15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well Done Summary and Analysis of WWII Internment, February 6, 2004
This review is from: Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (Paperback)
This book is a masterful summary of events surrounding the wartime relocation and detention activities, and a strong indictment of the policies that led to them. The report and its recommendations were instrumental in effecting a presidential apology and monetary restitution to surviving Japanese Americans and members of the Aleut community.
As for the accusations and charges that all Japanese Americans were probably disloyal and untrustworthy, it should be known that INTERNED Japanese Americans did volunteer to serve in the Japanese-American 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442d Regimental Combat Team during World War II. If you read the book Go For Broke (written by Chester Tanaka), it tells about the bravery of one of the MOST decorated combat unit in the U.S. Army. At least 680 of them were killed in action fighting the Germans in Italy and Western Europe. At least 1200 came from mainland U.S. concentration camps and rest came from Hawaii, where Executive Order 9066 to intern the West Coast Japanese-American community did not apply.
And in Strangers From A Different Shore by Ronald Takaki (pages 397-404), it states at least 33,000 Japanese-Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces.
They also served in the Pacific front as translators, reconnaissance, etc. and General Charles Willoughby, chief of intelligence in the Pacific, estimated that Japanese-American intelligence work help shorten the Pacific war by 2 years
So if Japanese Americans were considered to be DISLOYAL, then why would the President of the U.S. allow them to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces?
Well in Mr. Takaki's book on page 397 it states that President Roosevelt wanted to neutralize Japanese propaganda about WW II being a race war. So in February 1943, President Roosevelt authorized to allow Japanese-American men, including those INTERNED in detention camps such as Tule Lake center, to register for the draft by signing loyalty questionnaires in which they simply answer "yes" to serving in combat duty and swearing to unqualified allegiance to the U.S.
I would like to also reply to comments made by other customers about this book.
* One customer made this comment: "After loyalty screening, eighteen thousand Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans were segregated at a special center for disloyals at Tule Lake California where regular military "Banzai" drills in support of Emperor Hirohito were held. "
The customer is correct that Japanese-Americans detained at the Tule Lake detention center held mass demonstrations, but they were NOT expressing support for the Japanese emperor.
If you read the book A Fence Away from Freedom by Ellen Levine (pages 134-137, 231-240), the author writes that the Japanese-Americans were protesting on October 15, 1943, the death of an inmate who was killed in a truck accident.
In February 1943, President Roosevelt authorized to allow Japanese-American men to register for the draft by signing loyalty documents.
Several young Japanese-American men protested about the unfairness of being interned inside detention centers AND being asked to register for the draft by NOT showing up for Army physical exams.
These Tule Lake internees were actually INDICTED for trying to resist the draft registration!
But on July 29, 1944, Federal Judge Louis E. Goodman dismissed indictments against 26 Tule Lake draft resisters and declared: "It is shocking to the conscience that an American citizen be confined on the ground of disloyalty, and then, while so under duress and restraint, be compelled to serve in the armed forces, or be prosecuted for not yielding to such compulsion."
* Another comment that was made: "In a questionnaire, over 26% of Japanese-Americans of military age at the time said they would refuse to swear an unqualified oath of allegiance to the United States."
As mentioned above President Roosevelt DID authorized in 1943 to allow Japanese-American men to register for the draft by signing loyalty questionnaires.
But as Mr. Ronald Takaki states in his book Strangers From A Different Shore on page 397, these Japanese-American men wanted to PROTEST their INTERNMENT in the detention camps and therefore answered "no" to unqualified allegiance to the U.S.
They were placed in detention camps BECAUSE the U.S. government thought they might be DISLOYAL enough to commit sabotage or espionage, and ALL of them were classified by the Selective Service as IV-C - enemy aliens - because they were considered untrustworthy and therefore were NOT allowed to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces!
All of these books should be read by all those who want a more detailed overview and background of the controversial relocation and detention of Japanese Americans during WWII, which is now more relevant and important as ever because of the September 11 terrorist attack and the resulting racial profiling and detention of Arab Americans.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Gripping and Poignant Account, February 7, 2001
This review is from: Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (Paperback)
I have never read a more gripping or poignant work published by a governmental body. Personal Justice Denied is a stunning account of the prelude to internment, the incarceration itself, the exclusion, and the long road home for over 100,000 Japanese Americans. While I found the report to be generally very well written, I would have liked to have seen a more balanced presentation of the evidence involving the evacuation and exclusion of the Japanese Americans. For example, the report detailed very well how numerous Japanese Americans were taken advantage of by "friends" or "caretakers" during the evacuation with regards to personal property. Surely there were examples of "friends" and "caretakers" who actually took care of property and belongings and returned these to the Japanese Americans when they were released. Also, according to the report, there were numerous persons of different ethnic backgrounds (Japanese, German, Italian) who were arrested by the Justice Department and incarcerated before and after Pearl Harbor. No specific examples were mentioned.
I was most impressed with the vivid descriptions of the evacuation process and the living conditions within the assembly centers and relocation centers. I knew from my limited study that the situation was spartan and bleak, but I had no idea of the destituteness of the centers. Additionally, the economic loss incurred by the Japanese Americans was also extremely well documented. The 20,000 dollars paid to survivors of this personal injustice is wholly inadequate and our government should make further restitution. I was most ashamed of the average white American and the profoundly ignorant, biased, and bigoted attitudes displayed. The pervasive hysteria was unacceptable and the government, both in Washington D.C. and the western states, did nothing to abate it.
I enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it for anyone seeking to understand more about the internment of the Japanese Americans. While its examination is a bit biased, it is extremely well documented as a result of the three weeks of hearings and personal testimonies.
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