Ignore the Past, Damn the Future

1.

Since the recent terrorist attacks, Arab Americans have lived in a new country. Before 11 September their worries about having insults hurled at them as they walked on public streets, being attacked by thugs, having to face the vandalism or destruction of their places of worship were background, muted worries. Those horrible, hateful things happened, but they did not happen often. Since the attacks, America has become a more dangerous place for Arab Americans, and if the rest of us are not careful, we may once again commit grievous offenses against fellow American citizens.

After Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans also faced an increasingly hostile America. Stores would no longer sell goods or services, including food, to them. Banks would no longer do business with them. Being suspected of spying became a regular part of life. The government did nothing to dispel the belief that Japanese Americans were disloyal to the U.S. The Secretary of the Navy released a statement declaring that Japanese sabotage on Hawaii was responsible for the success of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Hundreds of supposedly subversive Japanese were arrested and detained even though no documented case of espionage or sabotage was committed by an American citizen of Japanese ancestry or by a resident Japanese non-citizen.

Though the military wanted to intern all Japanese Americans immediately after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt refused. General John DeWitt, head of the West Coast Defense Command, recommended in February 1942 that Japanese Americans and resident non-citizens be evacuated from the West Coast because, as he put it, "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".

The media contributed to internment by inflammatory rhetoric. For example, consider an editorial, from early 1942, in the San Francisco News:

Japanese leaders in California who are counseling their people, both aliens and native-born, to co-operate with the Army in carrying out the evacuation plans are, in effect, offering the best possible way for all Japanese to demonstrate their loyalty to the United States.

Many aliens and practically all the native-born have been protesting their allegiance to this Government. Although their removal to inland districts outside the military zones may inconvenience them somewhat, even work serious hardships upon some, they must certainly recognize the necessity of clearing the coastal combat areas of all possible fifth columnists and saboteurs. Inasmuch as the presence of enemy agents cannot be detected readily when these areas are thronged by Japanese the only course left is to remove all persons of that race for the duration of the war.

Real danger would exist for all Japanese if they remained in the combat area. The least act of sabotage might provoke angry reprisals that easily could balloon into bloody race riots.

We must avoid any chance of that sort of thing. The most sensible, the most humane way to insure against it is to move the Japanese out of harm's way and make it as easy as possible for them to go and to remain away until the war is over.

Life did its part to demonize the Japanese living in the U.S. too. It ran an article, "How to Tell Your Friends from the Japs", in which can be found the most base, vile racist stereotypes: "...the Chinese expression is likely to be more placid, kindly, open; the Japanese more positive, dogmatic, arrogant...Japanese walk stiffly erect...Chinese more relaxed, sometimes shuffle..."

But not everyone in the federal government shared the media and the military's distrust of Japanese Americans, at least initially. In October and November of 1941, Roosevelt ordered an intelligence report done on the loyalty of Japanese Americans. Carried out by Special Representative of the State Department Curtis B. Munson. it found that the issei, the first generation Japanese, though still Japanese citizens, would gladly become American citizens if allowed. Although their entire cultural background was Japanese, they had chosen to live and rear their children in America. Munson also found that the nisei, the second generation Japanese, despite discrimination and insults were eager to be Americans. The report concluded that "there is no Japanese 'problem' on the Coast. There will be no armed uprising of Japanese". Perhaps the moves to intern the Japanese would have failed if the general public had known of the Munson report. Unfortunately it was unknown to most Americans. The report was not publicly released until 1946, even though the State, War, and Navy Departments all knew of the results.

Roosevelt eventually capitulated to the prevailing racist mood, signing Executive Order No. 9066, which authorized the military to designate places as military areas and exclude any and all persons, whether citizen or not, from these newly created areas. Though the Japanese Americans were not specifically mentioned, this order was in direct response to the advice of General DeWitt and the military generally.

2.

Thus began the removal of more than 112,000 Japanese persons living in the U.S., including 70,000 U.S. citizens. The homes, property, and possessions of interned Japanese were seized and forfeited. Their bank accounts were frozen, and they were only allowed $100 a week. Once they left their homes, they were transferred first to local detainment centers, which were generally campgrounds or race tracks. They stayed there for a short time, often a few days, until they were moved to one of eleven concentration camps throughout the Western states. Food, shelter, and some education was provided in the camps. Internment in concentration camps lasted until the war was over, with some remaining until 1946.

According to the government, military, and the media, mass internment of Japanese was vital to national security. But national security, as it so often does, masked more fundamental causes; in this case, racism and economics.

To understand the internments of Japanese living on the West Coast, especially California, you have to understand how the West was settled. During the Gold Rush of 1849, Chinese immigrants came to California as miners. Their labor helped build the wealth of the West. The reaction of 'native' miners, mainly White settlers, was fear and resentment. The Chinese worked longer hours in the mines for less pay. Economic tensions, along with White nativism and xenophobia, led to discrimination and violence against the Chinese. The State of California, to protect the interests of its White inhabitants and citizens, passed a number of laws officially discriminating against the Chinese.

Cities expelled completely or restricted the Chinese to particular areas, to ghettos. The Chinese were prevented from gaining citizenship, being able to vote, or even from giving testimony against a White person in court. Discrimination continued until 1882 when California enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act in order to remove everyone of Chinese ethnicity from the state. Not surprisingly, there was a severe labor shortage in the Californian agricultural industry. Japanese workers soon arrived to take the place of the Chinese, and they became the new targets of the racism and economic agitation.

This racism continued at a fairly consistent pitch until the 1930s, when the U.S. entered the Great Depression, and Japan became increasingly aggressive in China and Manchuria. The resentments intensified as Japan and the U.S. continued on an imperial, military collision course. Distrust and fear, combined with racism and economic competition, for almost 100 years on the West Coast set the stage for the acquiescence or encouragement of White citizens for the internment of the Japanese.

3.

White people benefitted economically from the land forfeitures and seizures which accompanied internment of their Japanese neighbors. As the Japanese settled along the West Coast, they often turned themselves to agriculture, routinely turning seemingly worthless areas into productive farms. In 1940, 84% of all Japanese employment was to be found in three categories: specialized agriculture, food distribution, and domestic labor. The average Japanese farm at the time was very small, about 42 acres, roughly one-fifth the size of White-owned farms. And yet they were very productive: comprising about 4% of farmland in California, they produced 42% of the state's fruits and vegetables.

Since the issei were unable to own land themselves, because they were not citizens, they bought the land in the names of their nisei children, who were citizens. In some cases, these newly productive farming areas bordered dams, railroad tracks, and power lines. The proximity to "strategic" areas caused increased suspicion after Pearl Harbor since presumably disloyal Japanese could sabotage strategic infrastructure.

Once Executive Order 9066 was in effect, and the military had designated the land which the Japanese held to be strategically vital, all Japanese property claims to the land were null and void; in many cases, the military either kept the land for its own use or sold it to presumably loyal White farmers, who were certainly aware of the economic upside of internment to them. A representative of a grower association in Salinas said, "We're charged with wanting to get rid of the Japs for selfish reasons. We might as well be honest. We do."

Japanese Americans were not reimbursed for these property seizures after they were released from the camps. The Federal Reserve estimated that the direct property seizures were worth $400,000,000 (in 1942 dollars). They often found themselves far from their former homes, with little hope of returning. Even if they returned, their personal belongings, held in storage areas, were ransacked, looted, and vandalized. And they continued to be viewed with disdain and suspicion.

It seems at first glance impossible that the U.S. might intern Arab Americans. It seems less impossible given the opinion of many Americans immediately following the recent attacks. 34% of New York residents asked if they would favor interning persons thought to be "sympathetic to terrorist causes" said they would favor it. About 16% had no opinion about internment; they did not explicitly oppose it. 67% of them favored racial profiling to prevent "suspicious individuals" from traveling on airliners.

Given the attitudes of New Yorkers, one of the most liberal states, how impossible does internment seem? And if not internment, how likely is the wholesale violation of civil rights in the name of national security? How likely are Americans to oppose injustice to their fellow citizens? To resident Arab non-citizens? Now is not the time to be blind to government abuses in the name of security. Nor is it the time to be quiet about bad ideas enacted by those in power for the sake of 'unity.' No, now is the time to be diligent in the protection of civil and human rights for all inhabitants, whether citizen or not, of the United States.