The evacuation of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor...?

Question

Do you know what George DeWitt's argument/reasons were for evacuating the Japanese Americans from the Pacific Coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor?
ALSO, do you agree with his arguments/reasons??
Here is a statement that he made in regards to the situation..

"The Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second and third generation Japanese born on United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship, have become 'Americanized,' the racial strains are undiluted. To conclude otherwise is to expect that children born of white parents on Japanese soil sever all racial affinity and become loyal Japanese subjects ready to fight and, if necessary, to die for Japan in a war against the nation of their parents."

Thanks in advance! 8)

Answer 1

they were evacuated to Nagasaki

Answer 2

DeWitt's remarks were absolutely racist of course, and I make no defense for those. The interrment of the Japanese, while history and ration have ruled it unnecessary and inhumane, was not quite as paranoid as it may seem now. There really WERE Japanese spy rings operating in Hawaii and California- that's historical fact- (most famous is probably Takeo Yoshikawa, but there were others and we still don't know who all was involved). The nation was in a panic and had no way of knowing who was and was not involved or whose loyalties went where, and it's easy to understand why Americans would distrust Japanese Americans, especially those who had been here for some while, who spoke no English, and the Japanese Americans often had no way of knowing how to defend themselves when accused.
Remember also that in 1941, Japan was a far more mysterious place to westerners. They had only been in renewed contact with the west for less than a century after several centuries of total isolation, and as one mentioned above that's less than a century and with no internet, television, few books written on the subject, etc., so it was a far more alien culture in a far less globalized age.

The interrment was a horrible thing. It is much to the nation's credit that we acknowledged it and compensated the survivors. (I get extremely irritated when it's compared to the Holocaust- which it occasionally is- however, because the two are incomparable. Bad as it was, the purpose of the interrment was never to kill them or do them harm.)

Answer 3

Interesting that the word used here is evacuation which suggests protecting a group.

I don't know enough about the particulars in the American situation but here in Western Canada, Japanese Canadians were forced off of their properties. Most of them ended up in an internment camp in Slocan, British Columbia. Property was sold below market value in order to pay for the expense of internment.

It's easy t fear the unknown. A number of Japanese Canadian war veterans from WWI were also interred. It mattered little that they had served with great honour in the previous world war. Because of Hirohito and the attack on Pearl Harbour, anyone who looked Japanese immediately fell under suspicion and became an enemy alien.

Answer 4

MVS is incorrect in a few matters considering Japanese internment. There were three types of Japanese:

1. Older Japanese citizens who were born and raised in Japan. Very many of them believed themselves to be Japanese citizens. Many went back to Japan and resume all their duties as a Japanese citizen.

2, The second group of Japanese were the sons/daughters of #1. Again, many of these were sent back to Japan by their parents or returned on their home to be come once again a Japanese citizen and all that meant. Especially for the men. Some stayed in the United States, especially Hawaii and continued to monitor movement of the US Navy and troops and any other data they could learn about the US military. These people are called spies. The government was well aware of this.

The third grouup were sons/daughters of #2. This was the most patriotic of the three and considered themselves to be American citizens. To prove their point they managed to convice the US military to form their own unit. They served with great distinction in Europe. For obvious reasons they were not sent to the Pacirfic even though they did try to get American born Japanese units there.

After years of study and PC, the government and military determine that some of the Japanese that were not intered were spies, but there efforts were minimal at best.

After four years of a vicious war with the US and the attrocities committed by the Japanese against American troops they refused to apologize for their behavior until just recently, but is was mere gesture. And yet they were given reparations for property they lost.

Germans and Italians were also interred but not in the amounts the Japanese were. I don't really know that much about those internments.

Axis troops were also imprisoned in various areas of the US and provided volutary labor. Forced labor is against the Geneval Convention. Some Geerman and Italian POWs were actually allowed to go into the nearby towns for R & R, and without MPs.

The Japanese sitiuation was a mixed bag of worms and diffcult to prove many acts of subversion but it was there. The Japanese were not the innocents that so many seem to believe.

Answer 5

I think very few people would agree with DeWitt now, but certainly many did at the time. To some extent this was based on racism, as there was much less concern about Americans of German or Italian descent, for example. It may also have had some roots in the tendency in Asian-American communities to stay inwardly focused, to speak the home language, preserve the home customs, marry within the group, etc. Of course, this tendency is itself in part a response to racism. Kind of a vicious circle.

Answer 6

it's not a case of agreeing or disagreeing. the germans were also placed in internment camps in florida & other very rural areas. the japanese were placed in the middle of the southwest in an extremely rural area. this was in the 1940s. pearl harbor just happened. people were scared & rightfully so. the mentality that if it could happen there (in the south pacific) it could happen anywhere in america. in fact, there were aerial bombs & bombing in washington state & along the upper oregon/california coast. it did cost several people their lives. there were established japanese & german cells working in the usa before/during the war. was the american govt wrong in what it did? no! what i was against was the rough handling of these people, the mis-management of their property left behind - in essence, the rush job performed. of course, they later received reparation $$ for their 'troubles' but nothing compared with the lost dignity and property. i mean, they weren't confined forever - just during the war years, but they came back to nothing to start over. many of them did. they also faced hatred from non-japanese. the germans faired a little better as they blended into american society easier than japanese. i suppose you could place the blame on mother country japan. they started something they couldn't finish (in fact, it nearly finished them!). the stigma of being a 'jap' was onerous to say the least. but many of the americans of jap descent never know mother japan. well, that's my two cents worth. as for de witt? he was a puppet in a puppet master's world. his strings were yanked by others & in short, he parroted what he felt others wanted him to say! i mean, do you really think he wrote his own monologue?

Answer 7

You have to go back in time to 1942. No TV, no internet, no nightly news. We were attacked by the Japanese, who were considered "the enemy". Thus, according to the logic of that time, *every* person of Japanese descent could have also been "the enemy".

History has proven that this argument was misguided, but even my Japanese friends who went willingly (!) to the internment camps didn't strongly object at the time.

Today, everyone realizes how wrong and stupid this idea really was.

Answer 8

He was a dyed in the wool racist! He knew nothing about the Japanese-American population and he yielded to the realestate people who coveted the land and property that they had worked for and achieved! No American would touch the inner valley of California--EXCEPT the Japanese-American people who had a history of cultivating difficult land into prospering realestate!!! America confiscated the property/land and houses of the Japanese-American people--defying all legal statutes!!!! They used the supposed "fear" of the American people as an excuse for their actions--when in fact, it was all hype!! Not one occurrence of sabotage occurred!! Maybe one in Haiwaii--but I don't think that's accurate!! Americans over-rode our own constitution!! Not until long after years of the nine active concentration camps--all located in arid desert lands of Nevada, etc., did the victims receive any kind of compensation!!! No German or Italian people were imprisioned! Basically, because they were European people--NOT Asian.