[1952]
[1961]
[1962]
[1963]
[1964a]
[1964b]
[1964c]
[1964d]
[1964e]
[1965]
[1966a]
[1966b]
[1966c]
[1966d] −
[1966e]
[1967a]
[1967b]
[1967c]
[1968a] −
[1968b]
[1968c]
[1969a]
[1969b]
[1969c]
[1969d]
[1970]
[1971a]
[1971b]
[1972]
[1973]
[1974]
[1975] −
[1976] −
[1978a] −
[1978b]
[1980]
[1981a]
[1981b] (609) However, despite the poor treatment that they received, only a
small number of Japanese Americans gave up their United States citizenship and
returned to Japan after the war. Most Japanese Americans struggled to rebuild
the lives that had been taken from them after Pearl Harbor. Looking back over
the hardships that the Japanese Americans suffered during the war, one Nisei
spoke for many when he said, The freedom we had always taken for granted -- as
most Americans still do -- began to take on deep meaning when we had been
deprived of it. . . . Life in the camps was . . . inadequate and morale-killing.
But never . . . did we lose faith in America.
[1982a]
[1982b] (635) What was life like for Japanese Americans in internment camps?
Here is a short description, written by a Japanese American living in a camp:
"Barbed wire fences with watch towers and armed guards and searchlights
surround an area a mile square set in the middle of a swamp. The barracks are
merely bunkrooms. They are built row on row, covered with black tarpaper,
unrelieved by any color or individuality. There is no privacy. A family of five
has a single room."
[1982c] −
[1982d]
[1982e]
[1982f]
[1983a] −
[1983b] (168) At the end of the war, the Japanese
Americans were released. Most returned to
their homes in West Coast states to pick
up the pieces of their shattered lives, but
some moved on. Prejudice against the Japanese
remained high for several years, but as war
memories faded, it died down. Into the mainstream.
There is encouraging evidence that discrimination
and prejudice against ethnic groups have
declined during the past generation. The
decline is probably due, in large part, to
education. Another factor in the decline
is that most groups are now in the mainstream
of American life. The answer to the question,
"Why can't they be like us?" is
"More and more they are." That
in turn raises two more questions. How did
the immigrant groups enter the mainstream?
And now that most of them have, what is the
future of ethnicity in America? We shall
explore those questions in the next chapter.
[1983c] (444) At the end of the war, the Japanese
Americans were released. Most returned to
their homes in West Coast states to pick
up the pieces of their shattered lives, but
some moved on. Prejudice against the Japanese
remained high for several years, but as war
memories faded, it died down. Into the mainstream.
There is encouraging evidence that discrimination
and prejudice against ethnic groups have
declined during the past generation. The
decline is probably due, in large part, to
education. Another factor in the decline
is that most groups are now in the mainstream
of American life. The answer to the question,
"Why can't they be like us?" is
"More and more they are." That
in turn raises two more questions. How did
the immigrant groups enter the mainstream?
And now that most of them have, what is the
future of ethnicity in America? We shall
explore those questions in the next chapter.
[1983d] −
[1984] (425-6) Their imprisonment was based not on suspicion or
evidence of treason, but on ethnic origin -- the fact that they were of
Japanese descent. "It was really cruel and harsh," recalled Joseph Y.
Kurihara, a citizen and a veteran of the First World War, "To pack and
evacuate in forty-eight hours was an impossibility. Seeing mothers completely
bewildered with children crying from want and peddlers taking advantage and
offering prices next to robbery made me feel like murdering those
responsible." The internees were sent to flood-damaged lands at
Relocation, Arkansas; to the inter-mountain terrain of Wyoming and the desert
of western Arizona; and to other arid and desolate spots in the West. Although
the names were picturesque -- Topaz, Utah; Rivers, Arizona; Heart Mountain.
Wyoming; Manzanar, California -- the camps themselves were bleak and
demoralizing. Behind barbed wire stood tarpapered wooden barracks where entire
families lived in a single room furnished only with cots, blankets, and a bare
light bulb. Toilets and dining and bathing facilities were communal; privacy
was almost nonexistent.
[1985a]
[1985b]
[1985c] (249) In 1922, in the case of Ozawa v. United States, the
Supreme Court held that certain Asians (such as Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans)
could not become naturalized citizens. Thus, although many of the Japanese
immigrants living in the United States had wanted to become citizens, the Court
had denied them that right. The government only made exceptions for Japanese
immigrants who had fought in World War I. Further examples of discrimination
against the Japanese came in 1924, when the Congress prohibited all Japanese
immigration to the United States. Thus, the government did not allow Japanese
immigrants to become citizens and prohibited their relatives from joining them
in the United States. Nevertheless, these Japanese were loyal to their adopted
country. . . . The President issued this executive order on his own authority,
under the Constitution, as commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces. On
March 2, General DeWitt established Military Areas #1 and #2 in the western part
of the United States. On March 21, Congress passed a law in support of the
President's Executive Order and of the subsequent actions of General DeWitt. On
March 24, General DeWitt proclaimed a curfew between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and
6:00 a.m. for all persons of Japanese ancestry living within Military Area #1,
which comprised the entire Pacific coastal region. On May 9, General DeWitt
ordered the exclusion from Military Area #1 of all persons of Japanese
background. The vast majority of these people were U.S. citizens born on
American soil. These people had thoroughly American attitudes, beliefs, and
behavior. Most of them would have felt out of place in Japan. The military sent
the Japanese-Americans to the relocation centers far from the coastal region.
In effect, this action placed more than 75,000 American citizens who had broken
no laws in jail without trials. The government did not charge any of these
people with crimes. They could take with them only what they could carry.
[1986a] −
[1986b]
[1986c] (634) In
relocation camps, Japanese Americans had to live behind barbed wire. Housing
was poor. The
people did not understand why they, as American citizens, were singled out.
Americans of German and Italian backgrounds were not sent to camps. In 1944,
the Supreme Court ruled that the camps were a necessary wartime measure. Only
when an Allied victory seemed certain were Japanese Americans allowed to return
to their homes.
[1986d] −
[1986e] −
[1986f]
[1987a] −
[1987b] −
[1988] (619) Class Activity: Invite people who served in the
armed forces or who worked in factories during World War II to share their
experiences with the class. Some students might like to further understand the
experiences of people during the war by interviewing Japanese-Americans who
were placed in relocation camps. Yoshiko Uchida was a college student when her
family was sent to Topaz, Utah. Like all the camps, Topaz was isolated. The
housing barracks were quickly and badly built. Summers were hot and dry, and
winters were cold and snowy. Always the air was full of dust. Yoshiko worked as
a secretary and a teacher until 1943, when she left for graduate school at
Smith College. Her sister Kay also moved east. After the war, Yoshiko Uchida
became a teacher and a writer. Several of her books are about Japanese-American
life before and during the war. She writes for all Americans, she says,
"with the hope that through knowledge of the past, they will never allow another
group of people in America to be sent into a desert exile again." (T116)
History and . . . Government. As students saw in this section, the federal
government took control of the economy and forced the relocation of thousands
of American citizens of Japanese descent. Many of these actions were violations
or usurpations of Constitutional power. Ask students to recall the Supreme
Court's rejection of the National Recovery Act and compare that with the
economic controls imposed during the war. Ask students why the government could
take over so much of American life during the war, when it couldn't a decade
before. Why might Americans agree to forfeit some of their Constitutional
rights during wartime? Does this mean that the Constitution can be violated whenever
there is a war? Does the Constitution have any meaning during a war? How could
the Constitution interfere with the war effort?
[1989a] (634) In relocation camps, Japanese Americans had to live behind
barbed wire. Housing was poor. The people did not understand why they, as
American citizens, were singled out. Americans of German and Italian
backgrounds were not sent to camps. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled that the
camps were a necessary wartime measure. Only when an Allied victory seemed
certain were Japanese Americans allowed to return to their homes. [DISCUSSION.
Lead a discussion on how wartime conditions often bring about curtailment of
civil liberties Have students compare Japanese internment with suspensions of
rights during the Civil War and treatment of German-Americans in World War I.]
[1989b] −
[1990a] (674) The nation's Japanese Americans were detained in the isolated
camps for most of the war. In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the forced
relocation as a justifiable wartime measure. Not until 1945, when Allied
victory seemed certain, were these people allowed to return to their
communities to rebuild their shattered lives.
[1990b] (571) They then were confined in camps, watched by armed guards, and
treated as if they were dangerous. Not until after the presidential election of
1944 did the government change its policy and begin to release these innocent
citizens. . . . In time of war it is harder than ever for a free nation to
preserve its freedoms. Defending the country becomes a matter of life and
death. Dissenters are open to the charge of being traitors. This is a true
testing time of democracy. In World War II, except for the disgraceful
treatment of Japanese Americans, the nation's record was far better than it had
been in World War I.
[1990c] (666) Understanding Points of View. COMPARING POINTS OF VIEW. When
two people write about the same event, they may study the same evidence and
look at the same documents, newspapers, diaries, and letters. Yet they can
arrive at totally different conclusions. How is that possible? It is possible
because each writer has a point of view. Perhaps the writers are working in
different time periods. Perhaps they come from different backgrounds. Most
likely they have had different experiences. They may have different ideas about
society and about which things are most important. In other words, they weigh
evidence differently. Here are two passages about the relocation of Japanese
Americans during World War II. The first passage was written by John I. McCoy
in 1942, just after the removal was completed. McCoy was assistant secretary of
the army, and it was the army that carried out the removal. I wonder if anyone
realizes the skill, speed and humanity with which the evacuation of the
Japanese has been handled by the Army on the West Coast? I am struck with the extreme
care that has been taken to protect the persons and goods and even the comforts
of each individual. Certainly an organization that can do a humane job like
this and still be a fine fighting organization is unique -- and American. I
hope other countries that have similar problems will not overlook how an answer
has been found irk this country. More than 30 years later, two historians,
Leonard Dinnerstein and David M. Reimers, wrote about the same event this way:
The hasty removal meant considerable hardship and suffering. Given only Eve
days' notice of the evacuation, those interned could take only what they could
carry; the government took over and held in storage all other belongings. In
addition to the financial losses the conditions in the relocation centers were
miserable. At first, the Japanese were placed in temporary quarters, including
a hastily converted race track, which lacked basic facilities. Eventually, the
government built ten camps, but they were mostly located in barren desert
country; hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The surroundings were drab
and unattractive, complete with barbed wire, military police, and, in some
cases, machine guns. One Nisei intern later wrote of the camp in Arizona,
"I must say this scorching Hell is a place beyond description and beyond
tears." SKILLS PRACTICE. Compare the writers' points of view in the two
passages. How might McCoy's position have influenced his point of view?
Dinnerstein and Reimers wrote 30 years later. How might the passage of three
decades have affected their point of view?
[1990d] (863) Eventually, the government built the "relocation
centers" in remote, often arid, sections of the West. ''The Japs live like
rats, breed like rats and act like rats. We don't want them," the governor
of Idaho announced. The camps were primitive and unattractive. "When I
first entered our room, I became sick to my stomach," a Japanese-American
woman remembered. "There were seven beds in the room and no furniture nor
any partitions to separate the males and the females of the family. I just sat
on the bed, staring at the bare wall." The government evacuated about
110,000 Japanese.
[1990e]
[1991] (612) There was little privacy in the camps, and whole
families were made to live in single rooms. Peter Ota, age 15, was one such
Japanese American who was forced to leave his Los Angeles home. Together with
his 12-year-old sister and his father, Peter was sent to a camp in Colorado.
His mother was too ill to go. After a while, Peter was released occasionally to
work on a farm or in a factory. When Peter's mother died, he went to
California, under military guard, to get her body. "When they marched me
through the train stations," Peter recalled, "the people recognized
me as being Oriental. . . . I heard 'dirty Jap' very distinctly." (629)
RETURNING FROM WAR. "The war changed our whole Idea of how we wanted to
live when we came back." -- Army veteran, 1945. By the time of the war
crimes trials, Americans were drifting back to the everyday life that the war
had disrupted. Some would look back on the war years as a time of adventure and
daring excitement. Others who had lost limbs or loved ones would feel the
heartbreak and anguish for years to come. But few would be unmarked by their
wartime experience. For some, the war had revealed a dark side of human nature.
Japanese Americans like Peter Ota could not shake the bitter memories from
their minds: I think of my father. . . . After all those years, having worked
his whole life to build a dream -- an American dream mind you -- having it all
taken away. . . . His [fruit and vegetable] business was worth more than a
hundred thousand. He sold it for five. . . . He died a very broken man.
[1992a] −
[1992b]
[1992c]
[1992d] (677) They then were confined in camps, watched by armed guards, and
treated as if they were dangerous. Not until after the presidential election of
1944 did the government change its policy and begin to release these innocent
citizens. . . . In time of war it is harder than ever for a free nation to
preserve its freedoms. Defending the country becomes a matter of life and
death. Dissenters are open to the charge of being traitors. This is a true
testing time of democracy. In World War II, except for the disgraceful
treatment of Japanese Americans, the nation's record was far better than it had
been in World War I.
[1992e] (677) They then were confined in camps, watched by armed guards, and
treated as if they were dangerous. Not until after the presidential election of
1944 did the government change its policy and begin to release these innocent
citizens. . . . In time of war it is harder than ever for a free nation to
preserve its freedoms. Defending the country becomes a matter of life and
death. Dissenters are open to the charge of being traitors. This is a true
testing time of democracy. In World War II, except for the disgraceful
treatment of Japanese Americans, the nation's record was far better than it had
been in World War I. (674C) Section I (pages 675-679). Mobilizing for Defense.
FOCUS. To introduce the lesson, break the class up into small groups and have
the groups list at least ten significant effects of the war on American
society, based on information found in their texts. As soon as they have
finished, bring the class back together and have each group list its answers on
the board. Then review and discuss the lists with the class.
[1992f] (649) One young Japanese American man recalled the experience:
"I remember the pain of being labeled a 'dirty Jap' and a 'dangerous
enemy.' For me, a Los Angeles teenager of 17, it was a time when my entire
value system was thrown out of kilter.2" [2 From "Point of View: A
Sorry Part of Our History" by Daniel Kuzuhara, in the Chicago Tribune,
August 26, 1981.]
[1992g] (473-4) UP CLOSE: A Teenager Is Interned. Fifteen-year-old Peter Ota
could not understand what was happening. He had lived in California all his
life. His father was a businessman who owned a fruit and vegetable company. Mr.
Ota was also a leader of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles. For
no apparent reason, the FBI arrested him and a dozen other people at a wedding
reception. Peter's father was still dressed in his tuxedo when the FBI agents
dragged him off. It was Sunday December 7, 1941. That morning, Japan had bombed
the American fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The world changed suddenly for
Peter, his family, and 110,000 others of Japanese descent in the United States.
Detention and separation. For days, the family waited to hear news of Mr. Ota.
Finally, they learned he was in jail. When they found him, he was wearing
"prisoner's clothing, with a denim jacket and a number on his back."
Peter's mother said nothing. But tears streamed down her cheeks when she saw
her husband. The pain was more than she could bear. In a short time, she
contracted tuberculosis. She entered a sanitarium and died before the war was
over. Mr. Ota was sent away, too, to an internment camp in Missoula, Montana.
It was one of 10 such inland camps for Japanese and Japanese Americans. Peter
and his 12-year-old sister were alone. Mail was their only link to their
father. They received reassuring letters from him. Although heavy black lines
from a censor's pen ran across each page, Peter could tell from what remained
that their father was all right. In April 1942, the government sent Peter and
his sister to a detention center in Santa Anita, California, that had been
converted from a race track. They were allowed to bring a toothbrush, small
personal items, and some clothes -- basically just what they could carry. They
felt lucky because they lived in a boxlike barracks. The less fortunate were
housed in stables. They slept on mattresses of straw in stalls meant for
horses. A sad reunion. Five months later. Peter and his sister were moved
again. This time their father joined them. Nearly a year had passed since Mr.
Ota had been interned. In place of an outgoing, successful businessman, a
resigned, expressionless figure stood before Peter and his sister. A single
Japanese word popped into Peter's mind -- gaman. A "very strong
word," he recalled, "it means to persevere . . . [to] take what's
coming, don't react." Together at last, Peter, his sister, and his father were
herded onto a crowded train. Memories of Mrs. Ota occupied their minds. For
days, they rode with the shades drawn toward an unknown destination. Their new
"home" was another internment camp, this time in Amache, Colorado.
Barbed wire, watchtowers, and armed guards separated the Ota family from the
rest of the nation. Looking across the horizon, Peter could see nothing but
flat, barren wasteland. Shortly after they arrived, the Otas were assigned a
room in a barracks. The 20-foot by 20-foot space contained a potbellied stove
in the corner, an electric light bulb dangling from the ceiling, and army cots
and blankets. Peter's sister lived there for the next three-and-a-half years,
until the camp closed. His father was moved from camp to camp for the remainder
of the war. . . . The postwar years. For the younger people, there was time to
rebuild their lives after the war. Peter married, and years later his daughter,
a lawyer, worked on behalf of an organization seeking reparations for Japanese
American internees. Peter's father, forced to sell his business for a fraction
of its worth, lived the rest of his life in poverty and died a broken man.
[1992h]
[1993a]
[1993b] −
[1994a]
[1994b] (865) Eventually, the government built the "relocation
centers" in remote, often arid, sections of the West. "The Japs live
like rats, breed like rats and act like rats. We don't want them," the
governor of Idaho announced. The camps were primitive and unattractive.
"When I first entered our room, I became sick to my stomach," a
Japanese-American woman remembered. "There were seven beds in the room and
no furniture nor any partitions to separate the males and the females of the
family. I just sat on the bed, staring at the bare wall." The government
evacuated about 110,000 Japanese.
[1994c]
[1994d]
[1995a] −
[1995b]
[1995c] −
[1996a] (759) Furthermore, the army had not prepared
the sites to offer basic sanitation, comfort,
or privacy. "We lived in a horse stable,"
remembered one young girl. Eventually, most
Japanese were interned in 10 camps in remote
areas of seven western states. No claim of
humane intent could change the reality: these
were concentration camps. Internees were
held in wire-enclosed compounds by armed
guards. Temporary tar-papered barracks housed
families or small groups in single rooms.
Each room had a few cots, some blankets,
and a single light bulb. That was home. (759-60)
Hirabayashi and Korematsu. Other Japanese
Americans challenged the government through
the legal system. Fred Korematsu in California
and Gordon Hirabayashi in Washington State
were arrested when they refused to report
for relocation. "As an American citizen,
I wanted to uphold the principles of the
Constitution," recalled Hirabayashi.
But in Korematsu v. United States (1944),
the Supreme Court upheld the government's
relocation program as a wartime necessity.
Three justices dissented, criticizing relocation
as the "legalization of racism."
Concentration camps in America did not mirror
the horror of nazi death camps, but they
were built on racism and fear. Worse, they
violated the traditions of civil rights and
liberties for which Americans believed they
were fighting.
[1996b] (527) Life in the Internment Camps. The internees were sent
to flood-damaged lands at Relocation, Arkansas, to the intermountain terrain of
Wyoming and the desert of western Arizona, and to other arid and desolate spots
in the West. Although the names were evocative -- Topaz, Utah; Rivers, Arizona;
Heart Mountain, Wyoming; Tule Lake and Manzanar, California -- the camps were
bleak and demoralizing. Behind barbed wire stood tarpapered wooden barracks
where entire families lived in a single room furnished only with cots,
blankets, and a bare light bulb. Toilets and dining and bathing facilities were
communal; privacy was almost nonexistent. (527) The Supreme Court upheld the
government's policy of internment. In wartime, the Court said in the
Hirabayashi ruling (1943), "Residents having ethnic affiliations with an
invading enemy may be a greater source of danger than those of different
ancestry." In the Kurematsu case (1944), the Court approved the removal of
the Nisei from the West Coast. One dissenter, Justice Frank Murphy, denounced
the decision as the "legalization of racism."
[1996c] (256) (3) ROY YANO. "To pack and evacuate
in forty-eight hours was an impossibility.
I saw mothers completely bewildered with
children crying from want and peddlers taking
advantage and offering prices next to robbery.
. . ." (4) JOE KURIHARA, WORLD WAR I
VETERAN. "Colonel Bendetsen [in charge
of the relocation] showed himself to be a
little Hitler. I mentioned that we had an
orphanage with children of Japanese ancestry
and that some of these children were half
Japanese, others one-fourth or less. I asked
which children should we send. . . . Bendetsen
said: 'I am determined that if they have
one drop of Japanese blood in them, they
must go to camp.'" (5) FATHER HUGH T.
LAVERY, CATHOLIC MARYKNOLL CENTER, LOS ANGELES.
"I was rather disappointed at the barracks
which we evacuees were to live in. I thought
at least each individual family would be
assigned to a separate apartment. Instead,
two or three families were crowded into a
six beam apartment, offering no privacy."
(6) HEART MOUNTAIN REPORTS DIVISION, MAY
1943. (257-8) INTERNMENT CAMPS FOR JAPANESE
AMERICANS: "CHILDREN AWAITING EVACUATION"
(5/8/1942) BY DOROTHEA LANGE (NATIONAL ARCHIVES
#210-G-2C-1559). "Evacuees ate communally,
showered communally, defecated communally.
Again with an eye toward economy, no partitions
had been built between toilets. . . . In
interior California camps, the hot summer
sun beating down on paper-thin roofs turned
living quarters into sizzling ovens causing
the moors [made of asphalt] to melt."
(7) JAPANESE EVACUEE. "The barbed wire
stockade surrounding the 18,000 people there
was like that of the prison camps of the
Germans. There were the same turrets for
the soldiers and the same machine guns for
those who might attempt to climb the high
wiring. . . . The buildings were covered
with tarred paper over green and shrinking
shiplap-this for the low winter temperatures
of the high elevation of Tule Lake. . . ..No
federal penitentiary so treats its adult
prisoners. Here were the children and babies
as well." (8) CHIEF JUDGE WILLIAM DENMAN,
NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS, 8/26/49.
Look at the picture above of two Japanese
American children and an elderly woman who
are being deported to an interment camp in
1942. Answer the following questions: 1.
How old do you think these two children were
at the time of this picture? 2. How old would
these two children be if they are still living
today? Imagine you are one of the children
in this picture, who has lived to be 65 years
old. Imagine that you have had several children
and many grandchildren and you are showing
them this picture of yourself and your sister.
What stories would you tell your grandchildren
about your experience during World War II
in the interment camp and what lessons would
you want to teach them regarding this experience?
Write your conversation with a grandchild
below.
[1996d] −
[1996e] (461) Review Questions. MULTIPLE CHOICE. 12. In Korematsu v. United
States, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that a, the use of the atomic bomb
against the Japanese was justified. b. the U.S. had to provide financial
compensation to Japanese-Americans sent to internment camps. c. wartime
necessity legitimized the relocation of Japanese-Americans. d. the U. S. had
violated the rights of Japanese-Americans by sending them to internment camps.
(pp. 759-760). (466-7) PRIMARY SOURCE: Two Views on the Evacuation of
Japanese-Americans. [From Hearings before the Select Committee Investigating
National Defense Migration. House of Representatives. Washington, 1942.] When
President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, he authorized
the evacuation of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast. Soon after, a
Congressional Committee heard testimony from both California public officials
and representatives of the Japanese community who both favored and opposed
evacuation. The following excerpts are from California Attorney-General Earl
Warren (later the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) and from James Omura.
EARL WARREN: Unfortunately, however, many of our people and some of our
authorities . . . are of the opinion that because we have had no sabotage and
no fifth column activities in this State since the beginning of the war, that
means that none have been planned for us. But I take the view that is the most
ominous sign in our whole situation. It convinces me more than perhaps any
other factor that the sabotage we are to get . . . [is] timed just like Pearl
Harbor. . . . We believe that when we are dealing with the Caucasian race we
have methods that will test the loyalty of them, and we believe that we can, in
dealing with the German and Italians, arrive at some fairly sound conclusions
because of our knowledge of the way they live in the community. . . . But when
we deal with the Japanese we are in an entirely different field and we cannot
inform any opinion we believe to be sound. Their method of living, their
language, make for this difficulty. . . . JAMES OMURA: It is doubtlessly
difficult for Caucasian Americans to properly comprehend and believe in what we
say. Our citizenship has even been attacked as an evil cloak under which we
expect immunity, for the nefarious purpose of conspiring to destroy the
American way of life. To us -- who have been born, raised, and educated in
American institutions and in our system of public schools, knowing and owing no
other allegiance than to the United States -- such a thought is manifestly
unfair and ambiguous. I would like to ask the committee: Has the Gestapo come
to America? Have we not risen in righteous anger at Hitler's mistreatments of
the Jews? Then, is it not incongruous that citizen Americans of Japanese
descent should be similarly mistreated and persecuted? . . . We cannot
understand why General DeWitt can make exceptions for families of German and
Italian soldiers in the armed forces of the United States while ignoring the
civil rights of Nisei Americans. Are we to be condemned merely on the basis of
our racial origin? Is citizenship such a light and transient thing that which
is our inalienable right in normal times can be torn from us in times of war?
Questions. 1. On what points, if any, do Warren and Omura agree? 2. What is
Warren's proof that sabotage is imminent? 3. If you were a Japanese-American,
how could you answer that charge? 4. On what basis do you think Warren makes
the claim that authorities can deal with Germans and Italians more confidently
than with Japanese-Americans? Do you think he is right? 5. In what ways do you
agree or disagree with Omura's analogy between Japanese-Americans and European
Jews? 6. Based on your reading of the text's discussion of the Supreme Court
decisions on the evacuation, how did the Court answer Omura's question about
civil rights? How would you answer that question? 7. Suppose Iran launched a
surprise attack against the United States in the near future, with terrorists
planting bombs in urban areas across the country. Would you recommend detaining
Iranian Americans? What if Iran declared war but had only bombed embassies
abroad? Discuss the parallels and construct other hypothetical situations, in
order to explore what factors contributed most to the internment of
Japanese-Americans in World War II.
[1997a]
[1997b] (547-8) Life in the Camps. From the relocation
centers, Japanese Americans were moved to
1 of 10 armed and guarded internment camps
located in sparsely settled areas. For example,
Topaz, a camp in Utah, was 4,600 feet (1,402.08
m) above sea level. Here inmates endured
temperatures ranging from 1060 F (41.10 C)
in summer to -30'F (-34.5'C) in winter. They
also lived in a constant whirlwind of dust.
The other camps were similarly barren. Japanese
Americans taken to Heart Mountain, Wyoming,
also suffered from winter temperatures as
low as -30'F (-34.5'C). For those from the
mild California valleys, the camps were tolerable
at best. One camp resident wrote a poem in
the camp newspaper, the Sentinel. Snow upon
the rooftop snow upon the coal; Winter in
Wyoming -- Winter in my soul. One evacuee,
Peter Ota, recalled the camp where he was
interned: It's a desolate, flat, barren area.
The barracks was all there was. There were
no trees, no kind of landscaping. It was
like a prison camp. Coming from our environment,
it was just devastating. -- As told to Studs
Terkel, "The Good War," 1984. This
was no exaggeration. Entire families lived
in a single room in the barracks, sparsely
furnished with cots, makeshift dressers,
and bare lightbulbs. Despite the stark surroundings,
the evacuees created a number of alternative
communities to serve their cultural needs.
The Japanese Americans published newspapers;
started schools, churches, bands, Boy Scout
groups, and softball leagues; built tennis
courts; landscaped flower and vegetable gardens;
and gave trumpet and tap dancing lessons.
They were determined to replenish their lives
with the dignity and the resources that they
and their children would need when the war
ended. Some of the evacuees were released
to work at jobs in the interior of the United
States before the end of the war. They were
allowed to resettle in the East or the Midwest.
Most, however, remained in the camps for
the duration of the war. Judicial Rulings
Support Relocation. The Supreme Court upheld
the wartime policies that deprived Japanese
Americans of their civil rights. In 1943,
in Hirabayashi v. United States, the Court
unanimously decided that a curfew order affecting
only Japanese Americans did not violate their
constitutional rights, Chief Justice Harlan
Fiske Stone wrote: "In time of war residents
having ethnic affiliations with an invading
enemy may be a greater source of danger than
those of a different ancestry:" In December
1944, in Korematsu v. United States, the
Court upheld the order providing for the
relocation of Japanese Americans. It based
its decision largely on the grounds that
the judiciary could not second-guess military
decisions. One of the dissenting justices,
however, termed the decision a "legalization
of racism." Nevertheless, the Court
also ruled that citizens could not be held
in relocation centers once their loyalty
had been established. By then, however, the
camps were being closed down. The United
States recorded both gains and losses in
the areas of civil rights and civil liberties
during the war years. While African Americans
fought hard to win the smallest of victories,
Japanese Americans found themselves regarded
as enemies of the United States and suffered
humiliation and loss of their liberties.
As the war ended, however, all Americans
looked ahead and hoped for prosperity and
justice in a peaceful postwar world.
[1998a] (963) At the assembly centers -- racetracks, fairgrounds, and
similar temporary locations -- the army had not prepared basic sanitation,
comfort, or privacy. "We lived in a horse stable," remembered one
young girl. "We filled our cheesecloth with straw -- for our
mattress." The authorities at least had the decency to keep families
together. Internment camps. Most Japanese were interned in 10 camps in remote
areas of seven western states. Notions that the camps might become
self-sufficient communities proved wishful thinking. Even resourceful farmers
could not raise food in arid desert soil. No claim of humane intent could
change the reality -- these were concentration camps. Internees were held in
wire-enclosed compounds by armed guards. Temporary tarpapered barracks housed
families or small groups in single rooms. Each room had a few cots, some
blankets, and a single light bulb. That was home. (964) Korematsu and
Hirabayashi. Other Japanese Americans challenged the government through the
legal system. Fred Korematsu in California and Gordon Hirabayashi in Washington
State were arrested when they refused to report for relocation. "As an
American citizen, I wanted to uphold the principles of the Constitution,"
recalled Hirabayashi. But the Supreme Court let stand military policies aimed
specifically at Japanese Americans. The majority opinion stated that
"residents having ethnic affiliations with an invading enemy may be a
greater source of danger than those of different ancestry," even though
the army had never demonstrated that any danger existed. And in Korematsu v.
United States (1944), the Court upheld the government's relocation program as a
wartime necessity. Three justices dissented, criticizing relocation as the
"legalization of racism. Concentration camps in America did not perpetuate
the horror of Nazi death camps, but they were built on racism and fear. Worse,
they violated the traditions of civil rights and liberties for which Americans
believed they were fighting.
[1998b] −
[1998c] (887) Eventually, the government built the "relocation
centers" in remote, often arid, sections of the West. "The Japs live
like rats, breed like rats, and act like rats. We don't want them," the
governor of Idaho announced. The camps were primitive and unattractive. ''When
I first entered our room, I became sick to my stomach," a Japanese American
woman remembered. "There were seven beds in the room and no furniture nor
any partitions to separate the males and the females of the family. I just sat
on the bed, staring at the bare wall." The government evacuated about
110,000 Japanese.
[1999a] −
[1999b] (764) Furthermore, many army sites did not offer basic sanitation,
comfort, or privacy. "We lived in a horse stable," remembered one
young girl. Eventually, most Japanese were interned in 10 camps in remote areas
of seven western states. No claim of humane intent could change the reality:
these were concentration camps. Internees were held in wire-enclosed compounds
by armed guards. Tar-papered barracks housed families or small groups in single
rooms. Each room had a few cots, some blankets, and a single light bulb. That
was home. (765) Hirabayashi and Korematsu. Other Japanese Americans challenged
the government through the legal system. Fred Korematsu in California and
Gordon Hirabayashi in Washington State were arrested when they refused to report
for relocation. "As an American citizen, I wanted to uphold the principles
of the Constitution," recalled Hirabayashi. But in Korematsu v. United
States (1944), the Supreme Court upheld the government's relocation program as
a wartime necessity. Three justices dissented, criticizing relocation as the
"legalization of racism." Concentration camps in America did not
mirror the horror of Nazi death camps, but they were built on racism and fear.
Worse, they violated the traditions of civil rights and liberties for which
Americans believed they were fighting.
[1999c] (836) Tags
with numbers were issued to every family to tie to luggage and coats -- no
names, only numbers. "From then on," wrote one woman, "we were
known as family #10710." Going to the camp, she had lost her identity,
dignity, and privacy.
In camps, Nisei and Issei were surrounded by barbed wire and watched over by
guards in towers mounted with machine guns pointing inward. Photographers were
not allowed to take pictures of the wire or the guard towers. Families and individuals were
assigned to apartments measuring 20 by 25 feet in long barracks of plywood
covered with tar paper. On average, eight people were assigned to each
apartment. A cot, a straw-filled mattress, and three army blankets were
furnished to each person. Between rows of barracks were communal bathrooms and
eating areas. Within
each camp, the internees were expected to create a community complete with
farms, shops, and small factories. And within a remarkably short period of
time, they did. Making
the desert bloom, the internees at Manzanar by 1944 were producing more than $2
million worth of agricultural products.
[2000a]
[2000b] −