Judgment Without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment During World War II

3. The Internment Process of the Justice and War Departments

3 The Internment Process of the Justice and War Departments N o one knew when the United States would enter the war, but many in the government believed the country was inevitably going to join in the fighting . By 1940, even though the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt had begun to aid its potential European allies, full-scale assistance efforts were constrained by the nation’s isolationist sentiments.1 No one could foresee the particular events that might effect a change of heart among those Americans who opposed American involvement in the war. The attack on Pearl Harbor, and arguably President Roosevelt’s oratory and charisma, proved sufficient for that reversal. The previous chapter described the process by which the United States identi- fied individuals and organizations for removal when the country finally entered the hostilities. Since different groups of foreign nationals on the mainland were arrested and removed from various locations and by an assortment of agencies, the following schematic overview may be of help to the reader. Figure 3.1 outlines the process by which the Justice and the War Department interned designated enemy aliens. Briefly put, the Federal Bureau of Investigation delivered those arrested to the Justice Department’s Immigration and Naturalization Service, which acted as the custodial agency, except in territorial areas controlled by the military. The ins usually kept the internees in temporary facilities, sometimes called “detention stations ,” until there were sufficient numbers assembled to transfer to detention camps. Immigration stations such as the ones in Seattle and San Francisco served as initial temporary facilities. Depending on the situation and locale, however, the ins also used city and county jails, hotels—such as the Hotel Franklin in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the Jung Hotel in New Orleans—and even places like the Up and Up Cafe in Havre, Montana. The ins transported internees with physical illnesses to hospitals and those few already in federal facilities to places such as the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas.2 At the detention camp, Issei internees were given a hearing, after which they were released, paroled, or kept for permanent internment. The army operated the initial internment camps; later, the internees were returned to the Department of Justice, which retained authority No No No No YES Yes, German and Italians Yes, Japanese Yes, German and Italians Yes, Japanese Yes, German and Italians Yes, Japanese Persons of German, Italian, and Japanese Ancestry, Males Arrests Dec. 7, 1941 EO 9066 Justice Department Detention Stations and Camps 1941 - 43 Justice Department Detention Stations and Camps 1943 - 47 Hearings Release Release Release WCCA / WRA U.S. Army Internment Camps 1942 - 43 WRA WRA Deportation Repatriation End of War fig. 3.1. Arrested German, Italian, and Japanese Male Nationals after December 7, 1941 over them until they were released, repatriated, deported, or expatriated (for some Nisei), or held until the war ended. This chapter highlights the imprisonment process that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor; that is, it covers the stages of arrest, detention, hearing, and transfer to an internment camp. My emphasis here is on the institutional features of the early internment process as the imprisonment organization undertook its preplanned actions. In addition, we will learn about the difficulties experienced by the Issei in dealing with the Justice Department hearings and by some Nisei who were caught in the imprisonment web. Let us start with one person’s experience. On December 7, 1941, just after sundown , Saburo Muraoka of Chula Vista, California, which is about ten miles south of San Diego, had finished Sunday dinner with his family when there was a knock at the front door. His visitors entered, said they were from the fbi, showed their badges, and told him he was under arrest. They offered no reason nor did they show him any warrant. Perusal of the fbi files on Muraoka now reveal that they could not have presented a warrant for his arrest because he had not yet been given a classification and was not on the fbi’s custodial detention list.3 Muraoka, however , had no way of knowing this at the time. Although Muraoka had heard radio reports of the Japanese navy’s attack on the U.S. military bases and fleet in Hawaii, he and his family had no idea that the incident would affect them in any way. He thought the attack would bring America into the...