Unit I: World War II Incarceration: A Chronological history

A. US Anti-Asian Sentiment March 26, 1790 The US Congress, through the act of 1790, decrees that “any alien, being a free white person who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for a term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof.” The phrase “free white person” remained in tact until 1873 when “persons of African decent” was added. This act would be used to deny citizenship to Japanese and other Asian immigrants until the mid 20th century. May 6, 1882 Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act over the Veto of President Garfield. Chinese immigration would essentially be shut off for the next sixty years. September 2, 1885 Rioters attack and set fire to Chinatown in Rock Springs, Wyoming, killing 28 Chinese miners. The “Rock Springs Massacre resulted from mounting anti-Chinese sentiment over their role as cheap labor and as strikebreakers. February 23, 1905 The San Francisco Chronicle front page headline reads: “The Japanese Invasion: The Problem of the Hour.” This launches an unrelenting string of editorials against the Japanese which serve to kick the anti-Japanese movement into high gear. May 14, 1905 The Asiatic Exclusion League is formed in San Francisco, marking the official beginning of the anti-Japanese movement. Student Reading Japanese emigrating to the US have traditionally encountered discrimination. As the Congressional act of 1790 demonstrates, immigrants of Asian heritage were not even allowed American citizenship. Some of the first Japanese immigrants to the US faced tremendous economic hardships. In the early 1850s, Japan was experiencing a depression, forcing many Japanese to emigrate to the United States. Most arrived with little financial support, and often had to settle for grueling, backbreaking work in farming, building railways, factories, canneries, or nurseries. Being new to the US and speaking little or no English, these workers were often exploited, made to work for less money, and in conditions unacceptable to most Americans. Stereotypes concerning the Japanese as well as cultural and language barriers led to many misperceptions of the Japanese. These stereotypes and misperceptions eventually led to inaccurate beliefs on the part of American citizens that the Japanese were “invading” or “stealing” away jobs and land, further exacerbating strained relations between these two communities. Questions How do you think the above incidents helped fuel the WWII backlash against Japanese Americans? Immigrants to the US have historically been exploited and forced to work for lower wages than citizens. How do you think this leads to conflict? How does immigrants unfamiliarity with the U.S. and the English language lead to exploitation? The headline "The Japanese Invasion: The Problem of the Hour" could apply to many immigrant groups at many different times during US history. What other current-day and past examples can you think of? Go to the library or use the Library of Congress website and research editorials and newspaper accounts of anti-immigrant sentiment in US history. B. Relocation and Internment December 7, 1941 The attack on Pearl Harbor. February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 (see page 10) which allows military authorities to exclude anyone from anywhere without trial or hearings, setting the stage for forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. February 27, 1942 Idaho Governor Chase Clark tells a congressional committee in Seattle that Japanese would be welcome in Idaho only if they were in "concentration camps under military guard." Some credit Clark with the conception of what was to become a true scenario. March 24, 1942 The first Civilian Exclusion Order issued by the Army is issued for the Bainbridge Island area near Seattle. The forty-five families there are given one week to prepare. By the end of October, 108 exclusion orders would be issued, and all Japanese Americans in Military Area No. 1 and the California portion of No. 2 would be incarcerated. May 8, 1942 The first "volunteers" from Imperial Valley, CA arrive at the Colorado River or Poston camp. In the next three weeks, 7,450 inmates would arrive. May 13, 1942 Forty-five year old Ichiro Shimoda, a Los Angeles gardener, is shot to death by guards while trying to escape from Fort Still Oklahoma enemy internment camp. The victim was seriously mentally ill, having tried suicide twice since being picked up on December 7. He is shot despite the guards’ knowledge of his mental state. June 1942 The movie "Little Tokyo, U.S.A." is released by Twentieth Century Fox. In it, the Japanese American community is portrayed as a "vast army of volunteer spies" and "blind worshipers of the Emperor," as described in the film’s voice-over prologue. August 4, 1942 A routine search for contraband at the Santa Anita "Assembly Center" turns into a "riot." Eager military personnel had become overzealous and abusive which, along with the failure of several attempts to reach the camp’s internal security chief, triggers mass unrest, crowd formation, and the harassing of the searchers. Military police with tanks and machine guns quickly end the incident. The "overzealous" military personnel are later replaced. Student Reading Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Americans of Japanese ancestry were alleged to be a threat to military security. However, these Americans had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor, and there were no acts of espionage or sabotage ever uncovered then or since. Two-thirds of those incarcerated were American citizens by birth, their parents, not allowed to become citizens, had lived as permanent US residents for the previous 20-40 years. In 1982, a committee appointed by the US Congress concluded that the incarceration was carried out without adequate reasons of security, and was motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria and a failure of political leadership. When they were forced from their homes, Japanese Americans were told that they could bring only what they could carry. Some abandoned their property, many hurriedly sold possessions at great losses, a few were able to find non-Japanese American friends to care for their houses and businesses during the war. The financial losses were incalculable. Executive order No. 9066 was the official US Government document legalizing the forced internment of Japanese Americans. See page 10 for a partial text of the actual document. Questions The bombing of Pearl Harbor was a horrifying event for many Americans. How did this contribute to US anti-Asian sentiment? Is the US reaction justified? Why or why not. Japanese Americans relocated into internment camps were often referred to as “volunteers.” Was this an accurate description? Why or why not. Considering no evidence of espionage or sabotage by Japanese Americans was ever discovered, what do you think were the “real” reasons for their forced detention? Executive Order 9066 legalized forced internment during WW II. What rights did this order take away from Japanese American citizens? Besides personal liberties, i.e., freedom, what else did the Japanese Americans lose when they were forced into camps? After arriving in the camps, were Japanese Americans treated fairly? Contact a Japanese American who was forced into an internment camp and interview that person. You might want to ask how the experience affected him or her, how the experience affected that person’s view of the US, and his or her own identity as a US citizen. You might want to ask about the conditions in the camps, or about the person’s life before and after the internment experience. C. Concentration Camps October 20, 1942 President Roosevelt calls the "relocation centers" "concentration camps" at a press conference. The WRA had consistently denied that the term "concentration camps" accurately described the camps. March 20, 1944 Forty-three Japanese American soldiers are arrested for refusing to participate in combat training at Fort McClellan, Alabama. Eventually, 106 are arrested for their refusal, undertaken to protest the treatment of their families in US concentration camps. Twenty-one are convicted and serve prison time before being paroled in 1946. The records of 11 are cleared by the Army Board of Corrections of Military Records in 1983. (The other 10 did not apply for clearance.) May 7, 1945 The surrender of Germany ends the war in Europe. August 6, 1945 The atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later, a second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. The war would end on August 14. March 20, 1946 Tule Lake closes, culminating "an incredible mass evacuation in reverse." In the month prior to the closing, some 5,000 internees had had to be moved, many of whom were elderly, impoverished, or mentally ill and with no place to go. Of the 554 persons left there at the beginning of the day, 450 are moved to Crystal City, 60 are released, and the rest are "relocated." Student Reading Euphemistically called “relocation centers” by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), the concentration camps were hastily constructed facilities for housing Japanese Americans forcibly removed from their homes and businesses on the West Coast during WW II. Located in isolated areas of the US on either desert or swampland, the camps were usually surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed sentries. Although the sentries were presumably in place to protect the inmates from hostile outsiders, their guns usually pointed into the camps instead of out of them. Most inmates were transported to their camp by train from an “Assembly Center” between April and September 1942. In all, over 120,000 Japanese Americans served time in these camps. Conditions in the camps and the experiences of the Japanese American inmates varied greatly. The WRA attempted to create camp communities that resembled normal communities to the greatest extent possible. Thus, each of the 10 camps had schools and hospitals, a newspaper, some degree of democratic self-government and such leisure activities as baseball leagues and movie showings. At the same time, however, life was anything but normal. Japanese American family dynamics were dramatically altered as parents saw their authority ebb away. There were several incidents involving guards shooting inmates. There was also the exacerbation of existing conflicts within the Japanese American community brought about by the forced confinement. Such tensions, coupled with the choices made by WRA officials administering the camps, led to a great deal of conflict with the camps, and to explosions such as the Manzanar Incident and the Poston Strike. Questions What was the difference between an “Assembly” camp, a “Concentration” camp, and a “Segregation” center. Camps were sometimes referred to as relocation centers. Why is this term misleading? How were the loyal and disloyal detainees identified? From what you have read, How was family life altered? From what you know, can you infer other ways that you believe family life may have been altered? Pretend you are a Japanese American living in an internment camp. Write a letter to Congress or the President of the US and tell why you believe your treatment is unfair or inhuman. D. Reparations July 10, 1970 A resolution by the JACL’s Northern California-Western Nevada District Council calling for reparations for the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans is announced. Titled "A Requital Supplication" and championed by Edison Uno, this resolution would have the JACL seek a bill in Congress awarding individual compensation on a per diem basis, tax-free. November 28, 1979 Representative Mike Lowry (DWA) introduces the WWII Japanese-American Human Rights Violations Act (H.R. 5977) into Congress. This NCJAR sponsored bill is largely based on research done by ex-members of the Seattle JACL chapter. It proposes direct payments of $15,000 per victim plus an additional $15 per day interned. Given the choice between this bill and the JACL supported study commission bill introduced two months earlier, Congress opts for the latter. July 14, 1981 The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians holds hearings across the US. Emotional testimony by Japanese Americans proves cathartic for the community, and is a turning point in the redress movement. In all, 750 witnesses testify. August 10, 1988 H.R. 442 is signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. It provides for individual payments of $20,000 to each surviving internee and a $1.25 billion education fund among other provisions. October 9, 1990 The first nine redress payments are made at a Washington, D.C. ceremony. One hundred seven year-old Rev. Mamoru Eto of Los Angeles is the first to receive his check. Student Reading The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians was the congressional commission charged with studying the mass removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII and recommending an appropriate remedy. The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) was born on July 32, 1980. With President Jimmy Carter’s signing of Public Law 96-317. The CWRIC actually had its beginnings in 1979 when the Japanese American Citizens League decided to act on its goal of seeking redress and pushed for the formation of the committee. As part of its research, the CWRIC held hearings beginning in 1981 in several cities across the country. In each city, Japanese Americans testified about their experiences in the concentration camps; many talked about these experiences for the first time. After 18 months of research, the CWRIC issued its report on February 22, 1983, published under the title Personal Justice Denied. In its final recommendation calling for individual payments to victims of the camps of $20,000 (see page 11 for copy of official letter of apology that accompanied each check.) Five years later, a bill implementing these recommendations for the most part was signed by President Reagan. Questions What is reparation? Do you believe the reparations made to Japanese Americans were fair, adequate? What is justice? Do you believe justice was served? Why do you think it took so long for the US to make reparations? Some Japanese Americans never spoke of their experience until the reparation hearings began in the early 80s. Why do you believe it was so difficult for them to speak of their experiences? Research Japanese Americans internment experience then hold a mock committee on reparations. Divide the class into Japanese Americans and representatives of US Government. Have students designated as Japanese Americans testify about their experiences. Then have students designated as US Government representatives present their research. What conclusions are made? Explain.