In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

103 Chapter 10 Prison Meditations Pursuing his study of Negro-owned newspapers, Westbrook Pegler notes that some few are “excited about the arbitrary deportation of Japanese and native Americans of Japanese ancestry from military areas of the Pacific Coast” (June 4, 1942; quoted in “Views & Views,” George S. Schuyler, Los Angeles Negro Daily, 6 June 1942). Pegler quotes from two who ask why citizens of German and Italian ancestry have not been similarly deported. He alleged that “some American natives of Japanese birth were traitorous spies who helped a treacherous enemy slaughter our people at Pearl Harbor and that many [Nisei] children were educated by their parents to be Japanese , not Americans.” He excuses the government’s drastic tearing up of the Bill of Rights in this instance by citing its “alarm or fear and military urgency.” Regarding Racism Negroes and Indians have often been run off their land and penned in virtual concentration camps. This is the first instance in modern American history of enforced mass migration. The Founding Fathers clearly saw the possible dangers, and they erected the safeguard of the Bill of Rights and the Civil War amendments as protection against such arbitrary actions. It is the evil from which the European ancestors of our present patriots fled. If this is to be the new order here, then the war is already lost so far as democracy is concerned. 104 Prison Meditations What evidence is there that Japanese residents or citizens of Nipponese ancestry constituted any “dangerous military problem” except in the minds of alarmists? None whatsoever. In contrast to these largely peaceful and patriotic Japanese are the Italian Americans with their numerous Fascist leagues and the German Americans with their bunds. It seems to me that all of these Nazi-Fascists should be incarcerated rather than citizens against whom no charges of disloyalty can be substantiated. Pegler declares that deporting all Americans of Italian and German ancestry would cripple our army, navy, and war industries. But is that a sound reason for discriminating against Japanese Americans? Is there any basis for this except a racial one? I think the average intelligent Negro confronted with the “problem ” on the Pacific Coast would have told the prejudiced white competitors of the Japanese Americans to go jump in the sea. Guided himself by the Bill of Rights, he would have assumed every citizen to be innocent until proven guilty, regardless of color. If the Constitution can be tossed aside expediently whenever those in authority choose, then democracy is already dead and our struggle on its behalf is pointless. Regarding Democracy President Franklin D. Roosevelt, June 4, 1942—“We are fighting as our fathers have tonight, to uphold the doctrine that all men are created equal in the sight of God.” July 4th, 1942, King County Jail—One hundred and sixty-six years ago today, a band of earnest and far-seeing individuals drafted and signed a document: the Declaration of Independence. Because of their vision and conviction, we, the people of these United States, have made tremendous advancements in the liberation of mankind from political, social, economic, and religious slavery. There are yet many bridges to cross, many highways to build and to travel. We have only begun our quest toward the realization of the free expressions of man and life. Even in our progress, we have had our ups and downs. We often Prison Meditations 105 lapse, even openly, into economic totalitarianism. We have had political , economic, and social discrimination against the Negroes since their beginnings here. In spite of constitutional guarantees, greed, selfishness, and insecurity lead us to fall short in the practice. Today, in our remembrance of the Day of Independence, there is a dark shadow signifying our shortcomings. Through hysteria and the spread of war psychosis, 113,000 people of “Japanese descent, both alien and non-alien” are confined behind barbed wire and armed guards as prisoners of war. Notice how they are classified—“both alien and non-alien”—a total and deliberate evasion of the recognition that over 60 percent of those confined are native-born American citizens of respectable standing. Descent has taken priority over citizenship. American citizens are being held prisoners by their own government. They are told that to be prisoners is the patriotic thing to do. What shattering of their democratic vision, what a jolt to their social and psychological status as citizens. Tragedy of tragedies, their only crime is that of descent. But even though this is America, these things...

Share