Why U.S. sent all Japanese to internment camps

"Remember, remember that all of us are descended from immigrants and revolutionists..."- Franklin D. Roosevelt

A few Sundays ago my colleague, Guy Farmer, wrote an excellent column concerning the intrusive nature of the census. He was particularly outraged by the racial-ethnic classifications contained therein and he advised us to just use "American" as our answer to those questions. I couldn't agree more.

Guy also referred to the census as being a device which could be used to locate people of any targeted ethnicity for the purpose of detaining or arresting them as we did with our Japanese-American citizens following Pearl Harbor at the beginning of World War II. He also feels that temporarily imprisoning Japanese-Americans in detention camps for the duration of that war was the wrong thing to do, no doubt violating their constitutional rights.

However, having been around the block a few more times than Guy, and since I was in the middle of the hysteria which precipitated the Japanese-American dilemma immediately following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, I'm going to submit that our government had no choice but to do exactly what it did under the circumstances. Moreover, the safety of Japanese-Americans was paramount because Caucasian-Americans were ready to "kill all Japs" any time, any place.

Being raised in Long Beach, Calif., at the time of Pearl Harbor, I had Japanese friends in school. And every Saturday morning, my mom went to the farmer's market in downtown city park for fresh produce, every stall being operated by Japanese truck farmers. That was the finest produce I've ever had. Although we never thought about it, there were no outward signs that local Japanese-Americans hated us Caucasian-Americans.

However, there were about 50,000 Japanese immigrants in California who weren't any more assimilated into our language and culture than illegal Mexicans and newly arrived Orientals are today. And as it turned out, some Japanese-American immigrants were still supportive of their old Japanese homeland, as many German-Americans were supportive of the Nazis over the French and the Brits. And a few Japanese-American immigrants operated a "fifth column" for sabotage purposes in California just as the Germans operated their spies on our eastern seaboard.

Immediately following Pearl Harbor, we on the West Coast knew our military was in shambles. We had no defenses whatsoever. Army and Navy Air Corps planes at Long Beach didn't even have operational machine guns mounted. We immediately went on blackout status. Autos were driven at night with parking lights only. We were vulnerable to sabotage and were convinced that our West Coast would surely be the next target for Japanese aircraft carriers. Where were they? Nobody knew. Who could stop them? Our navy had been decimated at Pearl Harbor.

One night shortly after Pearl Harbor, we were awakened by heavy anti-craft fire behind our house in Long Beach. We ran outside (not too smart) to see a hundred search lights around our city all converged on two high flying aircraft with dozens of anti-aircraft guns blazing. We could see the tracers of our gunfire climb towards the aircraft and slowly poop-out, exploding about 4,000 feet short. We on the ground were showered with shrapnel. It lasted for over 45 minutes, during which these reconnaissance aircraft circled the entire area.

Not a single word was printed the next day about this event, nor was there any mention on the radio. Martial law had us strictly censored. You've got to understand that because of the swiftness of the Pearl Harbor attack and the ensuing confusion of trying to get our West Coast defenses ready for a likely bombing, and knowing that some Hawaiian Japanese assisted the Japanese Navy attack on Pearl Harbor with spy information on our ship placements, there wasn't time to ferret out who were or were not loyal Japanese-Americans. That was done later at the internment camps.

Many loyal Japanese were allowed to enlist in their own U.S. battalion for active duty in the European war theater, where they served with decorated distinction.

Yes, we had German sympathizers under surveillance because we had many months to check out German-American loyalties during the battles of Europe and Britain. And we had zero time and no reason to check out Japanese-American loyalties in advance of Pearl Harbor. All we had were the distinctive looks of the Japanese which made it easy to find and detain them quickly.

I sincerely hope we're never again faced with such a dilemma. But if we are, and circumstances are the same as in December 1941, then we will be forced to handle it exactly the same way.

Bob Thomas is a Carson City businessman, local curmudgeon and former member of the Carson City School Board and Nevada State Assembly.