Japanese American internment

The Event Involuntary assignment of about 120,000 Japanese Americans and other persons of Japanese descent to internment camps during World War II

Dates March, 1942-March, 1946

Following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Americans reacted with fear and hostility toward those of Japanese descent living in the United States. Official government apologies and reparations for the great economic, social, and personal hardship suffered by the internees were decades in coming.

During World War II, acting in what was later declared by Congress to be a time of “racial prejudice” and “wartime hysteria,” the U.S. government interned 120,000 of its own citizens and legal immigrants of Japanese descent. On short notice, people were forced to sell, give away, or abandon their belongings, including their cars, houses, farms, and businesses. Internment camps operated from 1942 to 1946. Shortly after the war ended, the government offered minimal reimbursement to the internees for their property losses and no apology for the injustices involved in the internees’ experiences. It was not until four decades later that Congress officially apologized for these governmental abuses and made reparations of $20,000 to each surviving internee.

Pearl Harbor and Japanese Americans

World War II began in Europe in September, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. Germany was later joined by Italy and Japan, which together were the primary Axis Powers. On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, sinking 21 ships and destroying 188 aircraft. Casualties numbered about 2,400 Americans, mostly sailors. At that time, Hawaii was a U.S. territory (it became a state in 1959). In response to the attack, the United States declared war and aligned itself with the Allied powers, which included Great Britain and the Soviet Union.

Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, suspicions began to focus on Japanese immigrants who lived in Hawaii and on the West Coast. Japanese people had begun to immigrate to the United States during the late nineteenth century. Immigrants themselves were known as the first generation, or Issei. The early immigrants remained “aliens” because even those Japanese who had immigrated legally were prohibited from becoming citizens through naturalization. Their children, however, were U.S. citizens by reason of their birth in the United States; they were known as the second generation, or Nisei. Third-generation Japanese Americans are known as Sansei. By 1940, according to U.S. Census data, there were almost 127,000 Japanese immigrants and their descendants living in the United States and another 158,000 living in the Territory of Hawaii. They thus constituted only 0.02 percent of the overall U.S. population and about 2 percent of California’s population. The Issei and Nisei faced a great deal of prejudice, but as a group they managed to overcome such challenges to become an economically successful people, often owning businesses, farms, and houses.

In the days following the attack on Pearl Harbor, arrests began of Japanese “aliens” who were thought to be a threat. The arrestees were primarily Issei men, many of them leaders within the Japanese American community. By mid-February, 1942, more than 3,000 men from the West Coast and Hawaii were in custody. In those early days of U.S. participation in the war, the Treasury Department also froze the bank accounts of all the Issei. All borders also were closed to anyone of Japanese ancestry. As the weeks passed, however, some Americans were not content with these measures. Some politicians, some military officials, and some in the media argued that more action was necessary. Questions of loyalty were raised, and arguments were made, fueled by prejudice and fear, that both Issei and Nisei would join the fight against the United States by engaging in acts of espionage and sabotage.

Military Areas and “Enemy Aliens”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to this public clamor by issuing Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. That order authorized the secretary of war and his military commanders to declare portions of the United States as military areas “from which any or all persons may be excluded.” The next day, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson authorized Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt to implement the order within the Western Defense Command. Via Public Proclamation No. 1, DeWitt designated the states of Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona as military areas.

The coastal regions of the first three of those states were declared prohibited areas, meaning that “enemy aliens” could be excluded. A curfew was also imposed between 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. “Enemy aliens” were defined as all persons of Japanese descent, as well as German and Italian aliens. Although it is not as well known or as well documented, many people of German and Italian ancestry living in the United States also suffered legal discrimination and hardship during the war. They carried enemy alien identification cards and were subjected to the curfew and to travel restrictions for several months in 1942. Thousands, especially those who were well educated and community leaders, were deemed dangerous to American security and were also incarcerated.

It is also of interest to note that although those interned were not all of Japanese descent, not all persons of Japanese descent were interned. The notable exceptions were Issei and Nisei living in the Territory of Hawaii; no mass internment occurred there. Several factors likely contributed to this. With one-third of Hawaii’s population of Japanese descent, racism was not the driving factor it was on the mainland. Furthermore, those of Japanese ancestry were critical to Hawaii’s workforce and economy. Finally, the islands were already under martial law, imposed shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and continuing until 1944.

On the mainland, after the establishment of the military areas but before internment began to be implemented, DeWitt encouraged “enemy aliens” residing in the military area to move “to the interior.” Few people of Japanese descent evacuated voluntarily. With little guidance, few resources, and a lack of housing and work opportunities, relocation was not an obvious choice. It was made even more unattractive by the “greetings” offered by some of the potential new communities, where it was not uncommon to see signs mounted on businesses asserting “No Japs Wanted Here.” It became clear that mass voluntary relocation away from the coast and into the interior of the country was not tenable.

Internment Camps

Beginning in March 1942, the process of interning Issei and Nisei moved forward rapidly. DeWitt issued a series of Civilian Exclusion Orders in the spring and summer of 1942, commanding “all persons of Japanese ancestry” to report to be evacuated. The orders typically provided one week’s notice. This proved not nearly enough time for anyone to pack up his or her life and satisfactorily arrange financial affairs. Those to be interned stored what they could (and after the war reported that pilfering was common) and attempted to sell the rest. It was without a doubt a buyer’s market, and most personal belongings, vehicles, houses, businesses, and farms were sold for a small fraction of their worth. Internees were allowed to bring little with them: bedding, extra clothing, and what personal effects they could carry.

The first stops for internees were Assembly Centers. These were hastily converted from other uses, such as fairgrounds and horse racetracks. Internees reported living in stalls that until the previous week had housed horses. In general, the accommodations were barely fit, if that, for human use. The Assembly Centers operated for about six months, as the War Relocation Authority (a civilian agency established by Roosevelt in March, 1942) hastily built ten camps in isolated areas, including Manzanar and Tule Lake in California and Heart Mountain in Wyoming. The government’s name for these camps was “Relocation Centers, but the term by which they are most commonly known is “internment camps.”

Conditions for Internees

Eventually, some 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry were interned in these camps. The majority—two-thirds of them—were American-born citizens. They would spend up to four years imprisoned. Barbed wire and armed guards surrounded barracks made with relatively flimsy materials. The housing lacked plumbing or cooking facilities, and some of the camps were in hot, dry, and dusty locations. There was little privacy: both showers and latrines were open. Poor sanitation and inadequate food and medical care were common. The camps nevertheless became like small towns, and internees tried to use their time productively: Children went to school, and adults worked at camp jobs.

In February 1943, the government reversed its prohibition against Japanese Americans serving in the armed forces. Three thousand Nisei from Hawaii were joined by eight hundred from the mainland (released from internment camps after taking a confusing and controversial loyalty oath). That group became the 100th Battalion, 442d Infantry, a mostly segregated unit with a few white officers. Its distinguished service is reflected in the honors it accrued: The unit became the most highly decorated of its size and duration during World War II.

The legality of the internment mechanism remained in question. President Roosevelt, with support and encouragement from Congress, had set the internment process in motion. When the legislative branch of the government weighed in, along with U.S. Supreme Court decisions, it was to affirm the constitutionality of both the curfew and the exclusion of citizens from their own homes. The Court declared that the curtailment of rights was a valid exercise of war powers by the president and Congress. It held, with little analysis, that such orders did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause, with Hirabayashi v. United States (1943) validating curfews and Korematsu v. United States (1944) ruling that the exclusion order was constitutional.

Postwar Readjustments

On August 15, 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced the end of World War II. The last American internment camp closed in March 1946. With the citizen exclusion orders lifted, Issei and Nisei were allowed to return to their previous homes, although there was often little awaiting them. Ultimately, only about half returned to the West Coast. In a tragic footnote, more than 5,000 Japanese Americans renounced their citizenship under a 1944 law. Almost all of the renunciations occurred at the Tule Lake camp and apparently resulted from misinformation and a fear that families would be separated after the war, with the Issei being sent back to Japan. Ultimately, only about 1,000 expatriated to Japan. The rest remained in the United States, and some years later most of them had their American citizenship restored through the work of a dedicated San Francisco attorney.

Impact

The nation was slow to acknowledge its wrongdoing. In 1948, Congress passed the Evacuation Claims Act and settled property claims for losses resulting from internment. It is estimated that at most ten cents on the dollar was paid for each claim. In 1952, the Japanese American Citizens League successfully lobbied Congress to grant the Issei’s right to American citizenship. After these small concessions, decades of silence ensued. The American government preferred to forget this grim chapter in its history, and for many years the Issei and Nisei joined this silence. They coped with their losses and their shame by renewing their dedication to educate their children well and to once again achieve economic success in American society. The collective desire to let the past be past was expressed in the statement shikata ga nai, which can be translated as “nothing can be done” or “it cannot be helped.”

It was the Sansei, the children of the Nisei, who took action. Through their efforts, Executive Order 9066 was officially rescinded in the nation’s bicentennial year, on February 19, 1976. A federal court vacated Fred Korematsu’s earlier criminal conviction; he was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Further, a Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians was established and heard the testimony of 750 witnesses, many of them internees. Based on the commission’s findings, Congress enacted the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which declared that a “grave injustice” had been done and acknowledged that the internment was motivated largely by “racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” Congress apologized, and on November 21, 1989, President George H. W. Bush signed an appropriations bill authorizing payments of $20,000 in reparations to each of the surviving internees, who were estimated to number 60,000.

In November 2016, Carl Higbie, a prominent supporter of then President-elect Donald Trump and former spokesperson for the Great America Political Action Committee, said in an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that the Japanese American internment camps established precedent for the reinstatement of a national registry for immigrants from nations where terrorists were most active. Higbie was referring to a suggestion made by Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, a member of Trump’s transition team, that the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), which Kobach first proposed in 2002 following the September 11 terrorist attacks and which was partially suspended in 2009, be reimposed. When Kelly questioned Higbie about his statement, he denied that he wanted to bring back interment camps, but said, “We need to protect America first.” Higbie was criticized for his statement by civil rights advocates, Muslim organizations, and politicians. The Center for Immigrant Rights at Pennsylvania State University’s law school reported in 2012 that NSEERS had “allowed the government to systematically target Arabs, Middle Easterners, Muslims and South Asians” and a “clear example of discriminatory and arbitrary racial profiling.”

In January 2017, Trump imposed a 90-day ban that barred visitors from seven predominantly Muslim nations from coming to the United States, as well as an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees and a 120-day ban on all other refugees. The ban was challenged for being unconstitutional and was temporarily suspended. In June 2018, the US Supreme Court upheld the ban in a 5–4 decision. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor compared Trump’s travel ban to the Korematsu decision that allowed the exclusion of Japanese Americans during World War II. In response, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that although the parallels between Korematsu and the travel ban case were “inapt,” he wrote, “The dissent’s reference to Korematsu, however, affords this Court the opportunity to make express what is already obvious: Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided, has been overruled in the court of history, and—to be clear— ‘has no place in law under the Constitution.’” Roberts quote refers to Justice Robert H. Jackson’s 1944 dissent in Korematsu. Sotomayor and others viewed Roberts’s opinion as an official overturning of Korematsu, while commentators such as Lyle Denniston wrote that the 1944 decision was not officially overturned.

Bibliography

Bomboy, Scott. “Did the Supreme Court Just Overrule the Korematsu Decision?” Constitution Daily, National Constitution Center, 26 June 2018, constitutioncenter.org/blog/did-the-supreme-court-just-overrule-the-korematsu-decision. Accessed 11 July 2018.

Bromwich, John Engel. “Trump Camp’s Talk of Registry and Japanese Internment Raises Muslims’ Fears.” The New York Times, 17 Nov. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/us/politics/japanese-internment-muslim-registry.html. Accessed 11 July 2018.

Daniels, Roger. Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II. Rev. ed. New York: Hill & Wang, 2004. Concise and readable account by a leading scholar in this field.

Gordon, Linda, and Gary Y. Okihiro, eds. Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. These famously censored vivid pictures combine with a scholarly narrative of the internment.

Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki, and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment. Carmel, Calif.: Hampton-Brown, 2002. Assigned to generations of high school students, this book, originally published in 1973, provides a compelling account of the Manzanar camp through the eyes of a little girl.

Inada, Lawson Fusao, ed. Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience. Berkeley, Calif.: Heyday Books, 2000. Striking collection of first-person accounts, poetry, fiction, and art. Publicly funded as part of California’s reparation activities.

Weglyn, Michi Nishiura. Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996. Thorough and well-documented look at the camps.