Thirteen
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
FAQ by Bill Hopwood (USN-retired)
Additional Information by Bert Webber-MLS
1.Is it true that only Japanese Nationals (adults) were interned, not Japanese-American citizens?
These days, the wartime terms "internment" and "relocation" are often confused and used interchangeably. Only enemy aliens were interned, but not all of them. Resident enemy nationals (German, Italian, Japanese) arrested by the FBI on security charges were given individual hearings and either paroled or interned. No Japanese-Americans were interned unless they had first renounced their U.S. citizenship. Internees were placed in Department of Justice camps under Army control to await deportation and repatriation. Non-alien family members (spouses and children) were allowed to accompany them as "voluntary internees." Many enemy aliens were not interned but were evacuated from the West Coast war zones. They either moved elsewhere on their own or, in the case of most Japanese, entered relocation centers. Relocation centers were separately operated by the civilian War Relocation Authority.
2. Is it true that the Internment did not applied to the whole country, only to CA?
Enemy aliens from all over the country were interned. However the evacuation/relocation program applied only to Western Washington, Western Oregon, all of California, and the Southern 1/3 of Arizona.
3. Is it true that Canadian government also had Japanese Nationals Internment Camps?
The 24,000 Japanese-Canadians, including some 7,400 naturalized Canadian citizens, were under similar "controls" as the United States had imposed. There were about 22,000 Japanese in British Columbia mostly along the coast or on the off-shore islands, particularly Vancouver Island. Of this number about 3,000 lived inland. Those within 100 miles of the coast were evacuated to Kaslo, BC then assigned to Relocation Centers in hastily reconditioned "ghost towns" in the Kootenay Lake and Slocam Valley areas, as well as in a new center called "Tashme."
About 2,500 were sent to Lethbridge, Alberta to work on sugar beet ranches which were being developed to relieve the acute sugar shortage caused by the war. Situations for Japanese-Canadians were generally similar to those in the United States except that the higher latitudes of Canada meant colder winters. The heaviest snowfall in decades covered the mountains and plains causing much distress. Canadian officials assigned to supervise the interned were equally affected. Accustomed to the mild coastal climates, the Japanese former fishermen were forced to spend must of their time just trying to survive the cold. Poor housing was a major complaint and the cold Japanese just could not stomach MILK in their tea!
More than 1,000 evacuees were sent to Manitoba and a few hundred men on to Ontario. Others were placed on special status — 42 repatriated to Japan, nearly 1,000 sent to road camp projects and about 100 to hospital service. In October 1942, 57 were listed as "troublesome" and "in detention" in Vancouver.
4. Were the United States and Canada the only countries to relocate or intern Japanese aliens or citizens?
There were Japanese along the "Pacific Sea Frontier" on Canadian, American, Mexican and even South American soil. Because of the European war, Mexico seemed particularly vulnerable for there had been espionage intrigues going on there for some time before Pearl Harbor.
As Mexico had a lot of land to watch and very limited means of patrols (let alone a force with which to stop any invasion from Japan), it was quick to round up all of the Japanese it could find. Literature about the roundup of JAPONES in Mexico is elusive. From a single source we learn that there was an Internment/Relocation Center in the State or Morales at Temixco about 8 miles from Cuernavaca, a little south of Mexico City. How the Japanese were housed, occupied or treated has not been determined. Some of the Japanese from coastal South America, particularly in Peru, were relocated to the United States on deals between the governments. There was a "Latinos only" Internment Camp at Segoville, Texas.
Due to some alleged disagreement between the United States government and the government of Peru, the Peruvian government declined to readmit the Japanese-Peruvians at the close of World War II. These Peruvians became "people without a country" and remained in the United States.
5. Did the American government also intern German and Italian Nationals? What are the numbers?
Yes. In fact more Germans and Italians were interned than were Japanese nationals. The official figures come from a letter dated August 9, 1948, signed by W.F. Kelly, Assistant Commissioner, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which reads in part as follows: "Our records indicated the following totals of persons received by INS under the alien enemy program, including those received from outside continental U.S. and those who were voluntarily interned in order to join the internee-head of the family:"
| German | 10,905 |
| Italian | 3,278 |
| Japanese | 11,229 (plus 5,620 Nisei who renounced their U.S. citizenship) |
| Hungarian | 52 |
| Romanian | 25 |
| Bulgarian | 5 |
| Other | 161 |
| Total | 31,275 |
6. Was there any different in treatment between the three kind of camps?
Let’s differentiate between "internment" and "relocation" centers here. If you mean were the Germans, Italians, and Japanese who were interned treated differently from each other in Department of Justice Internment Centers, the answer is no. In fact in some locations they were side-by-side in the same camp, Crystal City, Texas, for example. On the other hand, if you mean was there a difference in treatment of those in "internment camps" vis-a-vis the Japanese in "relocation centers" the answer is yes. Internees were strictly detained until either deported or paroled. Japanese in relocation centers could leave if they demonstrated loyalty to the U.S. and would not become public charges, however they could not go back into the military zones from which they had been evacuated until the exclusion orders were lifted early in 1945. About 30,000 of the 110,000 evacuees left the relocation centers for outside employment or to attend colleges during the war.
7. Where can I see the documents about those Internment/Relocation camps?
You can read about them in such books as "American
and Japanese Relocation in WWII" by Lillian Baker, "Democracy
on Trial," by Page Smith, "Tule Lake—From Relocation
to Segregation," by Harold Jacoby, and other long out of print
government documents (many of which I have). A good website about the
Crystal City Internment camp and the German internments is http://www.netzone.com/~adjacobs.
8. Where can I obtain the contents of the "Executive Order 9066"?
Right Here! E.O. 9066 is also included in the Baker books and probably others relating to the Japanese relocation. The E.O is a rather simple and straightforward order (only one page long) in which President Roosevelt gave to the Secretary of War and military commanders to whom the Secretary of War had delegated authority, the power to exclude any and all persons, citizens and aliens, from designated areas in order to provide security against sabotage, espionage, and fifth column activity. (The order never singled out Japanese or Japanese-Americans. It applied to "any and all persons" the military wished to apply it to, whether alien or citizen).
9. Do you have any figures or details about the Germans and Italians being evacuated?
Germans and Italians were evacuated on an individual basis from West Coast restricted areas, not as a group as were the Japanese. Unlike the Japanese (who were concentrated in ethnic enclaves), the Germans and Italians were better assimilated into the mainstream population, and that there was no threat of attack on the West Coast from Germany and Italy. Defense commanders were authorized under an Individual Exclusion Program authorized by E.O.9066 to arrest potentially dangerous German and Italian individuals and to exclude all enemy aliens from restricted areas on both coasts. (See "Undue Process: The Untold Story of America’s German Alien Internees" by Arnold Krammer--1997)
10. Where can I find more information about "upheld by the Supreme Court in three wartime cases"?
The book, "Justice at War," by Peter Irons covers these cases, as does "Personal Justice Denied," the report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. Both books are heavily slanted against the evacuation/relocation decision of the wartime government but do contain details on what the three wartime cases were all about. The cases were:
- Yasui v. U.S. (320 U.S.115--1943)
- Hirabayashi v. U.S. (320 U.S.81--1943)
- Korematsu v. U.S. (323 U.S. 214-248--1944)
The Yasui and Hirabayashi cases were constitutional challenges to their convictions as U.S. citizens for violations of a curfew in effect prior to the evacuation which applied to all enemy aliens and also to citizens of Japanese descent. The Korematsu case was a similar challenge to the evacuation order. A copy of the full Korematsu decision is included in the Baker book. All three decisions were in the government’s favor and stand to this day. More than 40 years later (in the 1980’s) a lower court claimed to set aside the three convictions in a "let bygones be bygones" move but this could not, and did not, legally reverse the Supreme Court wartime rulings.
11. Where can I find the details regarding those numbers "...Official government records show that just over 20,000 Japanese-Americans were inducted during World War II and that out of 19,000 males of military age in the relocation centers, only 1,200 (6%) volunteered. Less than 3/4 (15,000)... " that you have quoted?
The best source is probably Selective Service Special Monograph No. 10 (1953), Chapter IX. Also War Relocation Authority 1946 publication "The Evacuated People." Special Monograph 10 confirms that 25,500 Japanese-Americans were processed for induction, and that approximately 21,000 were inducted. Not all who were inducted were found acceptable for service because of physical and other reasons. The best figures I have on how many Nisei actually served show between 13,000 and 14,000. This is close to the 15,000 claimed by the 100/442nd Memorial Foundation, and less than half of the number claimed by the National Japanese American Historical Society, which claims 33,000 Nisei served in WWII but upon inquiry was unable to substantiate it.
Special Monograph 10 states that there were 19,000 Japanese Americans of military age in the relocation centers and 4,000 more on the outside. Both publications confirm that fewer than 1,500 volunteered, "The Evacuated People" stating that the number of volunteers was 1,208.
12. Where can I find more information on the "disloyals" regarding their riots, disturbances, refuse to take an oath, and the information about "the camp at Tule Lake, California"?
In the Baker and Smith books as well as in Special Monograph 10, the recent National Park Service’s 2-volume history of the Manzanar relocation center, old copies of Life Magazine’s March 20,1944 issue, National Archives (Photos—Section RG 210-CL), and also the aforementioned CWRIC report, "Personal Justice Denied." There were anti-American riots at the Poston, Manzanar, and Tule Lake centers instigated by pro-Japan Emperor loyalists and other malcontents. About 18-20,000 such persons (including family members, some passive) were later culled out of the 10 centers and segregated at the Tule Lake center for disloyals. These internees were all deported after the war, though some begged for repatriation, claiming duress and were allowed to return "home."
13. Is it true that "... none of the evacuees were forced into a relocation center, They could have voluntarily relocated anywhere ..."? Where can I find the original document?
Special Monograph 10 states that on March 1, 1942 General DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command, signed a proclamation requiring all Japanese (alien and citizen) to move outside the designated restricted military areas. As a result, 8,000 voluntarily relocated from their States of residence to other non-excluded states, or failing that, moved into assembly centers where they were ordered to remain until an orderly program could be set up. The voluntary phase didn’t last long because most of the Japanese had nowhere to go. This necessitated the establishment of the War Relocation Authority which hurriedly built 10 relocation centers intended to be for temporary housing of the evacuees until they could be permanently resettled. References to the "voluntary" phase of the evacuation may also be found in Chapter 10 of the Smith book, the whole chapter devoted to that subject, and reference is also made to the voluntary phase in the Supreme Court Korematsu decision, which stated in part that had Korematsu "...left the prohibited area and gone to an assembly center we cannot say either as a matter of fact or law, that his presence in that center would have resulted in his detention in a relocation center." Some who did report to the assembly center were not sent to relocation centers, but were released upon condition that they remain outside the prohibited zone until the military orders were modified or lifted."
