Treatment of Japanese Americans, Japanese Latin Americans and Japanese Canadians

Crystal City, TX

Where most Japanese Latin American internees ended up.

Korematsu vs. U.S. (1944)

• Facts of the case

• Decision calculus of the SCOTUS

• Reopening the case 1983

• Legacy

  Effects:

  • $500M in yearly income GONE

  • $70M in farms and equipment GONE

  • $35M in ag products GONE

  • lifetime savings no one calculated GONE

  • Constitutional rights especially the 5th & 14th Amendment STRIPPED

  • $20,000 paid to each survivor in 1989-1990)

Japanese Canadian Internment

• Similarities to U.S.

  • A military zone was created in British Columbia (Rockies to sea), and ALL persons of Japanese descent were excluded

  • There was a long history of racism against Japanese LONG BEFORE the war

  • The horrifying attack on Pearl Harbor starts the process, AND the loss of the entire Canadian garrison in Hong Kong over Christmas 1941

  • Internment is decided RIGHT AFTER (Feb 24, 1942) Excutive Order 9066 is signed in the USA (Feb 19,1942)

  • eventually Canada compensates survivors 2/ $21,000 in the late 1980s

• Differences from U.S.

  • At first, men were taken to work camps, separated from their families

  • Although housed, they had to pay for their own internment

  • MUCH MORE resistance

  • Around 4,000 were forcibly deported back to Japan at the end of the war

  • Both Nisei and Issei are excluded from military service for the ENTIRE WAR (it would have allowed them to vote…)

  • There were less of a propaganda effort to make this palatable to the Canadian people - less justification

  • These people were required to register with the government in the Spring of 1941 (months before PH)

  • First internees (men of military age) are removed from BC on Jan 14th, 2024

  • On Feb 24, 1942 - the Canadian Parliament VOTES to remove these people

  • Evacuation of ALL persons begins on March 4

  • For the most part, there is NO FORMAL EDUCATION provided for kids in the camps

  • Food and education was mostly provided by PRIVATE CHARITIES, not he government

  • Conditions in the camps were FAR WORSE in Canada than in the USA - more poorly constructed and a colder climate

  • After PH but before internment, Canadian citizens terrorized Japanese communities - this largely did not happen in the USA

  • ALL internees were BANNED from British Columbia until 1949

Why intern ALL Japanese Americans?

• Anyone left after May is first taken to race tracks until the camps are built

• Half were under 20 years old

• hardly anyone chose to return to Japan even after the war

• by 1943, the USA armed forces began accepting volunteers for service

• Ex Parte Endo (1944) SCOTUS case that forced the closing of te camps

Executive Order #9066 - February 19, 1942

• Grants the Secretary of War permission to create Military Zones

• Anyone deemed a threat to national security could be excluded from these zones

• NO MENTION of Japan or Japanese Americans

The Munson Report

released (not publicly) in November of 1941

• Studied the “Japanese Problem” on the West Coast

• Overall Conclusion - there is no real problem. Most Japanese Americans are loyal to the USA

internment

imprisoning people for political or military reasons

Issei

1st generation Japanese immigrants. Born in Japan

Nisei

2nd generation Japanese immigrants. Born and educated in the USA

Sansei

Children of the Nisei, 3rd generation

WRA

War Relocation Authority

US Japanese population and percentage of Japanese who are a threat

• HOWEVER: each‘Naval District has about 200-250 Japanese Americans that the FBI is monitoring

• Around 50-60 of those are actually considered dangerous and are under surveillance

• In all, there are more than 110,000 persons of Japanese descent living on the West Coast

Why does the US get Latin Americas Japanese to put in internment

The Good Neighbor Policy is in effect, so when the USA pressures these countries to send these people, they do

Why did the US want Latin America’s Japanese

were intended to be used ad bargaining chips with Japan to exchange for American POW

How were the internment camps for Japanese Latin Americans run/set up

• The camps are run by the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) (predecessor to ICE)

• Conditions in the camps were FAR BETTER than other internment camps: solid structures, running water, privacy, etc…

Fred's case: it is wrong for an entire population to be able to be put in internment camps without any type of due process

significance of his trial: for the first time raised the central issue and that was whether or not the internment was constitutional

supreme court said it was constitutional (the decision was overturned 39 years later)

Pearl Harbor: December 7th, 1941

Japanese are traditionally very hardworking and have their children help them work which made them very successful in business & economy

people saw US's entrance into the war & pearl harbor as an opportunity to discriminate more overtly against Japanese (added benefit (sometimes even the main reason) was that this would eliminate business competition)  

Executive Order 9066 (signed February 19, 1942):

-Why: stop Japanese Americans from helping Japan if they attacked US mainland

-Want did it do: exclude Japanese Americans from the West coast and place them in internment camps

-technical terminology: authorized the Secretary of War to designate military areas and exclude any or all persons from those areas

Fred doesn't leave with the rest of his family cause he wants to stay with his white girlfriend 

got plastic surgery and changed his name

ended up getting found out and arrested

ACLU had been looking for a test case and Fred was perfect

argument: Japanese when being denied their constitutional rights on the basis of being Japanese

government's argument: it was military necessity for Japanese Americans to be evacuated because of the threat of espionage/sabotage & it's limited to Japanese Americans (not really any Germans for example) because of their racial characteristics ('they belong to an enemy race')

even though ACLU paid Fred's bail Fred have to go to an internment camp

JACL was opposed to fighting back against, even on constitutional grounds, what was happening (so they weren't happy about Fred)

Fred and JACL say themselves as Americans and thought they were doing what an American would do

ACLU didn't normally do direct representation and the board members discouraged it  because they didn't want to seem soft during the war

other Japanese Americans in the internment camp didn't like Fred

Plessy v Ferguson was in effect at the  time

in this case it was either racism or military necessity and the military says it is military necessity so it is cause we believe them

reopened 1983

there is documentary proof the government's side lied and withheld things during the trial

said evidence was about the idea that espionage was occurring and there was none

even though Fred won and he is no longer convicted and the supreme courts opinions have been discredited that principal that originally won is still present