In 1980, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) was established by Congress to review the facts and implications of EO9066, which was issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. For those of you unfamiliar, EO9066 facilitated the incarceration of people of Japanese, German, and Italian ancestry during World War II, with those of Japanese ancestry being mostly affected. The EO essentially carved up America and its territories into military districts and gave local commanders of those districts broad authority to determine who could or could not be within the boundaries of those districts. The Commission issued its final report, entitled "Personal Justice Denied," in December 1982 and concluded the wartime incarceration of persons of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them U.S. citizens, was a result of wartime hysteria, racism, and failure of political leadership. The Commission's final report became the basis for the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Many Americans are unaware of the facts surrounding the wartime incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry and many myths from the 1940s persist to this day. Here are some of the facts and how they parallel the current national dialog.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 was a tremendous shock to the country. Much like the Al Qaeda attacks on 9/11 shocked our nation in 2001. The fact the attack occurred without a formal declaration of war only fed the already pervasive anti-Japanese stereotypes in the U.S. Indeed, soon after the start of the war, Americans in Hawaii and along the west coast saw Japanese spies and saboteurs everywhere. The Dr. Seuss cartoon on the right exemplifies this fear. Another example is my mentor at the Japanese American National Museum. He was a young teen when the war started. One day, he and his brother were watching a train go by in their neighborhood. Wartime mobilization had started and the train was carrying military vehicles, something that would pique the curiosity of any young teenage boy. That evening, two FBI agents came to their home to investigate reports of two Japanese spies counting the number of military vehicles being carried by the train. The fear of a fifth column among the population of people of Japanese ancestry was pervasive, but also reinforced by the government and media, much like today.The fear of spies and saboteurs, plus his own prejudice, led the commander of the Western Military District, Lt. Gen. John DeWitt, to declare that people of Japanese ancestry were a threat to military facilities within his command. Thus, under the authority given to him by EO9066, DeWitt requested that all persons of Japanese ancestry living within a specified geographic region within his military district be removed in order to protect his military installations. DeWitt's request was granted and the people of Japanese ancestry living along the west coast were incarcerated into concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority (WRA). I should note that while DeWitt issued similar orders for people of German and Italian ancestry, these individuals could apply for exception and avoid being removed from the designated zone. Similar exceptions were not extended to people of Japanese ancestry.
Sadly, even before these events, people of Japanese ancestry were arrested and incarcerated into a series of camps operated by the Justice Department and other agencies. These individuals were on a secret government list broadly known as the ABC List; a list of individuals targeted for immediate arrest if war with Japan broke out. Who was on this list? The three categories (A, B, and C) essentially listed out community leaders, so-called "less suspicious individuals" (I have no idea what that meant), and "Japanese language instructors, Buddhist clergy, and anyone who donated to a Japanese organization." That last category was particularly onerous, since "Japanese organization" included things like your local clubs or churches. This was all done under the banner of national security. It should be noted that the ABC List was issued under a blanket Presidential warrant authorized under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. This act was also used as partial justification for the USA Patriot Act of 2001 and its renewal. I should also note that Presidential Proclamations 2525, 2526, and 2527 were issued using the Alien Enemies Act as justification. These proclamations declared that non-citizens of Japanese (2525), German (2526), and Italian (2527) would be declared "enemy aliens" and was followed by Presidential Proclamation 2537 that required all these people to register with the State Department. Hmm....sounds very much like the call today for a "Muslim registry."
During this time, the government attempted to project the image that the various things done to people of Japanese ancestry was not based on race, but again, on national security and only applied to those who were not U.S. citizens. Yet, many things the government did during this time were done as if U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry did not exist. Two specific examples. One, when war broke out, anyone of Japanese ancestry serving in our military was eventually labeled 4-C and expelled. 4-C was military designation for "enemy alien," yet the majority of these individuals were U.S. citizen and some were even World War I veterans who had already honorably served in active duty. Two, in all public declarations, U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry were referred to as "non-aliens"....what the hell is a "non-alien?" Clearly, the government did not want the public to ask questions of how citizens were being treated. Calling them "non-aliens" avoided the potential problem of people asking the question as to why citizens were being incarcerated and the more important question of don't citizens have rights? Such treatment and terminology was not applied to people of German or Italian ancestry.
The cry of national security is used today just as it was 75 years ago. But what was the national security threat in the 1940s? Years after the war, it was revealed that despite all the fears of spies and saboteurs among the population of people of Japanese ancestry, the Federal government actually knew that no such thing existed. This is evidenced by the Munson Report that was filed and discussed at the cabinet level months before the Pearl Harbor attack, which concluded that there was no need for mass incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry if we went to war with Japan. The Munson Report was supported by an independent report by the FBI that came to the same conclusion. Furthermore, all those reports of spies and saboteurs, like my mentor mentioned above, were known by the Federal government to be false. Despite this, the Federal government allowed the specter of rampant spy and sabotage activity to perpetuate in the public and the government itself used this as the national security rationale for wartime incarceration. It is interesting to note that in contrast to the population of Japanese ancestry in the U.S., the populations of people of German and Italian ancestry were 40-times larger in the 48 contiguous states, yet only a little over 30,000 people of German ancestry and less than 500 people of Italian ancestry were incarcerated during the war. A little over 120,000 of the 127,000 people of Japanese ancestry living in the 48 contiguous states were incarcerated. The other contrast is that along the east coast, there was active and documented espionage activity and Germany even landed several spies and saboteurs along the east coast (I should note the vast majority of these Germans were arrested within days of being dropped off). Yet, there were no calls for mass incarceration of people of German or Italian ancestry.
One additional interesting piece of information that most Americans are unaware of is that the mass incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry occurred only within the Western military district commanded by Lt. Gen. John DeWitt. Over 42 percent of the population of Hawaii was of Japanese ancestry at this same time, yet Lt. Gen. Delos Emmons chose not to do mass incarceration. Of course, locking up 42 percent of the population would have devastated the Hawaiian economy. But, Emmons demonstrated multiple times that he felt that people of Japanese ancestry were loyal Americans or loyal to America. Also, there is direct evidence showing Justice Department officials indirectly contacted Lt. Gen. John DeWitt to inform him that language he was using in his request to incarcerate people of Japanese ancestry was racist and to tone down his language because the Federal government could not come across as being racist. They actually never asked him to stop being racist, just change your language. This contrast further shows that racism, not national security, played a large role in the decisions regarding incarceration. In fact, in his request to incarcerate people of Japanese ancestry within his command, Lt. Gen. John DeWitt is quoted as saying "A Jap's a Jap. It doesn't matter whether the Jap's a citizen or not." This quote alone shows our government knowingly took rights away from American citizens.
This and other evidence identified years after the end of the war supported the case that the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry was based on the factors cited the CWRIC report; racism, failure of political leadership, and wartime hysteria. Today, Americans need to heed the lessons of what we did after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The current administration and others still cite the national security risk as the primary reason for restricting people from the 7 countries cited in the EO, calling for a "Muslim registry," and even calling for incarceration of people of the Muslim faith. Ask yourself the following questions:
1. What is the national security risk? As far as I am aware, there have not been any acts of terrorism or violence from refugees or others affected by this travel restriction. So why are these people a threat? Acts of terrorism cited by the administration have either been shown to not be direct acts of terrorism or mostly home-grown acts of terrorism. There is no evidence, to my knowledge, of large numbers of terrorist attacks or other terrorist-related activities perpetuated by refugees or others coming from these 7 countries.
2. What about the terrorist risk from other countries? There's ample evidence of radical Muslims from other countries, like the Philippines or Malaysia, that could pose just as easy a threat as those purported to come from the 7 countries cited. Why aren't we restricting their immigration? Aren't they also a threat? Why the focus on these 7 countries?....oh, and please don't tell me because Obama identified these countries as a threat. Another distortion of the truth.
3. Are we letting in people without any screening or security checks? The administration projects this perception, which the public has swallowed hook, line, and sinker....there are large numbers of terrorists exploiting our refugee program to enter our country to do us harm. The perception is that we are letting refugees into our country willy-nilly without any screenings or security checks. In fact, refugees undergo very detailed background checks, which is why they have to wait 2, 3, sometimes 5 years before they're allowed to travel the U.S. I can understand if the current administration feels there are problems with that screening process and want to alter that process, but don't try to portray these individuals as a whole as a grave security threat. The vast majority are just trying to flee war, famine, and persecution. Do we really think the small children among the refugees are a national security threat?
4. If individuals from these 7 countries are such a national security threat, then why don't we treat our actual internal security threats with equal concern? Over the last decade or so, we've had numerous acts of domestic terrorism perpetuated by people who were not Muslim or not from Middle Eastern countries. I would cite the most extreme example of the Oklahoma City bombing that was arguably the biggest act of domestic terrorism in our country's history. Did we decide to ban immigration of white Europeans? Did we call for incarceration of people who had similar views or was of the same religion as Timothy McVeigh? What about actual spies whose activities resulted in the loss of American lives? Did we react by calling for immigration bans for people from those counties? The bottom line question is are these people truly the national security threat that some would portray them as being? Is this not the same level of racism that existed in the 1940s?
There are a whole slew of questions people need to be asking themselves today as we deal with the real threat of terrorism and the consequences of our actions abroad. Don't get me wrong, I'm fully cognizant of the terrorist threat, what it means, and recognize that we do have to be diligent. But, at the same time, if we want to continue to be the democracy that we claim to be, we need to carefully balance national security with rights of both citizens and non-citizens in our country. This is the burden we bear for being the democracy that we are. We need to also appreciate and understand the diversity that makes America great and avoid the racism that we see today with this travel restriction and what we saw 75 years ago. I should remind Americans that the U.S. Supreme Court noted in the case of Endo vs. the United States that "...the Constitution is not a barrier to military desire to detain citizens on the basis of race...," which means we all need to be diligent. If this can happen to immigrants, it can happen to citizens.
Finally, it is important for all Americans to learn and understand what happened 75 years ago. Tomorrow, February 19, will be the 75th anniversary of the issuance of EO9066. Even today, many Americans don't understand the circumstances surround the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry 75 years ago. They still believe this group was a national security threat and that the incarceration and restrictions placed on people of Japanese ancestry was a rational and reasoned approach to dealing with this national security threat. Unfortunately, such a threat did not exist and the people affected were mostly U.S. citizens. These lessons of the past are relevant today, have direct impact on our current national dialog, and inform us on how we can avoid making the mistakes of 75 years ago. "History repeats itself"....a phrase that is used ad nauseam, but true in many respects. It would make me very sad if Americans cannot learn from their own history.
#EO9066 #LetsMakeAmericaBuenoAgain
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