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When the Empire of Nippon launched its massive attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941, Airman 1st Class Shigenori Nishikaichi was among the raiders, escorting a group of bombers in his Zero fighter. After two successful runs, the bombers were seeking further targets when, seemingly from nowhere, a flight of nine US air fighters attacked them. The US forces were flying P-36As, and were hugely outclassed by the Zeros. Despite the advantage of surprise, the US planes were quickly dispatched.
Nevertheless, one round had punctured the fuel tank of Shigenori Nishikaichi’s fighter, and he began losing fuel. That single bullet set into motion events that would eventually lead to United States interning more than one-hundred thousand people of Japanese heritage—despite their citizenship—in concentration camps for the remainder World War II.
As the Japanese pilot made his way back to the aircraft carrier, his injured plane fell behind. It soon became apparent that he would not be able to reach the carrier as it steamed away from Hawaii and back toward Japan. Instead he fell back on his emergency orders: he was to land on the uninhabited island of Niihau and wait on the north beach for an Imperial submarine to make rescue. On his first flyby however, he noticed a severe flaw in the plan. Contrary to Japan’s pre-attack intelligence, the tiny island was inhabited.
Choice of landing locations was sparse. On his second pass over Niihau, Nishukaichi located an area he considered suitable, and attempted landing near an isolated house. As he began to touch down, his plane became entangled in a wire fence which had gone unnoticed during his surveys from the air. The Zero went nose-first into the ground.
The island of Niihau had been sold by King Kamehameha V to the Robinson family, who retained control even in 1941. It was closed off to outsiders, but the native Niihauans and members of the Robinsons did live on the island raising cattle, sheep, and honey. One of the island residents, Hawaiian Howard Kaleohano, watched the plane crash, and being unaware of the nearby attack on the neighboring island, rushed out to help. The pilot emerged rather beaten and groggy. Kaleohano took the pilot’s papers and sidearm, and hefted him away from the wreck. Kaleohano was one of the few island residents to speak English, but Nishikaichi’s English was very rudimentary. A neighbor who’d been born in Japan was summoned to help. This first translator traded only a few words with the pilot before his face was cast in a pallor—like he’d received a terrible shock—and he refused to be part of the strange events.
Next called was Yoshio Harada. He’d been born in the Hawaiian Islands, and was thus a United States citizen. He and his wife, Irene, spoke both Japanese and English. Nichikaichi told the couple about the attack on Oahu, and demanded the return of his weapon and papers. His demands were refused. The Haradas didn’t share the news of the newly started war with the other islanders.
The islanders treated their guest to a luau. He ate well and even sang for his rescuers, unaware that his rescue sub had already been ordered to head back into the Pacific to intercept any incoming US ships.
By nightfall, however, the radio news informed the residents of Niihau about the day’s tragic events, and they took Nishikaichi into custody. For lack of proper jailing facilities, he was kept in the house of the luau host the first night. The next day Yoshio Harada escorted the captured pilot to Kii Landing to await the authorities.
Unbeknownst to them, the Navy had curtailed maritime traffic, preventing the Robinson family’s representative from reaching the island to pick up the prisoner. Over the next few days Nishikaichi played with Harada’s loyalties, pitting his citizenship against his heritage. Harada’s allegiance swayed, and over the course of the day the Japaneese-American Harada stole a pistol and a shotgun. That night the two men armed themselves and escaped the other guards. They returned to the house where the crashed Zero was located, but they didn’t find the house’s owner there—Kaleohano had been in the outhouse, and hid there when he saw them coming. The two fugitives tried to use the radio in the crashed plane, but after an unsuccessful attempt they walked back to the nearby house. As they returned, Kaleohano sprang from his hiding place and dashed away to make his escape. Nishikaichi fired at the fleeing Hawaiian, and missed.
Battle lines were drawn, with Nishikaichi and the Haradas on one side, and Kaleohano rallying residents to the other. In search of help, Kaleohano and a group of others started to row toward Kauai. Other islanders lit a signal fire atop Niihau’s highest point, Mount Paniau, which was visible from Kauai. Finally, the Robinson family representative received permission to make for Niihau.
On the night of 12 December, Nishikaichi and Harada stormed the town, and captured a small group of residents. The Japanese pilot demanded that Kaleohano be turned over to him. Though the islanders knew that the man had set off for a Kauai, they made a show of looking as a stalling tactic. When the moment presented itself, one of the captive islanders named Ben Kanahele spoke in Hawaiian, urging Harada to ask his Japanese cohort for a weapon. Harada did so, and once Nishikaichi handed over the shotgun, Kanahele rushed him.
Nishikaichi pulled his pistol from his boot and shot Ben Kanahele thrice— chest, hip, and groin— but it wasn’t enough to stop the enraged Hawaiian. He lifted Nishikaichi and threw him against a stone wall. Kanahele’s wife took up a stone, and began to stove in the pilot’s skull until her husband could get a knife and finish the man off. With defeat inevitable, Yoshio Harada turned the shotgun into his own gut, and fired.
Ben Kanahele recovered from his wounds. In August 1945 he was awarded two presidential citations, the Medal of Merit and the Purple Heart.
The incident spawned the Navy’s report that indicated a “likelihood that Japanese residents previously believed loyal to the United States may aid Japan.”. Irene Harada was imprisoned for her part in helping the pilot escape. President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the incident and subsequent naval report to rationalize Executive Order 9066, which was meant to allow local military commanders to designate “military areas” as “exclusion zones”, from which “any or all persons may be excluded.” It wasn’t two weeks before it was interpreted to allow the segregating of all people of Japanese descent from the west coast into concentration camps in the interior US. The actions of one man in a unique situation ultimately led the US government to imprison over 120,000 Japanese Americans, a shameful and unjust measure intended to protect the country from future betrayals.
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(a novelization of the events at Niihau)
I hope i am first
Most interesting — I’d read a bit about the internment, but never heard this story. But note: there’s a editing error: the paragraph that ends “…his own gut, and fired.” is duplicated (with a slightly modified opening sentence.
Jonathan Field said: “But note: there’s a editing error: the paragraph that ends “…his own gut, and fired.” is duplicated (with a slightly modified opening sentence.”
D’oh… that’s what we get for hurrying. It’s fixed now, thanks.
Wow, this is so DI!
One of the best kept secrets of World War II . Our own little US of A concentration camps. Who’d of thunk it?!
Very few people today knows about this, it’s not in your average school history books.
We have a place here in Tx. that was such a camp. Today it is a lovely lake in the posh side of town, with beautifuly groomed grounds and recreation buildings.
A friend of Japanese descent told me of his family (grandparents and young parents) being kept underground there in bunkers. These are hidden under the lake now.
Amazing how such an atrocity could be kept so secret.
But then again ,we still under estimate our goverments’ ability to “fool some of the people all of the time; all of the people some of the time and; everyone most of the time.” Thank you Alan for opening our eyes and explaining the origin of those camps.
I had always wondered what triggered such a shameful act of betrayal.
I don’t recall anyone trying to fool me or cover up the internment camps. As I recall all throughout my school years we taught about them several times and they were relayed a shameful part of out past but one to learn from. But I had never heard about this being event that caused them.
My grandfather-in-law was in the internment camps and was a “no no boy” (an internee who refused to serve in the armed forces during WWII) and who was drafted anyway to serve in Korea. I had learned about the interment in school and had read several novels about it, but had not heard about this incident. Although, it makes one wonder why Yoshio Harada was swayed so quickly. I’m thinking race relations being pretty crappy back then, Mr. Harada, despite being an American citizen was probably not treated fully as such by other Americans and maybe felt that no matter where he was born and how American he tried to be, he would never be treated as a full American. The Japanese internment only proved him right.
I am writing this of course, because my husband’s family has been in the United States for over 100 years, he speaks no Japanese, and is completely American. Despite those facts, a few weeks ago, someone looked at our 19 month old son and yelled, “Shut the fuck up you little chink, go back to China where you came from.” I don’t condone what Mr. Harada did, but I can only imagine that he experienced similar prejudice on a more regular basis, and a part of me can’t help, but be a little sympathetic. To feel compassion and empathy and to actually act out violently though, those are two different things. It’s too bad the US goverment couldn’t figure that out.
That and Honglien123’s post are, well, damn interesting. I didn’t learn about Japanese internment camps till well after school.
>> The actions of one man in a unique situation ultimately led the US government to imprison over 120,000 Japanese Americans, a shameful and unjust measure intended to protect the country from future betrayals.
And, yet, today: there are those roaming the streets who _cheer_ when they hear of American deaths in Iraq/Afghanistan, have been found-out sending monetary support over there, found recruiting operators in the USA, were VISIBLY CHEERING ON NETWORK TELEVISION during September 11th 2001, and have been found-out researching other targets on US soil.
Today’s politicians need to “grow some [spheroidal genitalia]” and reinstitute camps.
(/rant)
Yes, the concentration camps were some of the darkest times in U.S. history. Hehe, this world is so twisted sometimes. I know a Japanese lady who saw the flash when the Hiroshima nuclear bomb went off. She’s been living outside of Japan for quite a while now and her son is a proud U.S. Army Sergeant. This goes to show that you can’t classify people by “race”, we’re all Human Beings and that’s what counts. I just wish the separatist leaders around the world would realize that and command their “troops” to end the senseless bloodshed once and for all. Imagine how far we could advance Humanity if all wars ended today!
Stories of the Second World War never cease to amaze me. Aside from its tragic results, which all school should kids learn about, I’ve never heard of this one before (even after years of watching the history channels). Should be a movie (or at least an hour documentary). DI for sure!
solitas,
There already is such a camp to which you are refering, its on Guantanimo Bay. However, don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe everyone there should be set free.
Amazing, isn’t it ? Some people, because they have never heard of something think it is being kept secret from the public. DI story, for sure, but nothing I have not heard before. Old news, if you are old enough, I suppose.
BTW…..point of interest, perhaps. My uncle was on Pearl Harbor during the attack. He was MIA for three days. He said he was just doing his job (ambulance driver) and never knew he was missing until much later !
Hmm. A little revisionist history here. In fact, many of the great battles of the Pacific, including the battle of Midway, depended on no successful espionage activities by the Japanese on the West Coast. Although most Americans of Japanese descent were loyal, not all were. Not 100%. Ninety-nine percent would not have been good enough. Would Damn Interesting prefer that we had lost important naval battles just so that would could feel better about ourselves in some moral sense. Please. That is false morality. Yes, the situation was unfair. So what? Better than being stuck in an oven.
This was a very complex issue. It just doesn’t jive well with the ‘gotcha’ oomph of your journalistic impulses. Diggin’ ya down, here, DI.
@Grope: Wow. You know, I’m sure that ninety-nine percent of African -Americans are decent and loyal, but that’s not good enough! Lock them all up! Same goes with Latinos, Chinese, Indians, Eskimos… Only Caucasians can be trusted!
Being imprisoned due solely to one’s race is completely wrong, under ANY circumstances. Look up “racism” in a dictionary, dude.
“Next called was Yoshio Harada. He’d been born in the Hawaiian Islands, and was thus a United States citizen”.
That doesn’t sound right to me.
Hawaii was not admitted into the union until 1959.
The internment of Japanese Americans is hardly a secret but this little story is news to me. DI to be sure.
Re:honglien
I would be leery of attributing Mr. Harada’s actions to a backlash against oppression he faced as an immigrant. Niihau is about as culturally isolated as a place can be within the US, to this day you are only there if the Robinsons want you there. Mr. Harada was clearly accepted where he was, adopted into from the collective culture of the Japanese into the collectivist culture of the Hawaiians. This are people friendly enough to throw a party for the guy who crashes in their yard, I doubt they had hostile feelings towards the Haradas. I think what this comes down to is a case of a man choosing his first culture over his new one. Mr. Harada may have spoken English but its clear that he held to a Japanese moral and ethical system. He shouldn’t be faulted for this; one doesn’t just throw out the values that have been with their family for generations, especially for ones so foreign.
But in a time of war this causes quite the headache for any government that has to deal with these realities. Some people from certain cultures are more likely to hold strongest ties to their old country and may betray their new one for that and it seems like their isn’t they can do about it. If they use profiling people cry —-ism or if they did in-depth individual analysis of everyone without discrimination we’d cry ‘Big Brother’ and if they did nothing we’d complain about them not being proactive in protecting us.
So yeah, it sucks but before we rush to criticize lets keep it DI and play the counter-factual game: Being in mind the factors of the time, What would have been a feasible alternative to Japanese internment?
The story is news, but not the internment. Here in Idaho, an internment camp was in Minidoka, near Twin Falls, in the south-central part of the state, less than 200 miles from where I live. It’s a historical site and, I believe, maintained by the US Park Service. A few structures have been preserved and, lately, there has been quite a bit of action aimed at doing some archaeological excavations and more restoration work.
Here in Idaho, I think that we (at least those of us that are native Idahoans and over, say, 40) are a little sensitive to issues of racial prejudice, particularly because of the funny business that went on with the white supremacists in northern Idaho in the 80s and 90s. I suppose that’s a good thing – that sensitivity keeps the memory of Minidoka alive – and has led to a very nice black history museum as well.
As to the factors of the time, I remember asking my grandparents about the internment in the early 70s when I was ten or 11 years old. They remembered the camp and thought that it was a travesty. They had no problem referring to the Japanese as “Japs” and buying into the entire slant eyed, buck toothed caricature thing, but somehow that didn’t apply to the Japanese-American or Chinese-American people that they knew (and Boise had a pretty fair population of them at the time). At the time, I didn’t understand that much, but, looking back, it was a pretty interesting study on the pressures of society.
mwc said: “”Next called was Yoshio Harada. He’d been born in the Hawaiian Islands, and was thus a United States citizen”.
That doesn’t sound right to me.
Hawaii was not admitted into the union until 1959.”
Hawaii was a U.S. territory as of 30 April 1900, and residents (native-born or naturalized) of territories are citizens just as are residents of States.
A very interesting story, speaking as a Canadian we had the same abomination occur here. I can only imagine that the events on Niihau island also had a detrimental affect on Japanese-Canadians as well, as we seem to follow the US in many cases. I know that Canada also issued a formal apology with compensation in the 1980s after Ronald Reagan apologized in the US for the treatment of Japanese-Americans (not sure if money was involved in that case).
I can’t speak for the US but I know that one of the main causes of the internment in Canada was sheer jealousy and pandering for votes. Since most Japanese Canadians lived in British Columbia at the time the politicians from BC saw a chance to get more votes for ‘protecting’ their constituents from the ‘evils’ of the Japanese. In reality it was a money grab of the worst kind as many of their former neighbours and ‘friends’ profited greatly from the forced sale of their property. BC was also the root of a law which had banned ALL Asian immigration to Canada starting in the 1920s so it certainly met the qualifications necessary for the charge of racism. Interestingly Japanese internment in Canada occurred after the RCMP had told the Canadian government that there was no discernible Japanese spying activity, certainly nowhere near the amount that was present in other enemy communities across Canada. In these cases the spies were investigated and arrested or ‘turned’ by good solid (and generally legal) police work and intelligence. If people were improperly interned in those cases the number was in the dozens, not the thousands.
As far as what might have been done to uncover the potential spies within the Japanese community (if they existed), maybe DI could investigate how British Intelligence managed to keep the Germans guessing about the whereabouts and timing of the very successful D-Day invasions, even after the Allies invaded the Germans still didn’t know what was happening. I hardly think that American operations that occurred thousands of miles from the continental US were in any more danger of exposure than the world’s largest amphibious landing which was occurring a few dozen miles off the British coast.
That Japanese Americans were interned and German Americans were not, just doesn’t seem fair ;)
Makana said: “So yeah, it sucks but before we rush to criticize lets keep it DI and play the counter-factual game: Being in mind the factors of the time, What would have been a feasible alternative to Japanese internment?”
What should be a feasible alternative? To treat the issue the same way they treated the Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh; find fault with the individual not with his entire ethnic group. Of course, I’m using an example from a period after the event we’re discussing, but I fail to see how punishing an enitre community for the actions of a few wins any hearts and minds or increases security in any way.
solitas said:
Today’s politicians need to “grow some [spheroidal genitalia]” and reinstitute camps.
(/rant)”
While it is easy for us, with the clarity of hindsight, to call the Japanese internment an abomination(a belief I share) we must consider the events of the day, and the mindset of the times (this wasn’t too far away from a time when people shot at water towers because of a Halloween radio broadcast). While I have always felt that the way Japanese Americans were treated was terrible, I can understand how it happened. What truly appalls me is that such comments as the one quoted above can be made even after the lessons of yesterday are learned. I am glad to live in a country where people are free to express themselves in any peaceful manner. I may not agree with them, but I would never want to see them silenced.
gMac said: “I know that Canada also issued a formal apology with compensation in the 1980s after Ronald Reagan apologized in the US for the treatment of Japanese-Americans (not sure if money was involved in that case).”
I believe the monetary compensation to the Japanese-Americans was minimal (something on the order of a few hundred dollars per person, I think, but don’t quote me on this), not nearly enough to compensate for the loss of liberty, possessions, etc.
For all the injustices that the US commited like this, it is getting better over the long term.
The US committed genocide against the native tribes (not that they never did it against each other, they just weren’t as good at it) and forced people of a certain skin color into a life of slavery. The concentration camps really weren’t all that bad comepared to what came before, just like how Guantanamo isn’t as bad as forcing an entire ethnic group into concentration camps. Don’t get me wrong, the camps we have now are pretty horrid, but at least they’re more discriminate than targetting an entire race.
But ultimately, wiping out the Indians, slavery, the Japanese concentration camps, the wars that the US is involved in now, they were and still are done for economic reasons and socially justified with racism.
The first great loyalty scare was, in fact, with German immigrants, many of whom fought for the Kaiser in WWI and returned to the coal mines of Pennsylvania afterwards. We only focus on European-Americans’ attitudes towards non-Europeans these days, but rest assured that public outrage over their mixed loyalties was as great as that against the Japanese. Couple that with the early terrorist attacks committed by German Anarchists, and you’ve got a wholesale immigration scare, and not an illegitimate one.
It’s one thing to have a potential enemy living among you who looks different from you, but quite another if they’re identical. I suspect a lot of movies about “body snatchers” and the like grew from such insecurities.
For all of the moral preening of my contemporaries, remember: America was the first nation to open its doors to almost anyone, and quickly became the last refuge and best hope for those the rest of the world considered worthless scum. “Give me your tired, your…” No one knew if it was going to work, since many of the immigrants had been slaughtering each other in the Old World, and were influenced by political ideas antithetical to American-style constitutional democracy.
In WWII, Roosevelt remained neutral initially partly because he was uncertain of the loyalties of America’s huge German minority, many of whom were openly sympathetic with Hitler’s nationalistic claims. As opposed to hundreds of thousands of Japanese, there were tens of millions of Germans in America, and they could not be easily ignored, as they had significant political clout.
Am I the only one who remembers the old Three Stooges episode about the German-American spies?
solitas said: “And, yet, today: there are those roaming the streets who _cheer_ when they hear of American deaths in Iraq/Afghanistan, have been found-out sending monetary support over there, found recruiting operators in the USA, were VISIBLY CHEERING ON NETWORK TELEVISION during September 11th 2001, and have been found-out researching other targets on US soil.”
OK, I hear about this cheering part all the time, but I have yet to find a video clip of it. Can you link me a video to people in America cheering about this? All I can find are the ones in Palestine, which is not applicible.
Grope said: “Although most Americans of Japanese descent were loyal, not all were. Not 100%. Ninety-nine percent would not have been good enough. Would Damn Interesting prefer that we had lost important naval battles just so that would could feel better about ourselves in some moral sense. Please. That is false morality. Yes, the situation was unfair. So what?”
There were plenty of german spies in the country and yet the government did nothing to intern the german population. Were the germans inherently more trustworthy because of their round eyes? I don’t get it.
Basically what I’m trying to say is that making your security based on locking out people with some physical characteristic is a piss-poor security measure that only makes you think that you’re safe.
Lots of nasty stuff goes down in times of war. Afterward, we always say “never again”. But when you are in a life-and-death struggle, you do what you have to do. In 20-20 hindsight, some of those things might be considered mistakes.
And don’t kid yourselves, it’s always a matter of what “we” want vs. what “they” want. Whomever wins is right. If we like our culture, our values and our way of life, we have to decide to what extent we want to go to preserve them.
If the Germans and/or the Japanese had won WWII, our culture would be remarkably different than it is today. I think it would offend our liberal sensibilities, although 70 years later, maybe most of that would be gone by now. Something to think about as we face the prospect of a 7th century theocracy.
Anyone who paid attention in history class knows about the Japanese internment camps during WWII. It was indeed a shameful episode in our history.
This article is interesting because it does shed some light on why people were so paranoid. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Niihau there were only three ethnic Japanese on the island of Niihau, and all three of them tried to help the downed pilot in escaping despite the fact that they knew he had just attacked America! That 100% treason rate sure looked bad.
The general anti-Asian bias of the early 20th century certainly didn’t help, but it certainly wasn’t the sole reason for the internment – after all, we didn’t intern Chinese, we were friends and allies with the Chinese during WWII.
SparkyTWP said:
There were plenty of german spies in the country and yet the government did nothing to intern the german population. Were the germans inherently more trustworthy because of their round eyes? I don’t get it.
Basically what I’m trying to say is that making your security based on locking out people with some physical characteristic is a piss-poor security measure that only makes you think that you’re safe.”
Had germans been a readily, physically, apparent minority, this WOULD have happened. No question. The only reason it didnt is purely because it would have been impossible. But they could do it to Japanese immigrants.
I personally dont know how i feel about the internment. Part of me screams at the extreme injustice of it, but i also realize… What if it worked? That is the problem with precautionary measures like this. We can’t know what the effect would have been had it not occured. For all they knew at the time, Japan could have been sneaking in hundreds or thousands of “immigrants” that weren’t, in fact, immigrants.
We were in a war against two empires, on a scale that has never before, or since, been seen on this planet. Hard choices had to be made, some of which seem barbaric to us now, but how can we possibly judge them?
The main protagonist’s name “Nishikaichi” is misspelled in a few places in the article:
Nishukaichi, Nichikaichi
Also, there’s another very interesting corollary to this story…
Nishikaichi’s “Zero” plane will be reconstructed and put for display at the
upcoming exhibition called “Reconstructing Memories” at the:
University of Hawaii, Art Gallery
November 5 – December 13, 2006
And that’s not all…
On the anniversary of the Niihau incident (Dec. 13), this newly reconstructed version
of Nishikaichi’s “Zero” plane will be “ceremoniously burned” !
Read more info on this interesting story here :
http://online.sfsu.edu/~amkerner/memory/nakahashi.htm
Firstly, I must state that my knowledge of the internment of Japanese Americans is limited. However, that being said, I take issue with the use of the term “concentration camps” to describe the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War.
To my knowledge, concentration camps were the invention of the British in South Africa during the Boer War. The British interned Afrikaan civilians, and, due to starvation and disease, the death rates were high. Post World War Two the term concentration camp has certain connotations: medical experiments, starvation, brutality beyond belief, executions in the millions.
If the term concentration camps is to be applied to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, then can you please supply the statistics for medical experiments, starvation and executions. If no such events occured, then one cannot with all conscience use the term concentration camp with all the connotations attached to it.
It is common sense for a government to intern civilians if there is even the remotest chance that those civilians could retain allegiances to their former nation. How many immigrants retain either dual citizenship or do not become citizens at all? Their allegiance must be questioned. I do not have a problem with internment camps for those civilians.
There is of course, another reason to intern civilians whose allegiance is in doubt; for their own protection from a civilian population who could do them harm with a mob mentality or individually. At least under the protection of the government, said civilians had a better chance of surviving the war.
The article was, as can be expected on this site, very interesting. The only problem I have is with the choice of language. I understand that it is virtually impossible to write objectively on any topic, other than the recording of a scientific experiment I imagine, one cannot help but write subjectively.
As I stated, my knowledge is limited on this topic. If there were conditions in the internment camps to match the accepted connotations of the term concentration camp, I would appreciate being informed of the statistics.
Grope: I’m curious about your statement that this site is revising history and bringing up the topic of intelligence gathering by Japanese-Americans on the mainland. Just what are you implying is being revised (they give their sources at the end of the article, you give none and don’t specify which aspect of the article you are referring to), and where in the article is anything about intelligence gathering mentioned? The words I read in the article say that the executive order calls for the establishment of “military areas” and “exclusion zones” to not allow people of Japanese descent on the chance that they “may attempt to aid Japan.” I guess that could be interpreted as intelligence, but it also includes such things as sabotage.
ConcernedCitizen said: “@Grope: Wow. You know, I’m sure that ninety-nine percent of African -Americans are decent and loyal, but that’s not good enough! Lock them all up!
…
Only Caucasians can be trusted! “
(I know you were being sarcastic, but bear with me here) One counterclaim: John Walker Lindh. I guess all us caucasians gotta go in the pokey too. That leaves us with… the Antarctic-Americans?
Good article, Jason. (sure, Alan brought us the site, but you wrote the article! You get full points from me!)
People of German descent physically blended in more, there were more of them, and they as a population had been in America much longer. They “fit in” to American culture better.
In addition, people didn’t hate the Germans, they hated the Nazis. Japanese looked “different” and talked “different” and America had watched Hitler take over the minds and bodies of the citizens of Germany rather quickly. Germans in the states were outraged and upset about what was happening. People didn’t see the Japanese expressing the same outrage. (Was there outrage in the Japanese community? Could the media have done a better job?)
The decisions to inter the Japanese was made in DC, by a lot of easterners who never saw Japanese which further bred their distrust. I’m not saying it was right, but I bet these factors contributed to the “double standard” between the Japanese and Germans.
Arithon8 said: How many immigrants retain either dual citizenship or do not become citizens at all? Their allegiance must be questioned.
Seems an unfair standard, given that the Japanese immigrants of that time were not allowed to become citizens.
Arithon8 said: “How many immigrants retain either dual citizenship or do not become citizens at all? Their allegiance must be questioned. I do not have a problem with internment camps for those civilians.
“
Must it? With all the barriers (both legitimate and inane) thrown up in front of people trying to become citizens of another country (any country, including the U.S.), is it any wonder that many don’t gain citizenship? I’m speaking from personal experience here!
It’s a good point you make about internment for one’s own protection, but I still don’t think that mandatory internment for a whole demographic is right under any circumstance, at least not without due judicial recourse and major public oversight (hence why I have a Close Guantanamo bumper sticker).
During my enlistment in the USAF, I was stationed near Heart Mountain WY. At that time I never really took much notice until I stopped in looking for some off road trails. This was my first time I had ever know about the camps. A special rail spur was installed just to carry boxcars of people.
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/wy/heartmountain.html
Great article. The only comments I would make are pretty unoriginal, but anyway…
Actually, I think one additional reason German-Americans weren’t treated as badly as Japanese-Americans during WWII was that they HAD been treated similarly badly during WWI (not the same, but similarly). During WWI there was essentially a racist backlash against people of “Hun” ancestry. Many German-Americans changed the spelling of their names to make them appear more anglicized, for example my own surname “Fisher” was once spelled “Fischer,” but the C was dropped during WWI. Of course there was no mass internment of German-Americans during WWI but there was quite a bit of anti-German racist marketing done during WWI. I guess I’m suggesting that “Japs” were a more convenient target during WWII, and a new “anti-Hun” approach wouldn’t have been credible due to the previous WWI experience in which a much larger German-American population had proven loyalty through deed, etc.
Arithon8 said: “How many immigrants retain either dual citizenship or do not become citizens at all? Their allegiance must be questioned.”
There are a lot of people who have citizenship to another country just because of the fact that their parents were citizens. A lot of countries operate this way. I myself have dual citizenship even though I’ve never even applied for it and I was born in America. It’s given to you by default just because you’re born, no matter where it occured.
I would much rather intern/lock up people based on their actions rather than their implied loyalty/beliefs. If you have a person with dual citizenship, how can they prove to you that they’re loyal? Take an oath? Reounce their other citizenship? Sign some pledge? All of these mean nothing to someone who doesn’t have honorable intentions.
All of the inherent racism from these commentators is making this DI comments section appear more akin to a YouTube comments section.
DI
Drakvil said: “
Good article, Jason. (sure, Alan brought us the site, but you wrote the article! You get full points from me!)”
Thanks Drakvil for so politely making this clear; Sorry Jason about the unintended slight. Thank YOU for this article!
Makana said: “The internment of Japanese Americans is hardly a secret but this little story is news to me. DI to be sure.
So yeah, it sucks but before we rush to criticize lets keep it DI and play the counter-factual game: Being in mind the factors of the time, What would have been a feasible alternative to Japanese internment?”
I appreciate the opportunity you pose to ponder this. Hum…
cutterjohn said: “Had germans been a readily, physically, apparent minority, this WOULD have happened. No question. The only reason it didnt is purely because it would have been impossible. But they could do it to Japanese immigrants.
I personally dont know how i feel about the internment. Part of me screams at the extreme injustice of it, but i also realize… What if it worked? That is the problem with precautionary measures like this. We can’t know what the effect would have been had it not occured. For all they knew at the time, Japan could have been sneaking in hundreds or thousands of “immigrants” that weren’t, in fact, immigrants.
We were in a war against two empires, on a scale that has never before, or since, been seen on this planet. Hard choices had to be made, some of which seem barbaric to us now, but how can we possibly judge them?”
More to ponder. The comments always give me great food for thought. Thats why I love this site so much, it’s like [I]brain food[/I] LOL.
Does anyone else think it odd that the family who lived on this isolated tropical island should be named Robinson? (As in Swiss Family Robinson). I wonder if they had that awesome treehouse.
cerebulon said: ” I wonder if they had that awesome treehouse.”
I wonder if they had a butler named Friday?
SparkyTWP said: “There are a lot of people who have citizenship to another country just because of the fact that their parents were citizens. A lot of countries operate this way. I myself have dual citizenship even though I’ve never even applied for it and I was born in America. It’s given to you by default just because you’re born, no matter where it occured.”
I have a pair of cousins who have dual citizenship… one parent was Canadian, the other American. So even though they were born and raised in Canada, they both received dual citizenships (although they rarely do anything with their American citizenship – no point when they almost never come here). One even lives in asia now. The point is, there’s quite a lot of people nowadays with dual citizenship compared with previous generations. I guess governments see an advantage in claiming more citizens, even if it is by halves.
First off, great article. I’d heard about the internment camps, and I am ashamed that they ever occurred in a country that is supposed to be about protecting freedom, but I hadn’t heard about this particular incident that helped bring them about.
solitas said: “And, yet, today: there are those roaming the streets who _cheer_ when they hear of American deaths in Iraq/Afghanistan, have been found-out sending monetary support over there, found recruiting operators in the USA, were VISIBLY CHEERING ON NETWORK TELEVISION during September 11th 2001, and have been found-out researching other targets on US soil.
Today’s politicians need to “grow some [spheroidal genitalia]” and reinstitute camps.
(/rant)”
Yeesh! So much for free speech, eh? I sometimes find it hard hard to believe that people like this exist today.
Solitas, the point of free speech isn’t to protect popular speech, it’s to protect unpopular speech. I may not like it that some people supposedly cheered 9/11 (in the US? not that I’ve ever seen), but I’ll certainly defend their right to cheer. The right to free speech is in the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution, so I think the Founding Fathers thought that it’s a pretty important freedom to defend, and I agree.
Sending money overseas isn’t a crime either unless it’s used to support terrorism. Considering the state of many Middle East countries right now, sending money to help out the poor, sick, crippled, and homeless there is certainly not a bad thing. Perhaps you only meant for terrorism, but donations for that is a rare event and is already illegal, but your statement is so general it’s hard to be sure what you’re complaining about.
As for researching US targets, I still don’t see the crime, unless they had actually advanced plans to attack those targets. Just because a Muslim or a Saudi or whatever takes a home movie of the Empire State building or the Golden Gate Bridge doesn’t make him a terrorist or give anyone the right to lock them up.
I’m dismayed enough at the unjustified internment of people at Guantanamo with no trial or opportunity to defend themselves. Now you want to lock people up for things like cheering?
People like you make me think Benjamin Franklin was right when he said, “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” It doesn’t take “spheroidal genitalia” to fear people and lock them up, it takes “spheroidal genitalia” to accept that other people have the right to have a different opinion than you have, even if it’s an opinion you don’t like.
WOW!!! For all of those peeps who have never heard of the Allied Concentration Camps, (I say Allied as we did it up here in Canada too), all I can say is WOW!!! Either you were ALL hiding under a rock somewhere, or it just goes to show the sorry state of our schools these days (I am 40 but learned about the camps way way way back in grade 9). Hmmmmm…maybe the governments are specifically removing all references to it so when they finally decide to “intern” the Muslims, we will not have a problem with it.
History has shown us, history itself is written by the winner(s) of any war. German concentration camps bad…Allied concentration camps good…Mmmmka…How quickly we forget (or made to forget) our own atrocities…
DInterested said: “That Japanese Americans were interned and German Americans were not, just doesn’t seem fair ;)”
Not true. Both German-American and Italian-Americans were put into camps during the War.
http://www.serve.com/shea/germusa/itintern.htm
We had internment camps here in Canada too, and the Japanses in British Columbia were displaced to camps away from the coast.
Many settled in and around Taber Alberta after the war and became successful farmers and merchants.
We also had the same thing happen with the Ukranians during WW1.
Anyone who doesn’t know about the Camps hasn’t been paying attention. One often hears about them on the news and there even is a National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service here in California at the Manzanar Site (near Independence CA)
http://www.nps.gov/manz/
Never trust a bunny.
C#4Me said: “WOW!!! For all of those peeps who have never heard of the Allied Concentration Camps, (I say Allied as we did it up here in Canada too), all I can say is WOW!!! Either you were ALL hiding under a rock somewhere, or it just goes to show the sorry state of our schools these days (I am 40 but learned about the camps way way way back in grade 9). Hmmmmm…maybe the governments are specifically removing all references to it so when they finally decide to “intern” the Muslims, we will not have a problem with it.
History has shown us, history itself is written by the winner(s) of any war. German concentration camps bad…Allied concentration camps good…Mmmmka…How quickly we forget (or made to forget) our own atrocities…”
This is not directed towards C#4Me only, but to all who’s comments included veiled insult as to anothers “lack of education”. With out giving up my age (a ladys perogative) I remind you that this is the Information Age. The full disclosure and right to know acts, laws & bills, that enabled you to be allowed to learn this stuff are not so very old. Many having been inacted within the past 30 years or so.
With that said, perhaps you can understand the frustration and anger of those of us who now learn that much of what we were taught was BS, especialy things that we were taught in the name of patriotism of our beloved USA.
One did not burn our flag or wear it in those days. Censorship and book burnings were common place. One did not easily question that our goverment hadn’t the highest morals in the world. To have let the masses know that such a thing as this had happened Here, would have created a great deal of grief and awakening in a time of civil unrest, that our government was not prepared to deal with.
As for today, yes it is unsetling and grievious; but as several have asked, what are we to do? I certainly do not have the answers to this and I stongly doubt any one answer would ever be correct.
1c3d0g said: “Yes, the concentration camps were some of the darkest times in U.S. history. Hehe, this world is so twisted sometimes… I know a Japanese lady who saw the flash when the Hiroshima nuclear bomb went off. She’s been living outside of Japan for quite a while now and her son is a proud U.S. Army Sergeant. This goes to show that you can’t classify people by “race”, we’re all Human Beings and that’s what counts. I just wish the separatist leaders around the world would realize that and command their “troops” to end the senseless bloodshed once and for all. Imagine how far we could advance Humanity if all wars ended today!”
IMHO this is one of the wisest things said in this discussion.
(1c3d0g, even if you speak with tounge in cheek, you still play a mean game of bones. LOL..*;)
First of all, I agree with those of you who commented on how useful this article was. It really got me thinking and led me to look at a lot of areas of history that I “thought” I knew the facts. The comments, on both sides of the coin, have been equally informative and thought provoking, and again thanks.
This article leads us to believe that without the mentioned incident on Niihau, we would not have interned Japanese-Americans. I find that hard to accept. The nationalism which has dominated American foreign and domestic policy since almost the very beginning has led us to adopt similar measures throughout our brief history. Starting with the American Indians, placing them on “reservations”, uprooting them and detaining them against their will, continuing on with the South’s use of slaves long after most of the modern world had condemned it and right on through the already commented on treatment of German-Americans during WWI, American society has generally had negative feelings of some kind towards anyone who wasn’t white and spoke English with an American accent.
ConcernedCitizen said: “@Grope: Wow. You know, I’m sure that ninety-nine percent of African -Americans are decent and loyal, but that’s not good enough! Lock them all up! Same goes with Latinos, Chinese, Indians, Eskimos… Only Caucasians can be trusted!
Being imprisoned due solely to one’s race is completely wrong, under ANY circumstances. Look up “racism” in a dictionary, dude.”
Fortunately, there has always been a large number of Americans who have been willing to speak out against such behaviour, and today those Americans seem to be in the majority (unless the two peoples being targeted are Muslims and illegal aliens from south of the border). Great comment Concerned citizen!
Rinson Drei said: In WWII, Roosevelt remained neutral initially partly because he was uncertain of the loyalties of America’s huge German minority, many of whom were openly sympathetic with Hitler’s nationalistic claims. As opposed to hundreds of thousands of Japanese, there were tens of millions of Germans in America, and they could not be easily ignored, as they had significant political clout.”
Here i also beg to differ, Roosevelt wanted nothing more than to get the US in the War, almost disregarding the very neutral stance of the Congress and initiating Lend Lease with Great Britian. He also knew that entrance into WWII would be the final kick to get the nation out of the Great Depression. Some even go as far as accusing Roosevelt of “encouraging” the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor. http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/pearl.html or Robert B. Stinnett’s “Day of Deceit”. Roosevelt was aware and a bit worried about the Charles Lindbergh type Germanophiles of the 30’s, but that was not a major factor in his inability to get the US in the war sooner.
debbiebf said: “In addition, people didn’t hate the Germans, they hated the Nazis. Japanese looked “different” and talked “different” and America had watched Hitler take over the minds and bodies of the citizens of Germany rather quickly. Germans in the states were outraged and upset about what was happening. People didn’t see the Japanese expressing the same outrage. (Was there outrage in the Japanese community? Could the media have done a better job?) “
Great points, today we refer to the Nazis much more than the Japanese. But back in 1941, it was Japan was dared attack America, and it was Japan who was a threat to invade the West Coast. Germany was definitely our enemy, but they were fighting “over there” and not a real threat to US soil.
Lastly, the association of “concentration camps” as the word is used post Nazis has very little to do with the camps where the Japanese Americans were held. I say this NOT to justify the forced uprooting and detention of law abiding citizens, as for this there can be no excuse. Rather, I say this to point out a very clear distinction, as there have been “concentration camps” for well over 100 years now, with most historians crediting the Brits during the Boer War in South Africa for giving us that “invention.” As wrong as they were then and remain today, the intention was one of regulation and control, not death. Only the Nazis, Russians and recently the Serbs, Croats, etc. have turned them into death camps.
Lastly, the association of “concentration camps” as the word is used post Nazis has very little to do with the camps where the Japanese Americans were held. I say this NOT to justify the forced uprooting and detention of law abiding citizens, as for this there can be no excuse. Rather, I say this to point out a very clear distinction, as there have been “concentration camps” for well over 100 years now, with most historians crediting the Brits during the Boer War in South Africa for giving us that “invention.” As wrong as they were then and remain today, the intention was one of regulation and control, not death. Only the Nazis, Russians and recently the Serbs, Croats, etc. have turned them into death camps.”
I am at the culmination of my Criminal Justice program and this case has come up quite a few times. I have heard legal sides defend and attack the justifications of removing Japanese citizens. But I agree that the term Concentration Camps is ubsurd in this instance. These peoples were treated humanely and were merely inconvenienced when they were assessed. Furthermore, they did recieve some sort of compensation for their role. When it comes to War and defending our country, rights MUST be sacrificed if necessary. No one should like that rights are taken away but they must understand why. Anyone who simply says “no” can not truly understand what is at stake here. A lucid, well written article as well as response from A Briggs.
quote: “Nishikaichi’s “Zero” plane will be reconstructed and put for display at the
upcoming exhibition called “Reconstructing Memories” at the:
University of Hawaii, Art Gallery
November 5 – December 13, 2006″
We recently had a presentation from a representative of the newly-opened Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor (http://www.pacificaviationmuseum.org). She told us this story (was the first I’d heard of it) and said that what remains of the Zero (mostly unrecognizable rusted pieces) was on loan from the Robinson family and would be on display at the Museum.
I plan to get down there one of these days to check it out.
My grandfather (a Japanese Canadian) was interned during WW2 in Canada. The Canadian government was a lot harsher on the Japanese than the Americans were. They separated the children from the adults, sold all the land and businesses the Japanese owned, and put them to hard labor. All the children were kept together in schools where they were taught mostly by christians that were sympathetic to the plight of the Japanese. It is quite a story.
I wasn’t aware that this incident was the cause of the internship in America. Although I’m sure it played a role in Canada’s Japanese internment camps, the main reason in Canada was because so many Japanese Canadians worked in the fishing industry off the coast of British Columbia, and the public was concerned that they might be charting the coastline to help in a Japanese invasion.
Great article, it has inspired me to blog my grandfathers story on my site.
The following website may enlighten some of you about the array of groups placed in internment camps in the U.S. Germans and Italians were also placed in internment camps in the U.S. during wwII: http://www.serve.com/shea/germusa/itintern.htm
http://www.sitnews.us/1206news/120506/120506_shns_internment.html
Here is another website that discusses the internment of Alaska Natives!!!
Actually, I think one additional reason German-Americans weren’t treated as badly as Japanese-Americans during WWII was that they HAD been treated similarly badly during WWI (not the same, but similarly). During WWI there was essentially a racist backlash against people of “Hun” ancestry. Many German-Americans changed the spelling of their names to make them appear more anglicized, for example my own surname “Fisher” was once spelled “Fischer,” but the C was dropped during WWI. Of course there was no mass internment of German-Americans during WWI but there was quite a bit of anti-German racist marketing done during WWI. I guess I’m suggesting that “Japs” were a more convenient target during WWII, and a new “anti-Hun” approach wouldn’t have been credible due to the previous WWI experience in which a much larger German-American population had proven loyalty through deed, etc.”
Don’t forget that many German Americans Repatriated and fought in the war against Americans.
I am 25 and in my High School US History class we learned all about the camps, but not this incident.
Article: ” shameful and unjust measure intended to protect the country from future betrayals.
I’m not sure how shameful and unjust this was. If a US citizen of Japanese descent could turn on the U.S. THE SAME DAY the Japanese attacked…wouldn’t you figure quite a few more would do it over the course of the war with Japan?
Seems justified to me. It’s war, that sorta stuff happens.
you asked about how the Brits kept D-Day hidden – well mainly because it was a US-led operation Dwight Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces. they deceived hitler by convincing him the landing would be much farther north and fed a lot of false info and code names to his spies.
“That Japanese Americans were interned and German Americans were not, just doesn’t seem fair ;)”
The ignorance of this should be expected I guess, given the tenor of the discourse…but fact of the matter is both Italian AND German American Citizens were stuck in camps EXACTLY like the Japanese. In fact, they were set up in many cases side by side with POW Camps.
I know, I had relatives there. Displaced from the East Coast to camps in the interior they hated the fact that a common perimeter fence encircled the common Internment/POW camp. They saw the German Military Prisoners on the other side of the fence as the reason for their malady.
Italians and Germans moved on. Japanese got a few congressmen to continue whining until they got a payout. Welcome to political correctness.
When I didn’t know, and what I fnd the most offense pave is that despite massive “educational efforts” this story of even a single incident of rationale behind the Japanese Internment Camps seems to be missing.
It’s typical “American Bashing” agenda: cast the actions in the worst possible light. Despite knowing about this for 30+ years! this is the first time I can recall anybody mentioning an actual incident where a Japanese-American aided the enemy per dating the internment order.
In that light, the spark of hysteria makes FAR more sense other than some sanitary report from an intelligence agency (the way it’s always relayed).
They mention the Rombinson island incident and intelligence agency over reaction, fine & truthful.
What we get from the entrenched special interest victimology circus: hogwash, only partially relaying tihe whole truth of what happened!
Though not to the extent of Japanese Americans, both Italian and German ethnics on the east coast were interned.
There WERE sympathizers in the Japanese AND the Germans for the axis during that war. Look at the NAZI meetings at Madison Square Garden by the American Bund. Reparations WERE paid by this country which is a HELL OF A LOT MORE than I can say about Japan and Germany !!
Although not taught in schools, there were Japanese spies in the U.S. before and during World War Two, just as we had spies in Japan before the war.
Microsoft News had an article this morning about Nishikaichi. The patriots were not mentioned.
This DI article is far superior.