National Security: How Far Is Too Far?

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General John Dewitt, leader of the Western Defense Command, left no doubt that Japanese and Japanese Americans were singled out for mass evacuation, on racial grounds. The Western Defense Command considered all Japanese, no matter what generation, to be possible threats to National Security. On February 14, 1942, just five days before President Franklin D Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, he wrote, "The Japanese race is an enemy race. While second and third generation Japanese possess citizenship of the United States, having become Americanized, racial strains are undiluted"(Fox, 1988, p. 407-438)

Many missionaries including Emma Azalia Peet, spoke against the evacuation and Executive Order 9066 and its meaning, at the Tolan Commission hearings. Miss Peet, demanded evidence of wrongdoing by any Japanese American be presented before the government moved to deprive American citizens of their civil liberties. (Exec. Order No. 9066, 1942).

Japanese Americans filed lawsuits to stop the mass incarceration, but the wartime courts supported the hysteria. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hirabayashi v U.S., Yasui v U.S., and Korematsu v U.S. that the denial of civil liberties based on race and national origin were legal. In a later, contradictory ruling in Endo v U.S., the Supreme Court decided that a loyal citizen could not be detained, but this did not stop the internment (Korematsu v. United States, 1944).

The Federal Communications Commission, The FBI, and the Naval Intelligence did not support the evacuation and internment of Japanese Americans. The Justice Department viewed the mass evacuation as unnecessary, unconstitutional and too large of a task for the War Department to handle. (Exec. Order No. 9066, 1942)

Everything contributed to one of the darkest times of America’s post slavery era was the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II., based upon fear and war hysteria.

The wholesale internment of Japanese American citizens and resident aliens alike climaxed a long history of racism on the west coast directed against Asian immigrants, as well as both state and federal legislation. The regional prejudice became enshrined in federal policy in a 1922 Supreme Court ruling stating that Japanese immigrants could not become naturalized American citizens, and then again in 1924 when the Immigration Act was enacted. This act meant that only a limited number of immigrants would be allowed entry through a national quota system. (Trowbridge, 2016) Executive Order 9066, was the direct result of both the shock of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, and continuing racism. The Federal Communications Commission, The FBI, and the Naval Intelligence did not support the evacuation and internment of Japanese Americans. The Justice Department viewed the mass evacuation as unnecessary and viewed the evacuation of Japanese Americans as unconstitutional and was too large of a task for the War Department to handle. (Exec. Order No. 9066, 1942)

One of the darkest times of America’s post slavery era was the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. This act completely defied the 14th amendment as well as other laws. (Trowbridge, 2016)

The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was the direct result of discrimination and fear which trampled the rights of American citizens. Decades before World War II, the United States already had a growing animosity with Japan, Japanese and Asian immigrants. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent involvement with World War II, intensified the hostility towards these immigrants, leading to thousands being interned. During World War II, the United States government, crossed the line between securing the nation and violating human rights, when choosing to relocate Japanese residents to internment camps. These actions, in my opinion, were unjustified as a person’s’ heritage does not determine their opinion.

References

Exec. Order No. 9066, 7 C.F.R. 1407 (1942). Retrieved from http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/fdrrelocation1942.html

FDR and Japanese American interment [primary source collection]. (1941-1942). Retrieved from http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/pdfs/internment.pdf

Fox, S. C. (1988). General John DeWitt and the proposed internment of German and Italian aliens during World War II. Pacific Historical Review, 57, 407–438.

Korematsu v. United States. 323 U.S. 214 (1944). Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/323/214

Shaffer, R. (1999). Opposition to internment: Defending Japanese American rights during World War II. The Historian, 61(3), 597–619.

Trowbridge, D. J. (2016). A history of the United States: 1865 to present. Asheville, NC: Soomo Learning. Available from http://www.webtexts.com

, ("The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act)". U.S Department of State Office of the Historian. Retrieved 2017-04-02),

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