Nishimura is legally blind and, having survived stage IV lung cancer, his lungs aren’t what they once were. He needed the walker to attend the No Kings protest in Hartford. There, he was among thousands in Hartford and elsewhere around Connecticut and the country, protesting against President Donald Trump and what organizers have said are authoritarian actions.
Born in an internment camp, blind CT man is determined to protest at 82 years old
By Jordan Nathaniel Fenster | Danbury News-Times
Stan Nishimura took a taxi to get his brand new walker. It’s cherry red, the kind with a seat installed that lets him have a rest if he gets winded. The walker will give him some more mobility, allowing him to walk the grounds of his retirement community, but that’s not the sole reason he made the trek.
Stan Nishimura, 82, of New Haven. Jordan Fenster/Hearst Connecticut Media Group
Nishimura, now 82, had been to a recent protest at Yale, but he “really wasn’t able to get around.”
“That’s part of my life,” he said. “There’s real limitations.”
Nishimura, the grandchild of Japanese immigrants, was born in an internment camp in Arizona, one of those set up after Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066, which authorized the use of military personnel for the forced relocation of Japanese-Americans. Most of the 125,000 people put in those camps, like Nishimura’s parents, were American citizens. The order referred to them as “alien enemies.”
“That’s how I see my life,” he said. “First defeating the Trump MAGA fascists and then getting to a whole other world is a prime focus. Secondary to that is my individual concerns, because they’re doing it, not just for me, and it’s nice that I can go, but they’re doing it in terms of what is needed for humanity.”
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