The inconvenient history of the Japanese American during World War II

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Americans hate to remember March 17, 1942. On this day, 120,000 US citizens, ethnic Japanese or half-breeds, were sent to concentration camps.

Not only ethnic Japanese were subject to forced expulsion, but even those of American citizens who had among their ancestors only a great-grandmother or great-grandfather of Japanese nationality. That is, who had only 1/16 of the "enemy" blood.

It is less known that people who had the misfortune of being of the same nationality with Hitler and Mussolini also fell under the influence of the Roosevelt Decree: 11 thousand Germans and 5 thousand Italians were placed in camps. Another 150 thousand Germans and Italians received the status of "suspicious persons", and during the war they were under the supervision of special services and had to report all movements in the United States.

Approximately 10 thousand Japanese were able to prove their usefulness to the belligerent America - they were mainly engineers and skilled workers. They were not placed in the camp, but also received the status of a "suspect person".

Families were given two days to get ready. During this time, they had to settle all material matters and sell their property, including cars. It was impossible to do this in such a short time, and the unfortunate people simply abandoned their houses and cars.

Their American neighbors took this as a signal to plunder the property of the "enemy." Buildings and shops burst into flames, and several Japanese were killed - until the army and police intervened. Not saved by the inscriptions on the walls "I am an American", under which the rioters wrote: "A good Japanese is a dead Japanese."

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. The next day the United States declared war on the aggressor. During the first five days of the war, about 2,100 ethnic Japanese were arrested or interned as suspects of espionage, and about 2,200 more Japanese were arrested and interned on February 16.

The first Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii and the US East Coast 60 years before Pearl Harbor in 1891. These first immigrants - "Issei" - were attracted here by the same thing as all other emigrants: freedom, both personal and economic; hope for a better life than at home. By 1910, there were 100,000 such Issei in the United States. They were not stopped even by those slingshots that the American bureaucracy put them, for example, in obtaining American citizenship, nor the anti-Japanese hysterical campaign, which - without a shadow of political correctness existing today - was waged against them by American racists (American Legion, League - with the exception of the Japanese and other organizations).

Government authorities clearly listened to these voices, and therefore all legal opportunities for the continuation of Japanese immigration were closed back in 1924 under President Coolidge. Nevertheless, many "Issei" were delighted with America, which did not close the paths and loopholes for them at least for their economic growth. Moreover, in America there were also "Nisei": the Japanese are American citizens. Indeed, according to the American Constitution, the children of even the most disenfranchised immigrants are equal American citizens if they were born in the United States.

Moreover, by the time the war began, the Nisei constituted a significant majority among the American Japanese, and the general loyalty of the Japanese community was confirmed by the authoritative report of the Kuris Munson Commission, created by the US Foreign Ministry: there is no internal Japanese threat and no uprising in California or Hawaii is expected. have to!

The media, however, played a different kind of music. Newspapers and radio circulated views of the Japanese as a fifth column, the need to evict them from the Pacific coast as far and as soon as possible. This chorus was soon joined by high-ranking politicians such as California Governor Olson, Los Angeles Mayor Brauron, and especially US Attorney General Francis Biddle.

On January 5, 1942, all American servicemen of Japanese origin were dismissed from the army or transferred to ancillary work, and on February 19, 1942, that is, two months and nine days after the start of the war, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066 on the internment and deportation of 110,000 American Japanese from the first category of operational area, that is, from the entire western coast of the Pacific Ocean, as well as along the border with Mexico in the state of Arizona. The next day, Secretary of War Henry L. Simpson put Lieutenant General John de Witt in charge of executing the order. To help him, the National Committee for the Study of Migration for National Security ("Tolan Committee") was created.

At first, the Japanese were offered to be deported … by themselves! That is, move to their relatives living in the central or eastern states. Until it turned out that practically no one had such relatives, most remained at home. Thus, at the end of March 1942, more than 100 thousand Japanese were still living within the first operational zone, which was forbidden for them, then the state came to the rescue, hastily created two networks of internment camps for the Japanese. The first network consists of 12 collection and distribution camps, guarded and with barbed wire. They were relatively close: most of the camps were located right there - in the interior of the states of California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona.

What happened to the Japanese on the American continent was pure racism, there was no military necessity for it. It's funny that the Japanese who lived in Hawaii, one might say, in the front-line zone, have never been resettled anywhere: their economic role in the life of the Hawaiian Islands was so important that no speculations could beat it! The Japanese were given one week to organize their affairs, but the sale of a house or property was not a prerequisite: the institution of private property remained unshakable. The Japanese were taken to the camps by buses and trains under guard.

I must say that the living conditions there were very deplorable. But already in June-October 1942, most of the Japanese were moved to a network of 10 stationary camps, located much further from the coast - in the second or third row of the western American states: in Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and two camps - even in Arkansas, in the southern part of the central belt of the United States. Living conditions were already at the level of American standards, but the climate for the new settlers was difficult: instead of flat Californian weather, there was a harsh continental climate with significant annual temperature drops.

In the camps, all adults were required to work 40 hours a week. Most of the Japanese were employed in agricultural work and crafts. Each camp had a cinema, a hospital, a school, a kindergarten, a House of Culture - in general, a typical set of social and cultural life for a small town.

As the prisoners later recalled, the administration treated them normally in most cases. There were also incidents - several Japanese were killed while trying to escape (American historians call numbers from 7 to 12 people for the entire existence of the camps). Violators of the order could be put in a guardhouse for several days.

The rehabilitation of the Japanese began almost simultaneously with the deportation - in October 1942. The Japanese, who were recognized after the check (and each was given a special questionnaire!) Loyal to the United States, were given back personal freedom and the right of free settlement: everywhere in the United States, except for the zone from which they were deported. Those deemed disloyal were taken to a special camp at Tulle Lake, California, which lasted until March 20, 1946.

Most Japanese people accepted their deportation with humility, believing that this was the best way to express loyalty. But some refused to recognize the deportation as legal and, challenging Roosevelt's order, went to court. So, Fred Korematsu flatly refused to voluntarily leave his home in San Levandro, and when he was arrested, he filed a lawsuit about the state's ineligibility to resettle or arrest people on the basis of race. The Supreme Court ruled that Korematsu and the rest of the Japanese were being persecuted not because they were Japanese, but because the state of war with Japan and martial law necessitated their temporary separation from the west coast. Jesuits, envy! Mitsue Endo turned out to be luckier. Her claim was formulated more subtly: the government does not have the right to move loyal citizens without giving reasons for such a move. And she won the process in 1944, and all the other "Nisei" (US citizens) won with her. They were also allowed to return to their places of pre-war residence.

In 1948, Japanese internees were paid partial compensation for the loss of property (20 to 40% of the value of the property).

Soon, rehabilitation was extended to the Issees, who, starting in 1952, were allowed to apply for citizenship. In 1980, Congress set up a special commission to examine the circumstances of Order 9066 and the circumstances of the deportation itself. The commission's conclusion was clear: Roosevelt's order was illegal. The commission recommended that each ex-Japanese deportant be paid $ 20,000 in compensation for illegal and forced displacement. In October 1990, each of them received an individual letter from President Bush Sr. with words of apology and condemnation of the past lawlessness. And soon the checks for compensation came.

A little about the origins of the conflict between Japan and the United States

Roosevelt began to eliminate a powerful competitor in the Pacific region from the moment when the Japanese created the puppet state of Manchukuo in northern China in 1932 and squeezed out American companies from there. After that, the American president called for the international isolation of the aggressors who encroached on China's sovereignty (or rather, on the interests of US business).

In 1939, the United States unilaterally denounced a 28-year trade agreement with Japan and thwarted attempts to conclude a new one. This was followed by a ban on the export of American aviation gasoline and scrap metal to Japan, which, amid the war with China, is in dire need of fuel for its aviation and metal raw materials for the defense industry.

Then the American military was allowed to fight on the side of the Chinese, and soon an embargo was announced on all Japanese assets in the formally neutral United States. Left without oil and raw materials, Japan had to either come to an agreement with the Americans on their terms, or start a war against them.

Since Roosevelt refused to negotiate with the Japanese prime minister, the Japanese tried to act through their ambassador, Kurusu Saburo. In response, US Secretary of State Cordell Hull handed them an ultimatum-like counter-proposal. For example, the Americans demanded the withdrawal of Japanese troops from all occupied territories, including China.

In response, the Japanese went to war. After on December 7, 1941, the Air Force of the Land of the Rising Sun sank four battleships, two destroyers and one minelayer in Pearl Harbor, and destroyed about 200 American aircraft, Japan overnight gained supremacy in the air and in the Pacific Ocean as a whole. …

Roosevelt was well aware that the economic potential of the United States and its allies did not leave Japan a chance to win a major war. However, the shock and anger from Japan's unexpectedly successful attack on the United States was too great in the country.

Under these conditions, the government was required to take a populist step that would demonstrate to the citizens the irreconcilable determination of the authorities to fight the enemy - external and internal.

Roosevelt did not reinvent the wheel and in his decree relied on an old document of 1798, adopted during the war with France - the law on hostile foreigners. It allowed (and still allows) the US authorities to place any person in jail or concentration camp on suspicion of being associated with a hostile state.

The country's supreme court in 1944 upheld the constitutionality of internment, stating that, if required by a "social need", the civil rights of any ethnic group could be restricted.

The operation to evict the Japanese was entrusted to General John DeWitt, the commander of the Western Military District, who told the US Congress: “It doesn't matter if they are American citizens - they are Japanese anyway. We must always be concerned about the Japanese until they are wiped off the face of the earth."

He has repeatedly emphasized that there is no way to determine the loyalty of a Japanese American to the Stars and Stripes, and therefore, during a war, such people pose a danger to the United States and should be immediately isolated. In particular, after Pearl Harbor, he suspected immigrants of communicating with Japanese ships via radio.

DeWitt's views were typical of the openly racist US military leadership. The relocation and maintenance of the deportees was in charge of the Military Relocation Directorate, led by Milton Eisenhower, the younger brother of the Allied Force Commander in Europe and future US President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This department built ten concentration camps in the states of California, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas, to which the displaced Japanese were transported.

The camps were located in remote areas - usually on the territory of the Indian reservations. Moreover, this was an unpleasant surprise for the inhabitants of the reservations, and subsequently the Indians did not receive any monetary compensation for the use of their lands.

Created camps were fenced with barbed wire along the perimeter. The Japanese were ordered to live in hastily hammered together wooden barracks, where it was especially hard in winter. It was categorically not allowed to go outside the camp, the guards shot at those who tried to break this rule. All adults were required to work 40 hours a week, usually in agricultural work.

The largest concentration camp was considered to be Manzaner in California, where more than 10 thousand people were herded, and the most terrible - Tulle Lake, in the same state where the most "dangerous" were placed - hunters, pilots, fishermen and radio operators.

Japan's almost lightning-fast conquest of vast territories in Asia and the Pacific Ocean made its army and navy an almost indestructible force in the eyes of American ordinary people and strongly inflamed anti-Japanese hysteria, which was also actively fueled by newspapermen. For example, the Los Angeles Times called all Japanese vipers and wrote that an American of Japanese descent would necessarily grow up Japanese, but not an American.

There were calls to remove the Japanese as potential traitors from the east coast of the United States, inland. At the same time, the columnist Henry McLemore wrote that he hates all Japanese.

The resettlement of "enemies" was greeted with enthusiasm by the US population. Especially rejoicing were the residents of California, where an atmosphere similar to the racial laws of the Third Reich reigned for a long time. In 1905, mixed marriages between whites and Japanese were banned in the state. In 1906, San Francisco voted to segregate schools by race. The sentiment was also fueled by the Asians' Exclusion Act passed in 1924, thanks to which immigrants had almost no chance of obtaining US citizenship.

The infamous decree was canceled only many years later - in 1976 by the then US President Gerald Ford. Under the next head of state, Jim Carter, the Commission for the Resettlement and Internment of Civilians in Wartime was created. In 1983, she concluded that the deprivation of freedom of Japanese Americans was not caused by military necessity.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan, on behalf of the United States, apologized in writing to survivors of internment. They were paid 20 thousand dollars each. Subsequently, already under Bush Sr., each of the victims received another seven thousand dollars.

Compared to how they treated people of the same nationality with the enemy at that time, the US authorities treated the Japanese humanely. For example, in neighboring Canada, the Japanese, Germans, Italians, Koreans and Hungarians faced a different fate.

In the Canadian town of Hastings Park, by decree of February 24, 1942, a temporary detention center was created - essentially the same concentration camp to which 12 thousand people of Japanese origin were forcibly displaced by November 1942. They were allocated 20 cents a day for food (2-2.5 times less than Japanese campers in the USA). Another 945 Japanese were sent to forced labor camps, 3991 people were sent to sugar beet plantations, 1661 Japanese were sent to a colony-settlement (mainly in the taiga, where they were engaged in logging), 699 people were interned in prisoner of war camps in Ontario, 42 people - repatriated to Japan, 111 - imprisoned in a prison in Vancouver. In total, about 350 Japanese died while trying to escape, from illness and ill-treatment (2.5% of the total number of Japanese defeated in their rights - the percentage of deaths was similar to the same indicators in the Stalinist camps during the non-war period).

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney also apologized to the Japanese, Germans, and others deported during the war on September 22, 1988. All of them were entitled to compensation for the suffering of 21 thousand Canadian dollars per person.