On March 24, 1942, the first load of civilian evacuees, carrying small amounts of personal belongings, were transported to camps. Two-thirds of the internees were Nisei [nee' say], American citizens born to Japanese immigrant parents, whose rights were spelled out in the U.S. Constitution as it is for citizens of all races. The press sugarcoated the primitive camps as having "all the comforts of home" and reminded the evacuees that they entered camps "not as prisoners but free to work." Analysts believe that white entrepreneurs, envious of the Japanese-American success in farming, fishing, and manufacturing, pressed for this militaristic incarceration of their competitors and profited by their absence. Whatever the thinking of authorities, the government's attitude was made obvious by one overriding fact—camp guns were aimed inward at internees rather than outward at potential attackers.
Internment wrenched apart Asian communities and herded people from farms, ranches, and homes into ten hastily constructed internment camps in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and California. Left behind were homes and cars, businesses and personal belongings, most of which were never recovered from last-minute storage, bank repossession, or abandonment. Ahead lay barbed wire compounds with guardhouses constructed at frequent intervals and cramped accommodations for eight to sixteen thousand detainees. Resembling army bases with barracks arranged in blocks, the ten camps began as an army project but were eventually placed under the War Relocation Authority.
The camps offered no play areas for children, who often scrounged seashells at Manzanar from a valley that was once an ocean. Although inmates lacked autonomy, life was made bearable at the dust-drenched Manzanar camp by a spirit of unity, which encouraged people to go on with learning, singing, gardening, exercise, visiting, and friendships. The Manzanar High School yearbooks record plays, chorus and orchestra performances, and musicals. Camp records list births as well as deaths.
The Rebels
Out of 120,000, only three Japanese-Americans refused to be badgered or to surrender their rights—Quaker pacifist Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi, a former Eagle Scout and honor student; Minoru Yasui, a Portland, Oregon, lawyer; and Fred Korematsu, a welder in the San Leandro, California, shipyards. The most adamant, Hirabayashi, remained true to his ideal that rights belong to all Americans, regardless of race or national heritage. Acting on the advice of a Quaker lawyer, Hirabayashi disobeyed curfews for Asians, then turned himself over to the FBI for refusing internment and breaking curfew. Hirabayashi drew a jail term. Other Japanese Americans ostracized him for rebelling.
On October 20, 1942, Hirabayashi went to trial, where the judge refused him due process on the issue of violation of civil rights and found him guilty of breaking the law. Hirabayashi, assured that an appeal to the Supreme Court would end mass internment, opted to go to prison. On June 21, 1943, he discovered that his supposition was faulty—the Supreme Court upheld internment as a necessary emergency measure in the interest of national security. Only Justice Frank Murphy dissented from the majority opinion by comparing internment to the Nazi oppression of Jews.
Justice Murphy's most famous civil rights stand came in 1944 with Korematsu v. United States, a case in which he labeled as racist the wartime internment of Japanese Americans. However, his support for Constitutional rights did not spare Hirabayashi from the injustice of internment, compounded by having to pay his own way to Camp Tule. It was only after Roosevelt's third election that pressure to release Japanese Americans brought about a rescinding of Executive Order 9066 and the release of internees who passed the loyalty tests.
The Japanese-American Warrior
While less flexible civilian Issei fought internal battles over family rights and loyalty oaths, 1,000 Nisei males signed up for military service. Young and inexperienced, Japanese-American soldiers, particularly those fluent in Japanese, proved vital to the war effort and earned more medals than any other unit. Although not advanced to ranks higher than sergeant, they served as teachers to intelligence officers and prepared plans so that a smooth occupation of Japan might end the war with a negligible loss of life to both the American military and civilian Japanese. The most valued of the Nisei were the Kibei [kee' bay], Japanese Americans who had trained in Japan and who knew the terrain, language, and customs well enough to pass for natives. The Kibei deciphered Japanese code and eavesdropped on Japanese radio transmissions. They translated intercepted documents, which detailed troop and convoy movements, ship locations, reinforcement strength, and direction of supply lines. Like Tokyo Rose, the Kibei established their own radio propaganda to weaken Japanese morale and expedite surrender.
For all their worth to the war effort, the Nisei, caught in the U.S. dilemma of need for expertise but doubts concerning loyalty, remained in limbo. They rebelled at their families' incarceration and protested the army's refusal to recognize Buddhism as a religion. When President Roosevelt visited a Kansas boot camp, the Nisei were held on the periphery at gunpoint until the president was safely out of harm's way. On the battlefield, the Nisei over-achieved because of a need to prove manhood, loyalty, and racial dignity. Officers kept Nisei soldiers together lest they be shot, accidentally or intentionally, by American fire. General Douglas MacArthur, who depended on Japanese-American aides during his negotiations with the Japanese high command, also kept Nisei intelligence officers close at hand during the tense days of disarmament.
At the end of the war, Nisei accomplishments went unsung. As demonstrated by a shameful incident in Hood River, Oregon, their names were censored from reports, honor rolls, public monuments, and recommendations for medals. They received no credit for shortening the war and saving lives. Although they were constantly in danger of being captured and tortured by the enemy, the Nisei proved to be superior linguists, sensitive interrogators, dependable leaders, and cunning improvisers. Without their humane intervention on Saipan, many civilians would have committed suicide to escape what they envisioned to be a dangerous insurgency of vengeful all-white American soldiers.
The Aftermath
The internment problem did not end with camp closures or the armistice with Japan, which was signed aboard the U.S.S. Missouri on August 15, 1945. Japanese Americans encountered a struggle in the marketplace as well as on the street. Returning without homes, businesses, or cash, many were destitute. They were also confronted by a Caucasian mindset that anyone with stereotypically Oriental features and a Japanese surname was suspect and therefore open game for prejudicial actions and harassment. In addition to the internees' fears and disillusion, families also faced the return of veterans, who reunited with their families at internment camps as though they were visiting prison inmates. Officially expunged September 4, 1975, as a gesture to outcries from internees, their children, Asian-American legislators, and other victims of racist injustice, Executive Order 9066 appeared to be a dead issue thirty-three years after the fact.
It was not until 1981 that Attorney Peter Irons began a rectifying process. Following disclosure of government documents attesting to the fact that Roosevelt's cabinet and the FBI were well aware that Japanese Americans had posed no threat, Irons pressed for national acknowledgement that the internment camps were a blatant denial of civil rights. The suppression of evidence exonerating internees from suspicion of disloyalty, espionage, or sabotage brought Gordon Hirabayashi back to the same courtroom, only this time flanked by sixty lawyers and Japanese-American supporters. Charging the U.S. government with misconduct and proclaiming that "ancestry is not a crime," Hirabayashi held firm to his rights until February 10, 1986, when he was cleared of guilt for refusing curfew and internment.
