at the point where refugees such as Kerry Hada’s Japanese-American aunt and uncle finally found refuge amid Pearl Harbor-era hysteria.
Inouye and Yoshiko Nakayama set out in a small caravan in February 1942 from the Los Angeles valley under threat of internment, at times traveling at rifle-point from local law enforcement or pelted by trash and rocks on their long journey into Colorado.
When they arrived, they feared the car awaiting them at the New Mexico-Colorado border until the driver tipped his hat and welcomed them on behalf of Gov. Ralph Carr, a leader now lauded for risking his career to protect the persecuted.
“What an honorable man,” they said, according to Hada, a Denver lawyer.
Hada and a handful of politicians, including Gov. Bill Ritter, gathered Sunday on the Capitol steps to unveil the first of many road signs that will mark the renamed portion of Highway 285, which lawmakers approved this spring.
“He stood alone, saying something other people considered a . . . fatal error for him,” Ritter said.
Carr served as Colorado’s governor from 1938 to 1943 and was the only governor during World War II to welcome displaced Japanese-Americans, who traveled here from all over the West.
Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Genesee, sponsored the legislation honoring Carr.
The Republican governor understood that what makes America different “is not just that we have a Constitution, but that we live by it,” Witwer said.
The resolution renaming the highway further lauds Carr, saying: “By his humanitarian efforts no Colorado citizen of Japanese ancestry was deprived of his or her basic freedoms.”
Hada’s family, who eventually became pillars of the farming community where they settled, is proof of that.
“We all owe a great debt of gratitude,” Hada said.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com.
