Japanese Americans Quotes

This is an excellent example of the kind of rhetoric that was used against the Japanese immigrants to America in the 1930s. There was a rumor that the Japanese laborer, in addition to working for less wages what white labor were getting, was a spy for the Japanese Emperor, It was this kind of prejudice and conspiracy theory that led the government to intern Japanese—even citizens on the West Coast—an act that was ignominiously upheld but he Supreme Court and latter apologized for by several American presidents. It turned out that there was not a single Japanese immigrant who engaged in any kind of spying or sabotage in WWII and many fought in the Armed forces and were amongst the most decorated soldiers. One irony of the West Cast internment is that Japanese immigrants and American citizens living on the East cost were no so interned. The fear of invasion was not as great and the history of anti Japanese prejudice as in this quotation was not as prevalent. There are some historians who argue that one of the major motivations of to intern the Japanese was for some wealthy whites to be able to get their land—especially farmland—which since they could not work, they could not pay the taxes and a huge amount of prime land changed hands as a result of the internment.

Initially when the World War II idea of evacuating Japanese Americans from the West Coast was proposed, General De Witt and replied, “Damned nonsense!”

This racist officer was the impetus for one of the terrible wrongs in American history but most of the national establishment and FDR himself signed off on it to his everlasting disgrace. See {587961} and {635792}.

the attack on Pearl Harbor

She was very conflicted about the interment of Americans of Japanese origin. She understood the arguments for the internment and some had some merit for her. But she was opposed to the internment from the beginning. However, she frequently discussed this issue privately with FDR. She consulted with the judges who dissented in the law suits and presented their arguments to her husband. She visited some of the internment camps and maintained a correspondent with some of the interned Japanese American leaders. Earlier, once FDR signed the internment executive order, she maintained a public silence on the issue until 1944 when she publicly broke with her husband on this issue. (While that may be shocking to us today—for a first lady to publicly disagree with the President—for Mrs. Roosevelt, it was not unusual and was not the scandal that it might be today. Throughout her over 3 terms as First Lady, she wrote a daily newspaper column and did a weekly radio show for much of the period.

Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor:

Defending the government's program of forced resettlement of Japanese-Americans in World War II:

In one of the great American disgraces, during WWII, American citizens of Japanese ethnicity were forced into an “evacuation” into camps for the duration of the war. German American citizens were not similarly treated. There was not a single act of sabotage or anti war propaganda by Japanese Americans before (or after) the “evacuation.” Many German Americans were so involved but never interned, but one of the major motivations was to get the valuable farmland owned by many Japanese on the West Coast. (The Japanese American citizens could not work or earn the money to pay the mortgages or taxes on their property and the white Californians were able to acquire the land for very little. Many believe this was the real motivation for the Japanese American incarceration as there was none such on the East Coast where there were few Japanese American land holdings.

She was a teenager at the time. The leaders organized some entertainment and she performed traditional Japanese dances. In the beginning there was no school, no education or training, no entertainment. Later there were some rudimentary opportunities provided by the authorities.

Miller, along with the Attorneys General and Governors of the 10 western states, were meeting with Milton Eisenhower to discuss relocating west coast Americans of Japanese ancestry in the inland states during World War II. Eisenhower then resigned as the first director of the War Relocation Authority.