Events Commemorate Unjust WWII Japanese Detention

You could partially excuse this by saying that desperate times required desperate solutions. There were rumors that Japanese field workers on Oahu cut arrows in the sugar cane and pineapple fields to help guide Japanese pilots to Pearl Harbor. I was unable to find out whether this was true. I think I also read that while in the camps most Nisei refused to sign a loyalty oath to the United States. Again, I do not remember where I read this or if it is true. Before making a judgment on this, remember the mood of the nation after Dec. 7. Few of us were there at the time. I imagine many were fearful of a Japanese attack on the west coast. Probably there were zillions of rumors floating around and that scared the heck out of people. What we did know was Rape of Nanking, the indiscriminate bombing and killing of civilians, and the savagery and brutality of Japanese troops. Did the government do the right thing ? What would you have done in similar circumstances ?

National Day of Remembrance? Observed throughout the county. I’m guessing this has nothing to do with German-Americans, of questionable loyalty, who were also interred for the duration.

Unjust detention? The article fails to mention that some of these people were Japanese citizens. It is noteworthy that there no major acts of sabotage on the West Coast during WWII.

I am so tired of this hearing this issue debated. The 3 greatest factors that determine a persons loyalty are race, religion and original/national origin. The Japanese in the US during WWII were the highest possible risk for committing sabotage or espionage. There is no question the US was right to place the Japanese in camps, regardless of their citizenship.

Don’t get me wrong, I have Japanese friends, honestly. We have discussed what happened during ww2. They didn’t understand why Japanese people were targeted. I tried to explain to them the fact that their ancestral country had declared war by bombing Pearl Harbor. Unlike today, during the war on terrorism, where we fill our country with every muslim we can possibly get over here. The Germans were also encamped the same as the Japanese. They were not mistreated as best as I understand. They just couldn’t live near the coasts of the country. The causes of ww2 are another story. It is my opinion that the allies were as much at fault as were the axis countries. But then, that’s another kettle of fish. War is Hell. Things happen at the time that seem very logical. And it probably was a good idea to move them.

“It took many decades to dispel false beliefs”
My Navy Father had his own spin on Japanese perfidy. I remember as an 8yr. old boy watching the CBS News special 25th anniversary Pearl Harbour report on December 7th 1966. My Dad leaned forward in his easy chair and scanned the new family TV searching with tactical eyes. The program first showed the captured Japanese footage of planes taking off in a rosy pink dawn with the blue exhaust flames belching from the green and gray painted attack force.
It then switched to the black and white still photos of the the damage on Battleship row taken by sailors and civilians with their Brownie cameras. My Dad asked me urgently, “What do you see? What do you SEE?!?” I told him that I didn`t see anything. He then muttered with still barely concealed rage, “Jap Bastards!! They knew they were coming so they put COLOR film in their cameras!!”

I wouldn’t object to these stories so much if any attention were paid to the very good reasons people had for questioning the loyalty of the Japanese. Yes, the 442/100 RCT was a very good unit, though their worth has been greatly exaggerated since the war. But there were plenty of Japanese who were not loyal to the U.S. J. Edgar Hoover was sure that his FBI had rounded up all the bad ones, and that the rest were “Good Americans” in his view. Other responsible officials disagreed, particularly those with knowledge of our breaking of Japanese diplomatic codes. Before I’ll bother to care about any injustice to the Nisei, I want to see an open discussion of the matter of Japanese disloyalty too.

Don’t forget, Eleanor Roosevelt practically invented the word “racism.” For all her egalitarianism, she couldn’t get her husband to apply it to his conduct of WWII. Then again FDR wanted to win a war, which on the surface makes him more conservative than George W. Bush.

The whole point of this endless guilt trip is to parallel today’s situation with a known enemy - Islamofascists - easily hiding in the Islamic “community” in the US. See, we can’t be suspicious of Muslims in this country because only a few of them are actually terrorists, and the fact that the rest either openly or passively support them is no reason we should do anything about them to make our country safer. That would be like the Japanese-American internment all over again, even if it isn’t. Are you feeling guilty yet?

When WWII began, the only instances of American citizens renouncing their citizenship were of Japanese descent. Over 5500 of these people were not included in the general internment totals. 19,000 Japanese applied to be returned to Japan during WWII.

The media conveniently forgets the “no no boys” and their answers to questions (27 & 28) on the Loyalty Questionnaire: Question 27 asked; “Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered or called?” Question 28 asked; “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power, or organization?” They answered “No”. Despite lies from media and academics about the 442nd, 20,000 Japanese Americans who were in Japan when the war started joined the Japanese armed forces, serving as soldiers, translators, interrogators and more.

Only 9,009 people of direct Japanese ancestry in the US were interned under the “Alien Enemy Act of 1798”. At the beginning of the war, the instances of the only American citizens asking for renunciation of their citizenship were of Japanese ancestry. 5,620 of these renunciants, who had asked to be repatriated to Japan, were not included in the general internment totals. 19,000 Japanese actually applied to be returned to Japan during the war.

A quick bit of internet research will reveal all these facts and more. In the end, the whole thing is just more garbage designed to make whites feel guilty, applying modern liberal Marxist lies and thought to people living in a different world, almost 70 years ago.

Of course the big lie about all this is that German Americans and Italian Americans were also interned not just Japanese Americans. But, to acknowledge this would expose this leftwing lie that Americans are racist who imprisoned innocent people simply because they weren’t white. Propagandist for the Japanese Tokyo Rose was actually an American citizen,btw.

http://www.gaic.info/internment_camp.html

Anonymous at 8:12 PM on February 20 wrote:

“The Germans were also encamped the same as the Japanese.”

Only about 11,000 Germans and German-Americans (and about another 4,500 Germans from Latin America) were detained in this country during WW2 (compared to 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans). This out of millions of ethnic Germans living in this country (the largest ethnic group here, by the way).

News flash: Italians were detained here as well, though in far smaller numbers (probably no more than 3,000, if even that many).

As another poster noted, J. Edgar Hoover was notably against the internment, for the simple fact he didn’t feel it was necessary as those deemed “security risks” had already been rounded up earlier.

My own feelings on this matter? I have no problem with the internment of immigrants or even 1st-generation Americans of Japanese, German or Italian ancestry. WW2 was a total war. Most Americans alive today cannot appreciate this fact. This country had also previously been at war with Germany (something many have apparently forgotten). Pro-Nazi groups (like the Bund) were also active in this country prior to the war, presenting a genuine security risk after the outbreak of hostilities.

Despite propaganda to the contrary, the bulk of internees were treated humanely; much better in fact, than a lot of Southerners were treated by Union forces during the War between the States.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0761536418/lewrockwell/

I do have a problem with the internment of 2nd and especially 3rd-generation Americans, as what happened to the Japanese. Unlike Schoolteacher, I don’t seriously believe any of these people constituted a “security risk,” at least not in numbers large enough to justify interning them en masse. If I’m wrong, I’d like someone to show me a link proving otherwise.

Cry me a river.

Millions on Americans were “interned” (or perhaps enslaved is more accurate), and 100’s of thousands were murdered. It was called the draft and it’s still legal.

How any nation thinks it has a right to force some of it’s citizenry to slave and die for the freedoms of others is beyond me.

Anonymous at 9:45 PM: I don’t hold that the bulk of Japanese Americans necessarily constituted security risks. I simply decline to care about whatever injustices they suffered until the matter is discussed honestly, until the proven disloyalty is admitted, and the good reasons for suspecting a lot of other people are acknowledged.
For example, some Japanese language newspapers had a pro-Tojo editorial policy. If a German-American subscribed to a Nazi paper in 1941, would he not be considered a security risk? They were, and that’s exactly who got rounded up. About 15,000 German Americans were jugged, and it wasn’t because they were proven spies for the Third Reich, it’s because they had demonstrated Nazi sympathies. And if you subscribed to the Los Angeles Kamakaze or the San Francisco Hari Kari, or whatever Japanese facists called their newspapers, you were quite rightly suspected of being loyal to Japan. If you sent your kid to a Japanese school on Saturdays to brush up their mother tongue, a school where the teachers were Japanese fascists, your loyalty to the U.S. could be doubted. The Japanese government secretly subsidized newspapers in the U.S. and provided ideologically correct teachers for schools. If the Japanese government took such subversion seriously enough to pay for it, it’s not unreasonable to expect the American government to take it seriously too.
40% of the Japanese in the U.S. were not citizens. A large proportion who were citizens had chosen to go back to Japan. Many Japanese subscribed to Japanese fascist publications, or participated in other disloyal activities. Our codebreakers knew that there were established espionage and sabotage rings. This is simply not the profile of a bunch of good Americans. J. Edgar Hoover felt that he could sort out the goats from the sheep, other officials doubted it. Of course, FDR, California Governor and future liberal Chief Justice Earl Warren, and the ACLU were all for the relocation, it wasn’t just “the Racists”.
Recently, a book much favored by library sponsored book groups has been published, “When the Emperor was Divine”. The usual sob story about racism and internment, except that now even an openly disloyal man, one of the guys that the FBI had on their list before the war, is the poor victim. This Japanese victims/White oppressors story has been going on so long without opposition that now, even a traitor can be the good guy. Nope, I will be willing to care about whatever slight stain on my country’s honor this might be when the multiculturalists stop going on about “one of the most shameful episodes in American history” and admit, no, proclaim, that there are two sides to the story.

Has anyone written up the story of interned Americans in Jap camps…worked as slaves in Jap factories in japan…I understand these people when released were forbidden to tell the American people such a terrible thing had happned yo them..There were also English,Dutch,Australians in these camps also.All trhese were put to work in Japan in factories..The US Govt. signed an agreement with Japan preventing any claim against this racist action,,

Life was much different during world war two. White Americans were not so interested in turning the other cheek and loving their fellow man as they are today. I think these camps were built as much to protect the Japanese as to keep them from getting involved in the war.

With the amount of pure hatred the Americans had for the Japanese after Pearl Harber many of these people were probably a lot safer inside a camp than outside.

They may not appreciate the fact but they had better be glad that they were not killed off in mass slaughter because it could have happened. Americans had their blood up and were looking for vengeance.

The fact of the matter is that the Japanese community served as a base of operations for the Black Dragons,Japans’ criminal/espionage organization.How could the government decide who was or wasn’t a member?What about all those loyal Japanese that took soundings of Pearl Harbor for Nipon?Werent the aircraft at Wright Field clustered together to protect them from sabatoge from loyal Japanese?Didnt Lincoln throw 6,000 northern editors in prison for the duration of that war?When will Japan pay reparations to the pows they starved and used for slave labor?

The Japanese internees were free to move to any region in the US outside the west coast states and part of western Arizona. Those who did not were interned. Moreover, 40% of the internees were not US citizens. Interning citizens of enemy countries is NORMAL during wartime. The British, for example, interned German Jews for some time during World War Two, in spite of the fact that Jews for obvious reasons would naturally bear no love at all for the Third Reich, and could be counted on to work fervently for its downfall.

The one thing the US government did tragically wrong was to neglect to secure the property of the internees. Real-estate could have been taken under Eminent Domain law and the owners compensated at fair market value, and chattel property could have been placed in storage. It would have cost money, to be sure, but next to the expense of fighting a world war, it would have been a pittance, and would have been far cheaper than settling claims today.

“Cry me a river. Millions of Americans were “interned” (or perhaps enslaved is more accurate), and 100’s of thousands were murdered. It was called the draft and it’s still legal.”

It’s a bit off topic, but our class discussed something similar to this in college. The subject was a million women being fired from their jobs mid-century as some kind of conservative backlash, as part of a litany of women’s suffrage. The material completely overlooked there were something like 10 million soldiers on active duty at the end of the war. Didn’t say a single, solitary, word about it. Somewhere around 400,000 of them died, mostly men. If the government drafts you, your employer has to offer you your job back when you get out.

“Only about 11,000 Germans and German-Americans (and about another 4,500 Germans from Latin America) were detained in this country during WW2 (compared to 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans).”

They’ve certainly lied about the entire ‘Japanese Internment’ saga going on 60 years now. How many besides a few of us ‘racists’ even know that Japanese-Americans weren’t the only ones held? Would it be wrong to question these numbers too?

Propagandist for the Japanese Tokyo Rose was actually an American citizen,btw.

I believe she was also one of the very few tried, convicted and sentenced for treason.

In 2007 the GOP voted against a full investigation into the internment of German Americans and other Europeans. Anyone who believes that the GOP is the “White Party” is mistaken. See link:

http://www.forward.com/articles/10953/

What about the millions of white people killed during WW1 and WW2?

Nope, all we hear is the sufferings of the Jews and the Japanese.

The Japanese had spy networks near bases in San Francisco and San Diego. The Japs had only a few spies in Hawaii and they arrived only a few months before the attack. These spies were quickly rounded up.

BTW, No one seems to care about the whites that were interned by the Japs in Japan and in other areas of Asia.

From books I have read, written during WWII, expatriate Japanese in Malaya, Borneo, and other areas in South East Asia did in fact aide the invading Japanese army. Roosevelt was probably told this.

“UNJUSTIFIED?” Hell, we were at war! Maybe those Japanese-Americans were sympathetic to our country; maybe not! Discretion at that time being the better part of valor. Do we, should we need to apologize. Yes, in the same half-hearted way JAPAN apologized to the countries it conquered; to its many military or civilian victims of rape, murder torture! Sure strikes me funny how Japan does its best to brush THAT part of its history under the rug.

BTW, No one seems to care about the whites that were interned by the Japs in Japan and in other areas of Asia. Flyingtiger

I completely agree with you Flying Tiger. Most whites went into true concentration camps or “death through labor” camps in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Happiness Sphere. I don’t agree with the decision to send Japanese Americans to relocation centers, but there was a big difference between these and Japanese camps. I suggest people read the book Three Came Back by Agnes Keith to find out what these Japanese camps for Americans and Europeans were really like.

“No one seems to care about the whites that were interned by the Japs in Japan and in other areas of Asia.”

Only whites can be evil. Only whites are evil.

SKIP at 1:55 AM on February 22 wrote:

“Propagandist for the Japanese Tokyo Rose was actually an American citizen,btw.

I believe she was also one of the very few tried, convicted and sentenced for treason.”

“Tokyo Rose” was not a real person. Rather, it was a generic term for about a dozen English-speaking females who broadcast pro-Japanese propaganda during WW2 aimed at American troops.

The woman you are referring to was Iva Toguri D’Aquino, who was tried for treason and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Much later she was pardoned by (then) President Gerald Ford when it was revealed her trial was tainted by prejudice and allegations of perjury.

http://www.historynet.com/tokyo-rose-they-called-her-a-traitor.htm/2

http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/rose/rose.htm

http://www.gutenberg-e.org/pfau/chapter5.html

Very few people in American history have been tried for treason due to the strict requirements for such an indictment according to the Constitution.

http://www.constitution.org/cmt/jwh/jwh_treason_1.htm

This was wisely put in by the Founding Fathers to prevent the abuse of the charge that was prevalent during British (mis)rule.

At the beginning of WWII my great-gramma had four daughters and two sons. After the war, one son was dead due to injuries in the Pacific theater, and the other had lost an eye somewhere in the Pacific theater. They were sent to the Pacific as the older brother had been born in Germany; the younger brother asked to be sent there too. This pretty much devastated that generation of my family and of course we’ve wondered how things might have been different had our Uncles not been killed and wounded. The uncle who made it back was one of my favorite people and I like to think that now, almost 70 years later, he is in Heaven, looking down on me with both his blue eyes and maybe helping out from time to time. He was a wonderful man. This loss in our family was a direct result of the attack on Pearl Harbor.