Is That Legal?

Scores of newspapers and TV stations across the country are announcing that the US Congress has passed a bill to establish a $38 million program of National Park service grants to restore 10 Japanese internment camps. The preservation of internment sites is important not only to detainees and their descendants, but to the nation as a whole. What is the public reaction to this $38 million preservation bill?

Frankly, I am dismayed that congressional leaders did not have the good sense to specifically call out for preservation a single internment site where enemy aliens of all three ethnic groups, Germans, Italians, and Japanese were incarcerated. Instead the legislation identifies for preservation a list of 10 Japanese American relocation camps. If preserving history is the object of this $38 million program, certainly the public should demand that their money be spent to do just that.

The legislators who experienced internment first hand (Inouye, Matsui & Honda) have a special burden to internment history. More than other government insiders they understand the embarrassment, helplessness, and economic loss experienced by families of internment. In their role as legislators, certainly they have a responsibility to represent all victims of internment Japanese, German and Italian when preserving history. By preserving only Japanese internment sites Congress is reinforcing a false reality - that only those of Japanese ethnicity were interned during WWII. The fact is that approximately 15,000 Germans and Italians were victims of "selective" internment policy. This reality is lost to the public when all historical references are omitted from public discourse. The factual story of internment becomes irrelevant as the mythical story morphs into making perception reality. The $38 million question becomes is this bill to PRESERVE internment history or is it to REVISE internment history?

ELM: The bill does not just single out the 10 relocation centers; it also includes to-be-designated "sites of confinement" where Japanese and Japanese Americans were detained. These sites will presumably include locations such as Crystal City, TX, and Missoula, MT, where German and Italian aliens were also detained.

“So you are suggesting the "Trust Me" argument. Perhaps, you haven't noticed this hasn't worked out particularly well for European internees in the last 65 years. Regarding the recent camp preservation bill, more appropriate advice to European internees would be “So, What did you get it in writing?” Of course, the response is zilch, nada!

To emphasize the inequality of treatment that German American and Italian American Internees are subjected to, please note that three previously enacted bills were designed to memorialize and/or to preserve camps that were used for the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II-none of these include any site in which European Americans were interned. Furthermore, the following laws have been enacted which solely apply to former Japanese American internees: 1948: P.L. 80-886; 1951: P.L.82-116; 1952: P.L. 82-545; 1956: P.L. 84-673; 1960: P.L. 86-782; 1972: P.L. 92-603; 1978: P.L. 95-382; 1988: P.L. 100-383; and 1992: P.L. 102-371.

Each of these laws, by definition, excludes former German American and Italian American internees. So in contrast to your presumption, I have rather strong doubts that places like Crystal City, Ft. Lincoln, Ft. Missoula will memorialize anything but Japanese detention because only Japanese Americans are mentioned in the bill (actually Japanese aliens at these camps). How hard would it have been to include other ethnic groups in the bill? Will the exclusion of other ethnic groups ever stop?

Just imagine for a moment if the tables were turned and the preservation bill instead listed by name exclusively 10 European American internment sites with language that included to-be-designated sites of confinement where German Americans were detained. Perhaps, your presumptions might be different.

ELM: Yes, they might be. Of course, if the government had had a program of mass incarceration of American citizens of German or Italian ancestry in WWII, I imagine that those tables would indeed be turned.

The tragedy of internment, even today, is the fact that not one single victim of internment has prevailed in a court of law. Why is this a tragedy? Primarily, because we tout the fact that we are a country of laws where individual rights are protected by the constitution and the bill of rights. How many cases, other than Terry Schaivo, are you aware of where legislative bills are passed to protect only one person’s individual rights? As a group, Japanese Americans prevailed in obtaining redress through a legislative act. By the very nature of having to prevail by legislative act, the protection of individual rights will be limited because it will require group pressure on legislators. Isn’t the role of the constitution and the bill of rights to guarantee individual rights against the government? and isn’t the role of the courts to protect this? As we find our country once again at war, is it acceptable to “select” individuals and arrest and incarcerate them one by one because they are Muslim, just as long as we do not incarcerate them “en masse”? This is exactly what happened to Germans and Italians during WWII.

Consequently, I reject your argument that “quantity and timing” (en masse) is the critical factor in determining what internment camps should be preserved. The heinous acts of internment should be more about the story of the suspension of the rights of habeas corpus to “individuals” in time of war rather than an argument about dissecting what percentage of an ethnic group were arrested in massive roundups. The details of WWII internment policies against each ethnic group certainly did vary and they should rightfully be explored and publicized. The central argument, however, should not be obscured - internment was a violation of individual rights merely because civilians were the ethnicity of the enemy. But the foremost reason for preserving German and Italian internment camps is to give the public the following message - wake up Americans, stop being so complacent even as a member of the majority you might find yourself incarcerated one day.

ELM: I could not agree with you more strongly that the detention of a person purely on the basis of race or ancestry is wrong.

Thank you for the dialog.

Your Open Letter to the Members of the Institute for Political and International Studies of the Foreign Ministry of Iran on your home page, demonstrates your strong desire to know what happened to your Great Uncle Leopold and to discredit the “holocaust deniers“. What could be more understandable than your desire to protect the accurate history of the most despicable chapter in human history, the holocaust?

Isn’t the US government to an extent a “German internment denier”? Even Ellis Island, an existing national historic site that housed thousands of internees, is devoid of all facts regarding the history of German and Italian internment in the US. Similar to your interest in knowing what happened to Uncle Leopold, I would like to know what happened to my father, Werner during WWII. When you have a family member affected by poor government policy you become more passionate about preserving history accurately.

Unfortunately, since my father died when I was a child of six, I have so many unanswered questions Even my father’s history in the US military which includes his training at Camp Ritchie a military intelligence training center remains a mystery. All of his military files went up in a puff of smoke in an archival fire in the 70’s in St. Louis. All contact with my father’s German family ceased when my grandmother died one month after my father’s death in 1957. Most of us believe she died of heartache when her youngest son who she hadn’t seen since 1937 preceded her in death.

So, as our window of opportunity to preserve internment history narrows with the death of each actual victim of internment, I grow impatient with bills like the camp preservation bill where after 65 years all you have is fleeting “hope” that perhaps a German American site will be designated as a site of confinement in a $38 million preservation bill.

ELM: Understood, and understandable. I would imagine that there might be an "enemy alien" file on your father and/or his family at the National Archives in College Park, MD, in Record Group 60 (the Justice Department record group). Have you ever looked for that? The archivist who knows these records best is Fred Romanski. I have contact information for him should you need it. Email me privately if you do.

After watching the PBS program NOW in May of 2005 on the Guantanamo situation, I started questioning my father’s detention during WWII. I began to wonder how his legal status differed from the detainees. Once I started searching the internet and actually found information on non Japanese internment I have been obsessed with finding the truth. As a child, when I would tell friends, teachers, etc. that my father had been interned during WWII pretty much no one believed me. In the 80’s when the Japanese succeeded with redress, I never ever saw anything in print regarding German or Italian internment. Thus I was always under the impression that only a handful of Germans and Italians were incarcerated, never did I believe that in excess of 15,000 were incarcerated. Since my father died at such a young age and not that many years after WWII (1957), he never discussed his internment or his military service. Obviously, it was a dark chapter in his life that he wanted to forget. After the war, it appears he had two objectives - to get married and start a family, as he was so tired of being alone, and to bring his mother to America. Unfortunately, he died before he could bring his mother to America.

When I realized that I could file a freedom of information request for my father’s files I did so immediately, About 178 pages were released to our family. My siblings had mixed emotions about requesting the files they were fearful of what we might find. That was never an emotion I shared, I wanted the truth no matter what it was. The files were a gold mine of information. They detailed my father’s struggle to regain his freedom. But as many questions as the documents answered ten times more questions developed. Why was my father really removed from his ship in August of 1939? Was it because he was a seaman or was it because he was a “Standard Oil” seaman? Were Standard Oil’s connections with IG Farben the reason for my father’s incarceration? Why did Standard Oil pay him a stipend for 2 years to do nothing but live in New York City? Why did Standard Oil refuse to give him his passport when he succeeded in obtaining voluntary departure status? Why did the government rescind the voluntary departure granted? Was it an order by the DOJ as indicated by my father’s letters? If so, where is the document that ordered it? Why in May of 1941 were the seaman arrested and incarcerated at Ft. Lincoln months before a declared war? Was this legal under the provisions of the Geneva conventions? Didn’t the conventions require deportation back to the home country and actually prohibit incarceration? Did my father not get deported merely because he fought deportation? However, when has the desires of aliens mattered to the INS? In July of 1941 FDR closed the German embassy, did this close every avenue of legal recourse for my father? Then there was the biggest question of all - WAS MY FATHER A NAZI? All information points to a definite NO. You can not imagine the relief in confirming he was not a Nazi. But why did the government think he was a dangerous enemy alien? What altercations did he have with the Nazi’s in 1936 when he “spoke out against their despotism” that he feared for his life if deported to Germany? Why did he agree to train in military intelligence? Was it to be a POW interrogator at Camp Gordon Johnston? Why would he have been sent to Camp Ritchie, since the men who were assigned to Camp Ritchie were highly intelligent? He had an 8th grade education? What was his mind set when he entered the US military agreeing to fight against Germany even though his parents and brother still resided in Hamburg? Did he realize it was an act of treason? The questions go on and on.

Believe me I am all ears if you have some suggestions on researching the millions of questions that constantly run through my head. On several occasions I have written to Fred Romanski at NARA, I have requested Red Cross camp reports, correspondence logs from Ft. Lincoln, medical logs, Swiss Legation records etc. etc. Unfortunately, I received none of these materials. However, I did receive some documents and information regarding his class at Camp Ritchie that are extremely perplexing . For the most part the response from NARA has been “your requests are so extensive we recommend you personally visit the Archives to conduct your own search.” Since I reside on the west coast, it is not like I can hang out at the Archives once a week. Rather than personally visiting the Archives, I would prefer that to PRESERVE German internment history that a few researchers be assigned exclusively to assist families affected by internment. If they would make accessible documents, photos, logs, state department records etc., that explain this chapter of history, it would help both the families and the public. Do you think that will ever happen? I won’t hold my breath. It is probably more likely that I will be buying a plane ticket to visit the archives sometime in 2007, don’t you think?

ELM: Mr. Weiss, drop me a line privately at my email address: emuller at email dot unc dot edu. I get up to the archives in College Park a couple of times a year at least, and I know Mr. Romanski. I'd be happy to spend an hour or two doing a little digging to see what I can find about your dad.