Is That Legal?

Sounds to me like the East Coast based government (the entity responsible for the internment) was actually trying to do the right thing within the confines of the internment law. "Economic and racial resentments" coming from West Coast bigots isn't enough to convince me that the government in Washington was motivated by the same prejudice.

From a review of Professor Muller’s partial transcript of the 1943 telephone conversation between Colonels Scobey and Miller (above), it seems most unlikely that this discussion could be reasonably interpeted as evidence that motivations other than military considerations (“racism” seems implied) were responsible for the decision to exclude persons of Japanese ancestry from West Coast military zones shortly after Pearl Harbor. If racism had been the motivation, why was it that other persons of Japanese ancestry living in other less militarily sensitive areas of the country were not disturbed at all?

It was no secret that there was considerable animosity toward ethnic Japanese after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor or that some persons on the West Coast with other than patriotic motives took advantage of the Japanese evacuees. That reference to such bigotry would appear in the telephone conversation between the two officers mentioned is not surprising. Nonetheless, to assume from such off-the-cuff remarks that other than well-founded military considerations were paramount in the evacuation decision made at the highest level by those superior to the officers cited by Prof. Muller, appears to be an example of the wish being father to the thought.

From the outset of the Japanese evacuation from the West Coast it was the U.S. government’s intent that the evacuees be screened for and assisted in finding employment or educational opportunities as rapidly as possible. The relocation centers were never meant to be other than way stations. Accordingly, over 33,000 left them during the war for gainful employment or educational institutions in the East with the government's help.

But many evacuees didn’t want to leave the centers. They had never had it so good. A January 1946 Department of the Interior (WRA) publication, “The Relocation Program,” noted:

“...their wants were taken care of, they knew where the next meal would come from and that they would be looked after in an emergency. Many of the older men...could now sit and play cards all day. The women whose social life had been limited by tradition and who had labored hard most of their lives had found pleasure in the meetings and liesure to which center life had introduced them. Even though living conditions aat the center were not too satisfactory, they were comfortable and were better than the majority of evacuees had had before evacuation.”

"But many evacuees didn't want to leave the centers. They had never had it so good."

Wow! I sure wish someone would issue an Executive Order commanding ME to a relocation camp so I could live the sweet life on the taxpayer dime! I sure hope the US is attacked by Ireland sometime soon so that me and all the other Irish-Americans can be evacuated to the land of milk and honey.

Or the desert, or wherever they end up putting us. And even if I have to sell my house for a fraction of what I paid for it (or leave it to be looted), it will still be totally worth it. Sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the rights of the few - it's the American way. Man, I can't wait. I will have never had it so good!

"The elder Miho, a former Japanese school teacher...had served as a volunteer for the Japanese Consulate and had been outspoken in his pro-Japan views...Much to (his) surprise, he not only survived the internment experience, but enjoyed several aspects of it. He liked to jokingly refer to it as 'a vacation at government expense.' He often told his sons about the beautiful mountains of Missoula, Montana, and making illegal rice wine while the guards watched." [From "Our House Divided"--Tomi Kaizawa Knaefler--Univ. of Hawaii Press--1941]

"I was born here in Hiroshima. I went to Hawaii in 1919 at the age of 24....I was taken to the internment camps--Tule Lake, Crystal City, and then Santa Fe...It was a long war. But we were treated well. Very well...those of us who were in the internment camps talk about the good treatment we had during the war....The wonderful treatment and the way prisoners in Japan were mistreated..." [Kazuyuki Yamamoto--from "Our House Divided."]

"The barbed wire at Manzanar consisted of three strings of cattle-guard wire through which anyone could walk if he wanted to. But nobody wanted to." [Toyo Mayatake, Photographer--quote from "American and Japanese Relocation--Fact, Fiction & Fallacy"--Baker 1990.

Commander Hopwood,
Of all of your assorted assertions about the Japanese American internment, your characterization of the camps as alluring places where "people never had it so good" is easily the most outrageous. I'm not going to debate it with you. I find it despicable.

Professor Muller writes:

"Commander Hopwood,
Of all of your assorted assertions about the Japanese American internment, your characterization of the camps as alluring places where "people never had it so good" is easily the most outrageous. I'm not going to debate it with you. I find it despicable."

Prof. Muller:

You over-react. To borrow a page from your own book, let me point out that my comment was a paraphrase of the sentiments expressed by those in the War Relocation Authority as set forth in a quote from the publication I cited. See my post
my post of May 3, 11:56 PM (above).

I have no reason to believe the WRA observation to be wrong, why do you? Note particularly the last sentence of the quote. If you disagree you can take it up in the afterworld with Dillon Myers.

Typo Correction. The book "Our House Divided" cited in my May 6 5:25 PM post (above) is shown as having been printed in 1941. The date should have been shown as 1991.

I wonder if there are stories about the jewish people in concentration camps who also "didn't want to leave the centers. They never had it so good" published by teh Germnan Department of the Interior in their "Relocation Program" publications... mmmm....

Aren't there more than 2 sources that you can cite, instead of just a misly 2? Here is a list for you: http://www.jacl.org/ed/reference.html

Susana L. writes:

"I wonder if there are stories about the jewish people in concentration camps who also "didn't want to leave the centers. They never had it so good" published by teh Germnan Department of the Interior in their "Relocation Program" publications... mmmm...."

Alas, madam, have you no shame? To suggest that
the Japanese evacuation from West Coast military zones equates with the Holocaust and that our WWII U.S. government leaders were no better than Nazis is really the pits.

"Aren't there more than 2 sources that you can cite, instead of just a misly 2?"

Look again. I cited three. But if you are hungry for more try this one for size. http://www.internmentarchives.com/index.php