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May 23, 2006

The "Hindsight" Theory of the Japanese American Internment Takes (Yet) Another Hit.

S
pend some time talking with folks -- especially, though not exclusively, older folks -- about the Japanese American internment, and you're bound to hear the claim that it looks wrong to us only because we have the benefit of hindsight. "Everyone was terrified of an invasion," you're told; "everybody thought it was necessary at the time."

Doing some research yesterday in the papers of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, I came across a letter that confounds that claim pretty nicely. Note that it's dated April 30, 1942.

That's just the opening couple of paragraphs. It goes on to ask that Japanese aliens and American citizens of Japanese ancestry be accorded hearings before being removed from their homes -- something the government declined to do. "To grant to Italian and German aliens a right denied to American citizens of Japanese origin is a type of race discrimination for which there is no ethical justification."

The letter concluded, and was signed, as follows:

As a Tar Heel, I was especially pleased to see the name of Frank Porter Graham on the list.

Posted by Eric at May 23, 2006 12:44 PM

Comments

And what astonishing company Dr. Frank is in. Even the ones we've never heard of are amazing. Oswald Garrsion Villard was the grandson of William Lloyd Garrison.

Posted by: Sally at May 23, 2006 1:38 PM

Graham sounds interesting and admirable.
Villard was active in many causes worthy of his grandfather, but was also an America Firster.
Dewey, Neibuhr and Thomas are of course well known. I'm familiar with a couple of the others.
Bingham, bluestocking leftie, was the son of Hiram Bingham, explorer of Macchu Picchu.
Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, of New York's Riverside Church, was sort of a naive, clueless version of William Sloane Coffin. Fosdick never thought Hitler was such a big deal, so his judgment is open to question, even if he was accidentally correct on this occasion.
Cullen was a poet of the Harlem Renaissance, celebrated at the time but not so well remembered today.

Posted by: kevin at May 23, 2006 3:59 PM