"OUR TESTAMENT TO DEMOCRACY" THE DECEPTION OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMENT IN WORLD WAR II By Laura Sorvetti

My comments will be in [ ].

Introduction

"Let us have faith, and build here in Manzanar our testament to democracy, a system so perfect that other Americans may emulate it in years to come." -Manzanar Free Press, July 17, 1943

The incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans between 1942 and 1945 on the West Coast was the result of a deception on several fronts through a variety of conduits. The United States government and press were complicit in presenting a portrait of Japanese American incarceration that defended a certain necessity and justification of their policy.

[Think for a moment of the scale of what was done. 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of which were actually full American citizens, were gathered up and their houses ransacked without any warrants, with a minimum of actual arrrests and with no access to an attorney. They were generally given less than two weeks to settle all their business, which included selling their homes and businesses, dropping out of their local schools, sell their furniture and other items, usually receiving a pittance for them, many later having to live in horse stalls then moved on to desert camps (except for one in Arkansas), living in one-room settlements with one light bulb and no running water. ]

Their deception took many forms but was most prominently captured in language and euphemism that reduced the experience of Japanese Americans to an acceptable necessity. Visual deception via photographs enabled Americans to incorporate a distinct visual legacy of the internment into the reports published by the government and journalism. The deception was also defined and maintained by Japanese Americans within the internment camps. America in the early twentieth century expected a mono-Americanism that demanded conformity. Most Japanese Americans followed the demands of the government, leaving everything familiar behind, relying on their belief in the ideals of American democracy. In order to prove their loyalty to their country and re-obtain their civil liberties, internees presented an image of their experiences that stressed American values and little criticism of the government or public.

[The government was incredibly lucky that this group of people were not prone to violence. In today's world my own guess is that trying to do this to a group of people would invoke a violence level never before seen in this country. The governmen also did not seem to consider what effect this would have propaganda-wise. Japan was not happy, to say the least.]

The legacy of this deception in regards to the internment camps has been hard to dispel among Americans. Not until the 1981 Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Personal Justice Denied, did the government argue that there was no certain "military necessity" demanding the incarceration of Japanese Americans. Many of the manuscript collections housed within government museums are selective in their presentation of the primary sources provided on the incarceration. Historians still debate the causes, ramifications, and meanings behind the experience.

[Even today, years after, there is at least one author if not more that holds the position that it really wasn't that bad for the persons of Japanese ancestry in the camps and the government did nothing very wrong.

Also, another thing to make clear hear. Various authors use the 120,000 figure and follow it with the term Japanese Americans. This is not really accurate as about one-third of them were Issei, first generation Japanese, and by law they were not allow to be given Amercan citizenship so, technically, 80,000 of them were American citizens, while the other 40,000 were legal immigrants but not citizens and could never be citizens, at least as of that time.]

The Linguistic Deception

The most powerful and lasting deception of Americans was the linguistic deception of the government and newspapers in the 1940s. Euphemism and language created a distorted impression and story of Japanese American incarceration that exists even into the twentieth century. These deceptions fit into a longer history of discrimination and exclusion of Asian Americans since immigration to the West Coast began in the late nineteenth century.

[She then goes into the history of the prejudice against Asiatics in the United States.

Language became an effective means of separating European Americans from Japanese immigrants, capitalizing on the physical differences that separated them. The Japanese immigrant was known as the "brown [or yellow] peril." Japanese were the Chinese immigrants' "half-dwarf neighbor," the "far more dangerous serfs from the empire of the Mikado." Racial and cultural stereotypes abounded, generalizing Japanese into a class of aliens that were all the same in their differences from other Americans. A leader in an Anti-Japanese League in Alameda in 1905 stated that "the Japanese is worse than the Chinese in [being a danger to white labor], for while the Chinese for the most part takes up work that a white man will not do, the Japanese enters into active competition and drives the white man out."

As war between Japan and the United States drew closer in the early 1940s journalists began to focus on a cultural legacy that excluded Japanese Americans from mainstream America and united them instead with Japan. Some newspapers recognized the Japanese terms for first and second generation Japanese Americans, Issei and Nisei respectively. Unfortunately, their main reasons for using the terms were to distinguish between what appeared to be inherently different Japanese and other Americans. For example, the Fresno Bee associated the Nisei not with their second generation counterparts born in the United States, but with their Japanese relations via their claim for dual citizenship in Japan and the United States. Japanese Americans of the Nisei generation who visited Japan or who had attended school in Japan, called Kibei, were especially investigated by the FBI for possible ties to Japan. The terms that Japanese Americans used to define their generation would be turned into means of controlling and segregating by the United States government and public media.

[What many people overlooked at the time was that it was perfectly natural for immigrants from a particular country to live in clusters since these were the people they knew, the businesses they knew and the culture that they knew. Good or bad this was the approach of virtually ever voluntary immigrants into this county. Gradually, they would leave their ghetto-like arrangements and meld more into general society.

There was also prejudice against almost every group of immigrants. 'Irish need not apply' was a sign which was backed by the stereotype of the drunken Irishman. Italians were called wops and so it went. It takes a long time for immigrants to be seen as plain old Americans and not this or that culture.]

[She then talks about how the people from Japan were divided into pro-American and pro-Axis, and how the term Jap came to be used. By using such terms a situation is set up where any group could be seen as 'Us vs. Them.' This just ends up deepening the prejudice that is there and sets the cultures apart. Even now it's Us vs. Them as far as Blacks are concerned to many white people, allowing their prejudice against Blacks to continue as if that were something perfectly normal in stead of something that should have ended many decades ago.]

The deception in words reached beyond the "us versus them" mentality of white American journalists,government, and public. The language of internment is still a debated issue that reflects on the lack of clarity regarding the true causes and realities of Japanese American incarceration. During World War II officials in the government and military used a number of euphemisms to describe their actions against people of Japanese ancestry that misconstrued the true meaning of the events. Historians and teachers today seek an agreement in whether or not to use the euphemistic words and phrases commonly used during the war or to replace them with language that may provide a more accurate representation of the past.

One of the most common euphemisms that limited the truth for Americans was that of"evacuation" and "evacuee."The first Japanese Americans to reach the internment camps were called by national newspapers "voluntary evacuees." Evacuation suggests the interpretation that these people were moved to inland areas for their own protection against angry protestors, but research suggests that the justification of protecting ethnic Japanese from vigilantes was a "lame explanation." Historians are beginning to replace evacuation with "exclusion" or "mass removal," which better explains the placement of thousands of people in remote and barren regions of the United States behind barbed wire and under the supervision of military personnel.

[This use of different terms even continues today. The actual camps are referred to as relocation centers, internment camps and even concentration camps, depending on who the author is.]

These euphemisms are part of a greater attempt by the government and the media to depict the internment camps as pleasant alternatives for evacuated civilians. The public exhibited growing concern at the possibility that internees were better off than the rest of the nation. Letters to editors of major and local newspapers question the lifestyle to be found at the camps, citing rumors of better pay, more foodstuffs that for other Americans had been rationed, or too much of a festive, laidback feel while the rest of the nation was hard at work. An editorial in the Los Angeles Times depicts this Widespread concern: "The Japs in these centers in the United States have been afforded the very best of treatment, together with food and living quarters far better than many of them ever knew before, and a minimum amount of restraint..." In reality, the living conditions for most interned at the camps was harsh and the treatment was roughshod at times and degrading. Thousands lost millions of dollars of property and possessions as a result of forced incarceration. These editors and the public spread a myth of internment that hid the realities of the program.

These types of articles totally overlooked the fact that the people in the camps were removed from their own homes and schools and lost their businesses and their personal property in a manner that was not legal at all. People overlooked the fact that these camps were in very unfriendly environments, that the 'fancy rooms' consisted of one light bulb, furniture they would make themselves from wood scraps lying around, food they were not used to, primitive school conditions and the like. ]

This deception was a necessary road for Americans to take in order to defend their support the incarceration of Japanese Americans. Government and media alike defended the action as a "military necessity" in order to protect both Japanese Americans and national security. Not until the 1980 publication of the findings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in Persona/Justice Denied was the defense of"military necessity" denied.The belief was so prevalent among Americans at the time and after the war in part because of the work of newspaper journalists. Stories of Japanese sabotage and violence against Americans were spread throughout national newspapers, and although they were proved to be rumors they were never discounted by the press. As a result, newspapers helped spread a belief of dangerous and treasonous Japanese Americans that would be hard to dispel during and after the war.

[The 'military necessity' argument didn't hold up for long as the Japanese made no major efforts at all to attack the West Coast and after the battle of Midway it was obvious that they no longer had the capability of pulling off such an attack.]

In addition, deception was important in maintaining a distinction between the actions and policies of the United States versus Germany and Japan. Americans were aware, to an extent, of the racial segregation in Nazi Germany of Jews in the 1940s. Reports from the Pacific attested to horrific mistreatment of Allied prisoners of war by Japanese troops. As a result, American newspapers and government officials were very clear in distinguishing between American and Axis concentration camps. In the first months of interning Japanese Americans in the camps the term "concentration camp" was used interchangeably with internment camp. However, the term quickly disappeared from newspapers as the relation to the German concentration camps came too close. In fact, the internment camps fit the description of concentration camps as prison camps outside the normal criminal justice system, designed to confine civilians for military or political purposes on the basis of race and ethnicity. However, historians still refrain from using the term "concentration camp" extensively because of its connection to the horrors of the German concentration camps.

[This is why I prefer the term 'internment camps.' There was nothing in American that even began to resemble the actual concentration camps run by the Nazis. The internment camps were bad, yes, but the actual concentration camps were pure evil.]

The camps were cited as successful "colonies" of alien and American Japanese. White administrators spoke to public hearings, white guests were invited to tour the camps on "Open House Days," and white educators were brought in to the camps to provide classes for students. At Manzanar the experimental cultivation of guayule, a potential substitute for the lack of access to Japanese controlled rubber sources in the Pacific, was lauded as a successful means of Japanese Americans proving their commitment to the war effort. Also at Manzanar workers wove hundreds of pounds of camouflage nets for the troops and their success met with similar public response.

But the reaction to the camps was not always consistently upbeat. When protest spread within internment camps, editors and journalists were quick to point out the necessity of the camps and their dangerous inmates. Americans who felt that Japanese internees were being treated too kindly attacked their opponents as treasonous abettors to the Japanese cause. As news of the Japanese treatment of Allied prisoners spread, more opponents felt justified in demanding harsher conditions for the internees.

However, the work and words of Japanese Americans in the camps eventually convinced some authorities to begin releasing internees to attend school and move to non-restricted areas and allowed some Nisei men to enlist in combat troops. Over half of the camps were released by 1945.

The Visual Deception

The deception extended beyond that of language and into the realm of the visual. Before the move to internment camps, newspapers and magazines employed photographs and cartoons in depicting Japanese and Japanese Americans as they saw fit. As an editorial cartoonist for the liberal New York newspaper PM Theodor Geisel (later known as Dr. Seuss) depicted all Japanese Americans as fifth-column traitors. The visual depiction of the Japanese abroad and Japanese Americans remained markedly similar throughout the war.

The War Relocation Administration (WRA), a civilian agency responsible for the relocation and internment of Japanese Americans during the war, hired several photographers to capture scenes from the internment camps. Photographs that the government and news agencies published depicted happy, Americanized Japanese Americans against the backdrop of majestic landscapes.These photographs successfully accompanied the written deceptions that positively portrayed the internment camp.

The Story Within

The goals of the Nisei in the internment camps led many to maintain and perpetuate the myths created by the government and media, staging the camps as positive and successful experiences for Japanese Americans. This second generation, citizens of the United States, grew up more as Americans than Japanese. They attended American schools-many attending university-and made friends with non-Japanese Americans. Many of those who spoke out against the internment of Japanese were these friends of Nisei. For most of the Nisei and their parents the goal of the printed word via newspapers and correspondences-was to reinforce the connection between themselves and the American public and to "prove" themselves as American first, Japanese second. This ultimate goal, although successful, supported a misleading interpretation of the camps for the American public that left the impression of a positive experience.

The Manzanar Free Press, printed by Nisei men at Manzanar, led by example the nine other newspapers published in each of the internment camps. Running from April 11, 1942 through September 28, 1945, the newspaper was a tri-weekly four page depiction of life in Manzanar. The cover page was generally devoted to important announcements and news from outside the camp, while the back page featured the camp's sport teams. Editors selected news from the outside, ranging from how the war was progressing on the various fronts to other newspapers' "letters to the editor" regarding Japanese Americans.

Within the articles in the Free Press there emerges an awareness of the editors that their newspaper and their camp represented the larger story of Japanese Americans internees. On July 27, 1943 one article leads: "Manzanar, the eyes of the world are upon you."The reporters recognized that they were writing to their own audience at home-some copies were , translated into Japanese for Issei readers-as well as a larger audience in the nation-subscribers included non-Japanese Americans outside the camp. Therefore, the articles and stories included remain consistently patriotic and positive, with little overt negative criticism toward the government or Americans. Although they never resort to calling themselves "Japs"instead maintaining the term "Japanese Americans"-the editors utilize many of the euphemisms utilized by the government and national papers, such as "evacuees," "military necessity," and "relocation center."They do not attempt to oppose federal and public policy.

Instead the editors and journalists of the Manzanar Free Press follow a general trend among Japanese Americans to ask the American public to let Japanese Americans prove themselves as loyal Americans. Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor Japanese Americans began to lobby the public via the newspapers to give them a chance.

"I know that the majority of the Japanese in this country, both citizens and aliens, realize that they are truly under the merciless spotlight of the public gaze together with loyal Americans of Italian and German descent and that hardships must be undergone, silently and patiently, perhaps even increasing in severity as the war drags on and the casualties mount, but we feel in our heart that the American public will know that we are really all one people fighting against a common foe."

"There cannot be any question. There must be no doubt. We, in our hearts, know we are Americans-loyal to America. We must prove that to all of you!"

These sentiments ran parallel to the feelings of many Nisei in Manzanar. The workers who contributed to the experiments of the guayule project were lauded by the Press as "contributing to the building of good will between the Japanese in America and their Caucasian friends ...such goodwill...will benefit the entire Japanese community."

At the same time the newspaper reported on the developments of self-governing committees and the Consumer Cooperative within Manzanar. They purposefully denied the scope of their sacrifices, arguing that "our sacrifices, great as they may seem, will seem petty in comparison with the vast sacrifices that the rest of the world is making." Through their words the Manzanar Free Press united the camp in a population that was American first, Japanese second, and ready to be assimilated back into the general American public.

Historians and veterans of internment alike are beginning to address reasons for why most internees remained in the camps without a significant amount of protest. Contemporary journalists attempted to depict Japanese Americans as possessed with an "air of Oriental fatalism," obedient to the last, sheep-like in their willingness to be herded along. This myth was perpetuated by conservative critics who claimed the apparent lack of bitterness, the ability of many interned to close that chapter of their lives, and their silence and stoicism as proof that the internment camps were not unjust after all. However the silence has proved selective, and the attitudes of the Japanese Americans interned reflect a general consensus of the time period rather than any "model minority" stereotype proposed by some crit1C5.

In the 1930s many Americans valued a conservative, inward looking society that avoided questioning the government and looked toward leaders in their communities to follow. Japanese Americans, like most Americans, had yet to experience the Civil Rights Movement or the anti-war protests of Vietnam: "we had been raised to respect and to trust those in authority. To us resistance or confrontation, such as we know them today, was unthinkable and of course would have had no support from the American public. We naively believed at the time that cooperating with the government edict was the best way to help our country." Many other Japanese Americans felt likewise, relying on the belief that the wrongs inflicted against them would be righted by the participation of"good American citizens."

The generations that followed the Issei and Nisei have since fought for redress and restitution of their parents and grandparents Biographic accounts of the experiences in the camps and renewed examination of primary sources will continue to dispel the legacy of deception. But the legacy of the deception by the government and the media toward Japanese Americans during World War II is enduring. In a recent discussion with my mother I found that the myth of "military necessity" remains alive in the popular understanding of internment. Her defense of the justification of the government's policy toward Japanese Americans suggests that more work must be done. Historians, educators, and the general public must work together to understand the myth, the means of deception, and the reality of the internment of 120,000 Americans.

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