Emergency Presidential Power: From the Drafting of the Constitution to the War on Terror

6 - The Internment of Japanese Americans During World War II

82 6 the intern­ ment of jap­ a­ nese ­ americans dur­ ing world war ii As ­ Americans on the East Coast wor­ ried about land­ ings by Ger­ man sab­ o­ teurs, ­ Americans on the West Coast wor­ ried about a pos­ sible in­ va­ sion and won­ dered ­ whether they had to fear Jap­ a­ nese­ Americans who might ally with the in­ vad­ ing enemy. ­ Elected of­ fi­ cials, in­ clud­ ing Earl War­ ren, who was then ­ California’s at­ tor­ ney gen­ eral, began speak­ ing of “re­ lo­ cat­ ing” peo­ ple of Jap­ a­ nese de­ scent into the inter­ ior of the coun­ try, where they could not as­ sist po­ ten­ tial in­ vad­ ers.1 While the ­ threat of Jap­ a­ nese at­ tack and per­ haps even in­ va­ sion was based in part on the re­ al­ ity of the at­ tack on Pearl Har­ bor,2 con­ cerns about Jap­ a­ nese ­ Americans were based on gen­ er­ al­ ized fears, not spe­ cific proof. As David Cole notes, “there was never any ev­ i­ dence to sup­ port the con­ cern that the Jap­ a­ nese [Americans] liv­ ing [in the ­ United ­ States] posed a ­ threat.”3 In fact, like other ­ Americans, Jap­ a­ nese ­ Americans ­ rushed to en­ list in the U.S. mil­ i­ tary after Pearl Har­ bor.4 How­ ever, long­ stand­ ing prej­ u­ dice ul­ ti­ mately led to the intern­ ment of more than 100,000 Jap­ a­ nese ­ Americans. In order to under­ stand how and why Jap­ a­ nese ­ Americans on the west coast were ­ interned dur­ ing World War II, it is im­ por­ tant to under­ stand the his­ tory that pre­ dates the war. When Jap­ a­ nese im­ mi­ grants first came to the ­ United ­ States in the late nine­ teenth cen­ tury, they did not face the full fury of na­ ti­ vist prej­ u­ dices—­ partly, per­ haps, be­ cause they were con­ fused with Chi­ nese im­ mi­ grants, who had pre­ ceded Jap­ a­ nese im­ mi­ grants to the­ United ­ States and were in­ itially the focus of ugly prej­ u­ dice and stereo­ typ­ ing that de­ scribed them as a “yel­ low peril” bent on over­ run­ ning the West Coast.5 How­ ever, by the turn of the cen­ tury, ­ anti-immigrant ac­ ti­ vists were 83 the internment of japanese americans during world war ii mak­ ing room for an­ i­ mus di­ rected spe­ cif­i­ cally ­ against Jap­ a­ nese ­ Americans. Na­ ti­ vists ­ claimed that new­ com­ ers from Japan would ac­ cept low wages that would drive down the in­ come of white ­ Americans, and they sug­ gested that Jap­ a­ nese ­ American men might de­ flower Cau­ ca­ sian women and girls.6 By the 1890s, the de­ rog­ a­ tory term “Jap” was used to de­ scribe Jap­ a­ nese ­ Ameri­ cans , and, by the 1920s, a sur­ vey of Cal­ i­ for­ nia high ­ school stu­ dents and col­ lege fresh­ men found more dis­ taste for Jap­ a­ nese than Chi­ nese im­ mi­ grants, with Jap­ a­ nese ­ Americans seen as “dis­ hon­ est, ­ tricky and treach­ er­ ous.”7 As Japan ­ emerged as a world power in the early twen­ ti­ eth cen­ tury, fear of and prej­ u­ dice ­ against Jap­ a­ nese ­ Americans in­ ten­ sified and found ex­ pres­ sion in the law.8 In 1906, the San Fran­ cisco ­ school board re­ quired Jap­ a­ nese­ American stu­ dents to at­ tend a seg­ re­ gated ­ school pre­ vi­ ously used for Chi­ nese ­ Americans. In 1907, Pres­ i­ dent Theo­ dore Roose­ velt con­ vinced the­ school board to re­ con­ sider its de­ ci­ sion9 in ex­ change for his nego­ ti­ a­ tion of a­ so-called ­ Gentleman’s Agree­ ment with Japan that lim­ ited fur­ ther im­ mi­ gra­ tion to the ­ United ­ States. In 1913, Cal­ i­ for­ nia law­ mak­ ers en­ acted the Alien Land Act, which pro­ hib­ ited ­ first-generation Jap­ a­ nese ­ Americans or “Issei” born out­ side the ­ United ­ States from pur­ chas­ ing ad­ di­ tional land.10 Many had al­ ready es­ tab­ lished suc­ cess­ ful farms in Cal­ i­ for­ nia and were seen as­ threats to white farm­ ers. ­ Eleven years later, Con­ gress...