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]] Japanese American Internment was the forced removal and during World War II . While approximately 10,000 were able to relocate to other parts of the country, the remainder – roughly 110,000 men, women and other people – were sent to hastily constructed camps called "War Relocation Centers" in remote portions of the nation's interior. President , reproduced at findlaw.com, accessed 11 Sept. 2006 Some compensation for property losses was paid in 1948, but most internees were unable to fully recover their losses. In 1988, President to surviving internees. HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF ANTI-ASIAN/JAPANESE SENTIMENT See Also: Anti-Japanese sentiment KEY GOVERNMENT ACTIONS INVOLVING JAPANESE AMERICANS The roots of the internment run back to the turn of the 20th century. Tensions between Caucasian and Asian immigrants (especially in California) starting in the late 1840s, had begun to increase in the 1890s. A series of laws were passed, aimed at discouraging Japanese immigration and prohibiting naturalization and even land ownership by Japanese. Eventually there was a ban on virtually all immigration from Japan, beginning in 1924. Other laws in California and an unknown number of other states prevented marriages between Caucasians and Asians, though Nikkei were able to marry non-Caucasians (a number of those went into the camps when their spouses and children were interned). Government actions prior to Pearl Harbor attack During the period of 1939–1941, the FBI compiled the Custodial Detention Index ("CDI") on citizens, "enemy" aliens and foreign nationals who might be dangerous based principally on census records. On ''' 13 (January 1982): 43-61. US McCarthyism Immediate responses to the Pearl Harbor attack The Attack On Pearl Harbor on December 7 , 1941 led many to suspect the Japanese were preparing a full-scale attack on the west coast of the United States. Moreover, Japan's Rapid Military Conquest of a large portion of Asia and the Pacific between 1936 and 1942 made their military forces seem to some Americans frighteningly unstoppable. Civilian and military officials had concerns about the loyalty of the ethnic Japanese on the west coast and considered them to be security risks, although these concerns often arose more from racial bias than actual risk. Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt , who administered the internment program, repeatedly told newspapers that "A Jap's a Jap" and testified to Congress, "I don't want any of them of Japanese ancestry here. They are a dangerous element. There is no way to determine their loyalty… It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen, he is still a Japanese. American citizenship does not necessarily determine loyalty… But we must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map."Fred Mullen, "DeWitt Attitude on Japs Upsets Plans," ''Watsonville Register-Pajaronian'', April 16, 1943. p.1, reproduced by Santa Cruz Public Library , accessed 11 Sept. 2006Testimony of John L. DeWitt, 13 April 1943, House Naval Affairs Subcommittee to Investigate Congested Areas, Part 3, pp. 739-40 (78th Cong ., 1st Sess.), cited in ''Korematsu v. United States'' , footnote 2, reproduced at findlaw.com, accessed 11 Sept. 2006 The inclusion of orphaned infants with "one drop of Japanese blood" (as explained in a letter by one official) lends credence to the argument that the measures were racially motivated, rather than a military necessity. Authorities also feared sabotage of both military and civilian facilities inside the United States. Military officials expressed concerns that California's water systems were highly vulnerable, and there were concerns about the possibility of arson — brush fires in particular. Administration and military leaders also doubted the loyalty of ethnic Japanese because many of them (including some born in America) had been educated in Japan, where school curricula emphasized reverence for the Emperor . It was feared that this population might commit acts of espionage or sabotage for the Japanese military. Upon the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Presidential Proclamations 2525 (Japanese), 2526 (German) and 2527 (Italian) were signed. Many homes were raided using information from the CDI, and hundreds of aliens were in custody by the end of the day, including Germans and Italians (although war was not declared on Germany or Italy until December 11). Presidential Proclamation 2537 was issued on January 14 , 1942 , requiring aliens to report any change of address, employment or name to the FBI . Enemy aliens were not allowed to enter restricted areas. Violators of these regulations were subject to "arrest, detention and internment for the duration of the war." Executive Order 9066 and related actions Executive Order 9066 , signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19 , 1942 , allowed authorized military commanders to designate "military areas" at their discretion, "from which any or all persons may be excluded." These "exclusion zones", unlike the "alien enemy" roundups, were applicable to anyone that an authorized military commander might choose, whether citizen or non-citizen. Eventually such zones would include parts of both the East and West Coasts totalling about 1/3 of the country by area. Unlike the subsequent detainment and internment programs that would come to be applied to large numbers of Japanese-Americans, detentions and restrictions directly under this Individual Exclusion Program were placed primarily on individuals of German or Italian ancestry, including American citizens. ''WWII Enemy Alien Control Overview'' from archives.gov, accessed 8 Jan. 2007
Non-military advocates for exclusion, removal, and detention Internment was popular among many white farmers who resented the Japanese American farmers. These individuals saw internment as a convenient means of uprooting their Japanese American competitors. Austin E. Anson, managing secretary of the Salinas Vegetable Grower-Shipper Association, told the ''Saturday Evening Post'' in 1942: "We're charged with wanting to get rid of the Japs for selfish reasons. We do. It's a question of whether the white man lives on the Pacific Coast or the brown men… If all the Japs were removed tomorrow, we'd never miss them in two weeks, because the white farmers can take over and produce everything the Jap grows. And we don't want them back when the war ends, either." ''Korematsu v. United States'' dissent by Justice Frank Murphy , footnote 12, reproduced at findlaw.com, accessed 11 Sept. 2006 In fact, internment was likely responsible for a massive influx in immigration from Mexico. Significant labor was necessary to take over the Japanese Americans' farms at a time when many American laborers were also being inducted into the Armed Forces. Ironically, thousands of Nikkei , temporarily released from the internment camps to harvest Western beet crops, were credited with saving this industry. WAS THE INTERNMENT JUSTIFIED BY MILITARY NECESSITY? Possible evidence of espionage The strongest evidence of espionage was derived from a series of Decrypted Communications from the Japanese government. These messages referred to a network of Japanese Americans with military contractors, as the Japanese consulate stated in the encrypted messages that it was attempting to recruit Japanese American spies. The impact of these communications has been questioned on the claim that much of the information that Japanese officials obtained may have come from public sources such as newspapers, and that there is no data indicating the success of these recruitment efforts. The role of the MAGIC intercepts is a central issue in the military necessity dispute.David D. Lowman, MAGIC: The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents from the West Coast during WW II. The MAGIC intercepts contained decrypted communications by the Japanese government and military. Many of these are reprinted in Lowman's book. In a handful of the decrypted messages, the Japanese consulate stated that it was attempting to recruit Japanese American spies. The main criticism of the relevance of the intercepts is that much of the information that Japanese officials obtained may have come from public sources such as newspapers, and that there is no data indicating the success of these recruitment efforts. Another point of dispute is whether the key decision makers (a) had access to the MAGIC intercepts, and (b) the extent to which these intercepts contributed to the perception of military threat posed by the Japanese American community. It was Stimson, McCloy and Roosevelt who made the decision. They had access to the MAGIC intercepts which were closely held. The intercepts could not be revealed at the time as this would have let the Japanese know the United States had broken their diplomatic and naval codes. Information from Japanese intercepts was largely responsible for the American victory in the naval battle at Midway. General DeWitt, who ordered the internment, was not on the severely limited distribution list for intelligence developed from MAGIC. Ironically, Nisei members of the Military Intelligence Service were assigned to analysis and translation of the raw intercepts. The most widely reported examples of espionage and treason are the Tachibana spy ring and the Niihau Incident . The Tachibana spy ring was a group of Japanese nationals who were arrested shortly before the Pearl Harbor attack and were deported. The Niihau Incident occurred just after the Pearl Harbor attack, two Japanese Americans on Niihau freed a captured Japanese pilot and assisted him in his machine-gun attack on Native Hawaiians there.http://www.the-catbird-seat.net/PearlHarbor.htm Despite this incident taking place in Hawaii, the Territorial Governor rejected calls for wholesale internment of Japanese Americans in the Islands. Some present-day supporters of the internment have argued that some Japanese Americans were indeed disloyal, as seen by the approximately 20,000 Japanese Americans in Japan at the start of the war who joined the Japanese war effort, hundreds joining the Japanese Army. One particular example is Tomoya Kawakita , an American citizen who worked as an interpreter and a POW guard for the Japanese army, and who actively participated in the torture (and at least one death) of American soldiers, including survivors of the Bataan Death March . Kawakita was convicted for treason and imprisoned. Rebuttals of possible evidence of espionage Critics of this viewpoint note that it seems unlikely that Japanese Americans in Japan had any choice other than to be conscripted into the Japanese army, given (1) that it was near-impossible for them to return to the U.S. from Japan, and (2) that the United States had already classified all people of Japanese ancestry as "enemy aliens."1 Critics of the internment argue that the military justification was unfounded, citing the absence of any subsequent convictions of Japanese American s for espionage. An additional reason to question the necessity of internment was an official report by Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Ringle, a naval intelligence officer tasked with evaluating the loyalty of the Japanese American population. LCDR Ringle estimated in a 1941 report to his superiors that "more than 90% of the Nisei generation and 75% of the original immigrants were completely loyal to the United States." A 1941 report prepared on President Roosevelt's orders by Curtis B. Munson, special representative of the State Department, concluded that most Japanese nationals and "90 to 98 percent" of Japanese American citizens were loyal. He wrote: "There is no Japanese 'problem' on the Coast… There is far more danger from Communists and people of the Bridges type on the Coast than there is from Japanese." FBI director J. Edgar Hoover opposed the internment of Japanese Americans. Refuting General DeWitt's reports of disloyalty on the part of Japanese Americans, Hoover sent a memo to Attorney General Francis Biddle in which he wrote about Japanese-American disloyalty, "Every complaint in this regard has been investigated, but in no case has any information been obtained which would substantiate the allegation." FACILITIES While this event is most commonly called the ''internment'' of Japanese Americans, in fact there were several different types of camps involved. The best known facilities were the ''Assembly Centers'' run by the Western Civilian Control Administration (WCCA), and the ''Relocation Centers'' run by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), which are generally (but unofficially) referred to as "internment camps." The Department of Justice (DOJ) operated camps officially called ''Internment Camps'', which were used to detain those suspected of actual crimes or "enemy sympathies." German American Internment and Latin American Internment camps were also run, sometimes sharing facilities with the Japanese Americans. The WCCA and WRA facilities were the largest and the most public. The WCCA Assembly Centers were temporary facilities that were first set up in horse racing tracks, fairgrounds and other large public meeting places to assemble and organize internees before they were transported to WRA Relocation Centers by truck, bus or train. The WRA Relocation Centers were camps that housed persons removed from the exclusion zone after March 1942, or until they were able to relocate elsewhere in America outside the exclusion zone. Terminology debate Ever since World War II ended, there has been much debate over what to call the camps where Americans of Japanese ancestry and their immigrant parents were interned by the United States Government during World War II.2 The US Government officially called them "War Relocation Centers." From that, some called them "relocation camps," while others called them " Internment Camps ." Still others have called them "concentration camps."3 Relocation center/camp Those who contend that the camps should be called "relocation centers" or "relocation camps" argue that "relocation" is the appropriate term because this was the official terminology used by the WRA. This parallels the use of the term "concentration camp" for the Nazi camps, for example, where the official terminology used by the Nazis for them was "''Konzentrationslager''." For example, Manzanar was officially known as the Manzanar War Relocation Center. Because of this, the National Park Service has chosen to use "relocation center" when it refers to the American camps.4 However, many historians and scholars, as well as former internees, object to the use of this term because the people who were sent to these camps were not merely "relocated." In fact, Japanese Americans were forcibly uprooted from their homes and communities, and were imprisoned in what could also be referred to as "prison camps." They contend that "relocation center" was a euphemism--a name used in an attempt to downplay and sanitize the real purpose of these camps--to hide the reality of what they really were.5 Internment camp Another widely used name for the American camps is "internment camp." To be sure, those held behind the barbed wire at each of these camps are commonly referred to as "internees." However, "internment" (and "internee") is felt by some to be only partially accurate when used in this case because it refers to detaining enemy aliens during wartime. In the American camps, over 110,000 were imprisoned, but two-thirds were native-born American citizens and the rest were unable to become citizens because of laws preventing their naturalization. As such, "internment" (and "internee") is only partially accurate, and only because laws prevented the ''Issei'' (first-generation; immigrants) from naturalizing. In fact, use of "internment," "internee," and "enemy alien" were all part of the US Government's effort to disguise the reality of what they were doing behind the barbed wire.67 Use of "internment camp" is also potentially confusing in this case because the United States Department Of Justice operated separate camps that were officially called "internment camps" (''see'' below) where some Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II.89 Concentration camp The most contentious name that is commonly used for the ten camps is "concentration camp." |
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