The president picked up his pen and signed the executive order. It approved the creation of an exclusion zone in the name of security and paved the way for the detaining of both citizens and non-citizens. Many felt it was justified given what “those type of people” had been responsible for. Families were rounded up. Nearly all went willingly. In the process they lost their homes, businesses and property. Their civil rights were fundamentally violated.
This did not happen this week, last year or even ten years ago but 75 years ago on February 19, 1942. Signed into law not by the pen of a Republican but the Democrat and liberal icon Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The very man who claimed that Americans had “nothing to fear but fear itself” gave into the worst kind of fear and hysteria in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor.
Fear & Paranoia
Americans on the West Coast were terrified of a sneak attack. It’s hard to imagine today what that fear was like. While in the 21st century Americans fear acts of individual terror, the palpable fear that a foreign nation was trying to work with spies already in the US to coordinate an invasion of the coast and conquer the United States was very real. Rumors were exacerbated; innuendos believed. If those “damn Japs” (as many referred to them at the time) could catch the US Navy with its pants down at Pearl Harbor then anything was possible.
Immigration patterns meant large concentrations of Japanese-Americans lived on the West Coast; from Washington to Oregon to Northern and Southern California. Though there were thriving Japanese and Japanese-American communities, known as “Little Tokyos”, they began to feel less and less welcome. Not only was the US blindsided by Pearl Harbor but the attempt to exact retribution on Japan was faltering badly. With defeat after defeat in the Philippines in early 1942, the victory of the US and Allies was very far from being achieved. This only added to the fear and uncertainty inside the US itself.
Neighbor turned against neighbor. People began to openly discriminate against the so-called “Japs” painting them all as potential enemies and saboteurs despite any evidence. The stage was set for a Lt. General John DeWitt, head of Western Defense Command and the primary architect of the Japanese-American internment plan – a plan that ended up incarcerating some 110,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese American citizens. The overwhelming majority were US citizens and not a single internee was ever charged with espionage activities.
“A Jap is a Jap”
Objections to internment were limited and feeble, especially from the press and liberal politicians such as California Governor and later US Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren (to his credit he later said he “deeply regretted” his role). Once Executive Order 9066 was signed, DeWitt and others saw their role as nothing less than the defense and security of the country. The argument went that because the Japanese may attack the coast, anyone who was Japanese or who could potentially have any sympathy with the Japanese should be relocated away from “militarily sensitive areas”. In Dewitt’s infamous phrase “A Jap is a Jap” – citizen or not.
The Tragedy of Exile
While it is true that internment camps did not result in execution and death, the removal of Japanese-Americans was life altering and devastating. Their businesses, homes and pets were left for what they thought was a temporary situation; some believed they would return in a few days as “surely there was some misunderstanding”. Abandoned houses and land were swiftly occupied and resold or sold by the original owners to willing neighbors for a pittance. As the detainees made their way to trains that moved them first to “assembly centers” (the most infamous being the stables at the Tanforan Racetrack where families were kept in horse stables and makeshift barracks) and then to internment camps they faced an unknown and frightening future. Their destinations would include names few had heard of but which in time would be recognized as geographical markers of loss and heartbreak: Topaz, Manzanar, Jerome, Crystal City. Many were in desert areas, freezing in the morning and sweltering during the day; the tar paper shacks providing little comfort and even less privacy.
Patriotism on Trial
Unfamiliar terrain, difficult living conditions and lack of work for many who had been active agricultural workers or fishermen were just some of the challenges faced by the detainees. While some of the older generation held strongly to customs and even held the Japanese Emperor in high esteem, the vast majority of Japanese-American youth had been born in the US, gone to US public schools and considered themselves nothing less than full Americans. A year into internment, the ban on Japanese-Americans serving in the armed forces was lifted. A “loyalty questionnaire” was distributed to young men at the camps asking them if they would “serve in the armed forces” but also included a second question asking if they would “forswear allegiance” to any foreign power. Many saw the implication that they were disloyal as a humiliating insult in addition to their ongoing internment. Those who answered “No” on either question could be imprisoned for draft avoidance or deported.
Those who answered “Yes” to both questions were assigned to combat with the 442nd Infantry Regiment that was mostly made up of Japanese-Americans from Hawaii. (There was no Japanese-American internment on Hawaii because the government rightly understood that doing so would collapse the economy in so small an area). The 442nd Infantry Regiment, whose motto was “Go For Broke!” saw combat in Europe and went on to become the most decorated unit for its size and duration in American history with 21 Medals of Honor awarded. Those from families of the interned proved themselves not only loyal, but willing to die for their country while their parents were held in camps. It was a test of patriotism that they not only passed but exceeded in every way.
Curbing Civil Liberties in Wartime: Is it Ever Justified?
Clearly times of war and conflict are when civil liberties and the Constitution are most tested. Fear is at an all time high and tensions are at their greatest. Because of this there is also the potential to govern based on emotion instead of what is rational and in the process do irreparable damage to democracy. It is ironic that a president known for his ability to remain unruffled in the midst of chaotic situations signed an order which played to hysteria instead of reason.
Undoubtedly FDR, DeWitt, Warren and other believed what they were doing was in the best interest of the US as a whole. It causes us to ask: Is security ever worth sacrificing the civil liberties of some in order to protect the freedom of all?
While it is an understandable impulse to do so in the midst of uncertainty, the history of Japanese-American internment during WW2 shows that irreparable damage is done to a democracy when such removal of rights occurs. This is not so much because of the harm it causes individuals – and serious harm was indeed caused to them – but because the elimination of those rights in and of itself begins to negate the very ideals of the country one is protecting. Of course imminent threats must be met but removing the fundamental rights of US citizens is itself a danger perhaps even more destructive than the physical damage of an attack.
Finally, is this comparable to the situation the US faces today with radical Islamic terrorism? Surely the threat is no less a cause of fear than that facing Americans on the West Coast after Pearl Harbor. The fear felt by many in the wake of 9/11 remains palpable every time there is another terrorist attack in the United States.
Yet history shows us that broad violation of civil liberties of people based on minority status or ethnic background does little to address terrorist attacks and may do more harm than good. Many argue that the challenges the US faces today are different, and undoubtedly they are, but there is a reason that President Ronald Reagan formally apologized to internees by signing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which explicitly states its intent to “discourage the occurrence of similar injustices and violations of civil liberties in the future”.
The damage and shame of this particular executive order remains with the US to this day but one thing that remains unchanged 75 years on is the desire to balance US security with its most cherished beliefs of liberty and freedom. It is a conversation that remains as vital as ever.
Further Reading: WW2 Reads Top Picks on Japanese-American Internment
Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell
Infamy by Richard Reeves
Honor Before Glory by Scott McGaugh
Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Houston
By Order of the President by Greg Robinson
Panic on the Pacific: How America Prepared for the West Coast Invasion
Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment
Enduring Conviction: Fred Korematsu and His Quest for Justice
Further Resources:
Allegiance Musical & Movie by George Takai – A movie of the musical is showing in select theaters on the 75th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, February 19th, 2017.
National Archives Documents on Japanese-American Internment
