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Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians

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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.

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.

I read this book in order to complete a research paper for an English Class. The book informed me in detail about the Japaneses Internment from the beginning of the process long before WWII to the conclusion. It delivers the facts in adry, but informative way and includes first person quotes from survivors and other eye witnesses. I enjoyed the book even though at some points it was boring and difficult to read. Unlike other government reports, this is not full of unexplained jargon.

I highly recommend this book. There is a addendum pertaining to the MAGIC decrypts that strengthens the Commissions findings it even publishes the views of Congressman Daniel Lundren who disagess with the findings that MAGIC had absolutely nothing to do with the decision process in 1942 however it still doesn't undercut the basic findings of the Commission ,that is the main reasons for the exclusion/evacuation/internment was hysteria , racism and failure of the political leadership at the time. Mr. Lundren though backs up the final commission findings. In 2005 Greg Robinson author of "By Order of the President" uncovered a letter regarding Japanese Internee's in which Assistant Secreatary of War McCloy stated " These people are not internee's. They are where they are now because we couldn't protect them from our own white people."

I read this book in 1998, couldn't put it down.

This book is a bit one-sided in its condemning hindsight toward the internment, but often fair minded in its coverage of this intense, dramatic, detailed and shameful saga in American history. It is considered by many to be the definitive source on this fascinating subject. I feel this book has the following shortcomings:

- Way too little coverage of Japanese espionage efforts prior to WWII including spying by American citizens of Japanese descent such as the Itaru Tachibana spy ring and compelling evidence from MAGIC intelligence intercepts known to the US government and instrumental in driving the decision to intern.

- too little coverage of the 30,000 internees who were able to resettle outside the camps away from the west coast to freedom during the internment.

- too little emphasis of the fact that nearly everyone, from the supreme court to the highest levels of military intelligence to the JACL itself, believed that Japanese raids if not a full scale invasion of the American west coast was a big possibility if not downright imminent, while at the same time it was crystal clear that Hitler could not extend an invasion across the English channel, let alone the Atlantic Ocean. Complicity by Japanese residents could have gone a long way to enhancing the effectiveness of any such Japanese attacks.

- too little coverage of the general atmosphere of the responsible military intelligence thinking that made the internment seem necessary at the time, chalking it all up to mere racism and war hysteria.

There is another book out in 1999, "MAGIC" by David Lowman, that angrily yet responsibly addresses many of these holes in the dyke, and more. Only the first chapters are as gripping a read as Personal Justice Denied and it is not as comprehensive in its overall coverage of the internment, but it is fascinating as it portrays the side of the story that has been buried for so long. It is far less sensitive to the plight of the internees. Between the two books, however, you do finally get the whole story, which PJD by itself decidedly does NOT give you.

This book has become the great oracle upon which most subsequent works and educational curricula on the subject have been based. In this short review, I will deal with only the Summary (pp. 1-23) as the remainder of the Report (which includes the Recommendations) is simply an amplification of the major theories, assumptions and speculations advanced in the summarized portion.

The original Report was published in December 1982; a reprint was published in 1997 with a prologue by The Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, and a forward by Tetsuden Kashima, who praises the Report as infallible. It is regrettable, however, that this new edition does not include any documentary evidence, of which there is an abundance, showing the other side of the story. It is no wonder, however -- unbiased revelation of facts would have been too hard a pill to swallow.

The title of the Report is presumptuous, in that it implies the justice of all the Nikkei was denied. There is no mention, however, of the injustices committed by any of those arrested, or who engaged in subversive activities while at the centers, or the renunciants, or even the injustices committed by the Issei, the Nisei and the Kibei against each other. The Report one-sidedly places all the blame upon the U.S. Government and the general American public. The Nikkei, including enemy alien Japanese, are portrayed consistently as the innocent victims, "against whom no charges were, or could have been, brought" (page 10), a statement as wild as it is nonsensical. Thousands of Nikkei were never affected by the evacuation -- what personal justice of theirs was denied?

If there is anything "denied" in this Report, it is a full and unprejudiced view of the facts made available to the American public.

Here, then, are my comments on a few excerpts from the Summary:

Page 1: "the Commission held 20 days of hearings... hearing testimony from more than 750 witnesses"

This would mean there were 40 witnesses per day, at approximately 15 minutes per testimony. It is hard to see how this was accomplished, especially with time for questioning. The actual number of witnesses giving testimony, as listed in the Report's Notes, is only around 340. Most of the Report's conclusions are apparently, therefore, taken from these few testimonies, as well as already existing books, testimonials, diaries, letters, memos, and transcribed telephone conversations dealing with the subject. Objectivity is an apparent victim in this Report.

Page 2: "Japanese immigrants who,... despite long residence in the United States, were not permitted to become American citizens"

This is a commonly-heard assumption that all Issei in the U.S. would have become U.S. citizens had they been allowed. Yet history shows otherwise, where not all resident aliens wanted U.S. citizenship. Many Issei were planning on returning to Japan once they were able to make enough money, and tens of thousands did return prior to WWII. This intention of eventual return to Japan is not taken into consideration in the Report. Instead, the U.S. Govt. is blamed for its callous and unmerciful immigration laws. It is presumptuous of the Commission to imply all Japanese aliens wanted to become Americans.

Also ignored are the 20,000 or so Nikkei who were living outside of the military zones, hence never under obligation to evacuate. Their testimonies are lacking from this Report. Similarly lacking are the testimonies of tens of thousands who did not "lose everything they had," but returned to their farms and businesses after leaving the relocation centers.

Page 2-3: "This policy of exclusion, removal and detention was executed against 120,000 people without individual review... without regard for their demonstrated loyalty"

This statement in itself is reason enough to doubt the integrity of this Report. The number 120,000 is taken from official War Relocation Authority statistics, and is the total of all who were ever in a relocation center, including those who were born there. Why the Commission uses this number is without explanation -- some 10,000 souls who were never there at the start were somehow excluded, removed and detained. The historians and advisers to the Commission must have been out to lunch when this figure was decided upon. There was obviously an ulterior motive.

How can one execute "exclusion, removal and detention" against the unborn? Furthermore, how can babies and toddlers demonstrate loyalty? How could any of the 50,000 or so children at the centers been able to demonstrate their loyalty to the U.S.?

Finally, I shall use the following paragraph as a summary of the Summary:

"The promulgation of Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity, and the decisions which followed from it -- detention, ending detention and ending exclusion -- were not driven by analysis of military conditions. The broad historical causes that shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership. Widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan. A grave injustice was done to American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry who, without individual review or any probative evidence against them, were excluded, removed and detained by the United States during World War II."

This is the main theme of the entire Report -- there was no necessity. There was no "documented act of espionage, sabotage or fifth column activity" by any Nikkei. This, however, flies in the face of the facts -- an abundance of intelligence documentation proving there were both Issei and Nisei involved in espionage on the West Coast. The Commission was ignorant, willfully ignorant, of this overwhelming evidence. They are the ones, sadly, who do not permit the conclusion, for a truthful conclusion would abruptly end their premeditated demands of apology and redress.

There indeed was "analysis of military conditions." To say otherwise shows a lack of honest research and a great disrespect toward our military leaders, leaders who knew far more than those on the Commission. The ineptitude lies at the feet of those advisers and researchers who purposely left out hard evidence that would have shown the Commission the sandy foundation upon which they were building.

The mantra, "race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership," in reality comes back to sting the Commission.

There was no racism -- thousands of Japanese Americans in the U.S. did not complain of racism before or during WWII, including those who evacuated or were relocated to other parts of the U.S. They lived without prejudice. The Commission seems to have trouble understanding the difference between race and nationality. No wonder, of course, since the Commission thought "resident alien Japanese" were somehow different from the Japanese against whom the U.S. was fighting at the time. For a real study of racism, the Commission should have checked into Imperial Japan of the past, and the Japan of 1982.

"War hysteria" is a most-odd term chosen by the Commission. That the American people were hysterical about the war and took it out on the Nikkei is taking social behavior too far, and blaming all Americans for the behavior of a few. The truth was that there were thousands of Americans helping their fellow Americans evacuate, and then also to relocate and resettle. Was it "war hysteria" that caused teachers and pastors and neighbors to go out of their way to help the Nikkei, including those who had become their enemies after Pearl Harbor?

The hysteria surely must have been on the part of the Commission, and the activist audience at the hearings. This, by the way, is not at all far from the truth -- only a short reading of the record of hearings will be convincing.

Finally, the "failure of political leadership" means, to the Commission and its crowd of supporters, that, first of all, our President failed, then next our Vice-President, then the President's Cabinet, then all the members of Congress, then the State Governors, and then, most of all, our military leaders. In other words, the United States was in a state of utter chaos, existing under an oppressive lack of leadership. In its place was the rule of hysterical prejudice aimed at the people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast.

Ah, but such was not the case at all, most fortunately, and for which all Nikkei now should ever be grateful. When the empire of Japan suddenly and deliberately attacked the United States of America, an amazing piece of American political and social machinery was put into motion. Quick was our resolve, and intense our deliberations, to use all measures possible for the safety of our beloved country, for every citizen of the United States, knowing full well the implications of what the Japanese forces had just accomplished in relative short time throughout the whole Pacific region.

No, there was no failure, especially on part of our political leaders, especially concerning the treatment of 71,531 Americans of Japanese descent and 38,709 enemy alien Japanese. On the contrary, our leaders, whom we elected, even our President for the 4th time, and those whom he chose to assist him in leading our country, by that very God-given right of authority, planned and executed, most successfully, one of the greatest mass movements of people in the history of the United States, beginning from an evacuation and culminating in a resettlement, a program unequaled in its care and preservation of a sole ethnic group, comprised of both citizens and aliens.

The only failure I am able to ascertain is of this Report's main objective -- to prove that the constitutional rights of American citizens were violated. Nikkei stereotyping, pro-redress activism, and the lack of political discernment were the reasons the Recommendations were approved. Serious researchers look forward to the day a new Commission will correct the injustices of this Report.

Yes, Personal Justice Denied purports to be thorough

Yes, Personal Justice Denied claims to be an unbiased reading of all of the relevant material on the subject of Relocation and Internment during WWII

Yes, Personal Justice Denied was produced by a body of respected lawmakers and appointees.

No, Personal Justice Denied report what it claims too.

Being neither Japanese nor alive at the time of the WWII internment, I assume that my discussion of this book will be roundly ignored. That's fine - I am rarely ever accused of being the most PC guy on the block. I do, however, know my military intelligence.

As a specific indictment of this work (and as mentioned in other reviews), read David Lowman's MAGIC,The Untold Story of US Intelligence and the Evacuation of
Japanese Residents from the West Coast During WWII.

Really.

The commission that produced PJD was created in a political atmosphere by politicians with an agenda. That agenda was to rewrite the history of Japanese nationals living in the US during WWII. A political commission may well be biased towards, and ignore data that damages, the political climate of the day. PJD is exactly that - a political document which totally ignores military fact.

Military fact is this; you can't tell everyone every chunk of data you use to come to a decision. Doing that endangers your ability to continue to GAIN information using secret channels. If you tell people where you got your data, it's no longer a secret you see. This is the case with MAGIC and the Japanese internment camps. The error on the part of the government in preventing the full story of why people were relocated (and in some cases repatriated) is in waiting too long to declassify relevant documents.

The important point about declassifying documents, especially in this case, is you as the government do not KNOW the agenda of every special interest group out there. Had the folks in charge of declassifying documents realized that Japanese lobbyists were about to bring up a long dead and assumed settled issue I bet they would have hustled those documents out of their storage boxes. It is quite difficult to keep track of every lobby and which issues are going to become popular at any given time. I mention that the issue was considered settled due to the fact that, after WWII US citizens in internment camps were returned to their homes(where possible) and offered redress for the financial burden they suffered. This they accepted and life went on. PJD is the result of lobbyists succeeding in convincing politicians that that redress was for the specifically FINANCIAL burden suffered - not for MENTAL anguish. That where PJD came from you see; legal word craft.

All of that said, the commission then proceeded to ignore relevant intelligence data. That data being intercepted communications between persons living in the US and Japan specifically creating a Japanese intelligence network BEFORE Pearl Harbor with the express purpose, stated in CLEAR TEXT(post decryption) of providing war time intelligence and committing acts of sabotage within the US.

But why should I rewrite Lowman's book! Buy this book but do NOT make up your mind about this issue without reading David Lowman's; MAGIC,The Untold Story of US Intelligence and the Evacuation of
Japanese Residents from the West Coast During WWII.
If you make up your mind about US internment of Japanese peoples during WWII without reading the WHOLE story, you will be wrong.

Ron Takagi's weak excuses attempting to explain away the disloyalty of Japanese-Americans segregated at Tule Lake is absurd!

Disloyals were caught up in the fanatical propoganda of Japanese militarism, a cult equally as insidious as Nazism. Hakko-ichiu, the Kokutai, Japanese racial superiority and military successes from Tsushima Strait to Manchukuo caught the attention of ethnic Japanese in colonies throughout the world, regardless of where they were born. The doctrine was being taught in Japanese "language-schools" throughout the world, and by Nichi-ren priests at Buddhist Temples throughout the world...

Takagi's comments are a weak attempt at explaining away the history 60 years later.....

Here's but one example of the many pro-Japan military groups that existed long before Pearl Harbor and who's followers were segregated at Tule Lake...

The Black Dragons were the Amur River Society (Kokuryu-kai) in 1930s and 1940s Japan. The Black Dragons were ultranationalists heavily involved in the conquest of China, and as spies and fifth columnists subverting nations targeted for conquest. The Black Dragons were active up and down the Pacific Coast of North and South America. In the United States, Black Dragons were a concern to Lieutenant Commander K.D. Ringle of U.S. Navy Intelligence and other security officials. On December 7, 1942; Black Dragons led Banzai! cheers at the U.S. Manzanar Relocation Center; the anniversary of the Japanese attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor in 1941. The Black Dragons led and fomented riots and carried out acts of violence at Manzanar, Tule Lake Segregation Center, and other sites where Japanese enemy aliens and Americans of Japanese ancestry were located. The Black Dragons and other ultranationalist organizations provided the nucleus for the formation of the postwar Yakuza organized crime syndicates. See (Dubro and Kaplan, pages 36, 67, 85 and 192). Also see Tony Matthews in Shadows Dancing, pages 43, 46 and 222-223. A number of Black Dragon members were in the Japanese government and many were charged as war criminals in 1945.

This is what happens when the history of the United States is decided via politically motivated congressional commissions. Personally, I believe the role of the legislature is to legislate, not re-educate.

This "study" as some call it was prepared by a commission that included NOT ONE recognized World War Two historian or intelligence specialist. It was prepared by a group of activist, liberal products of the 1960s counter movement who were hand-picked by the Japanese American Citizens League and the National Council on Japanese American Redress. The conclusons of this study are terribly flawed, having been decided before the "research" had even begun.

Upon publication, the commission embarassingly admitted they had never heard of MAGIC intelligence, although it was readily available to them as declassified NSA documents. (MAGIC was the name for the broken Japanese diplomatic code indicating widespread espionage amongst ethnic Japanese along the West Coast. In fact this type of "total intelligence" had been the norm as early as the Nishin War and Russo-Japanese War.)

None of the witnesses were required to testify under oath. Japanese-American politicians planted many of the most heinous myths on the floor of congress and not under oath. Witnesses called to support government's decision were met with catcalls and howling from the opposition. In short it was a circus.

For the truth, read "MAGIC" by retired National Security Executive David Lowman. Two-Thirds of the book contains declassified NSA documents related to the era. Read and decide for yourself.

In the meantime, did you know:

It is well-documented that the evacuation was not motivated by racism, as so often claimed today, but by information obtained by the U.S. from pre-war decoded Japanese diplomatic messages and other intelligence revealing the existence of espionage and the potential for sabotage involving then-unidentified resident Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans living within the West Coast Japanese community. Many of these messages and associated intelligence documents have since been declassified and are available in a number of historical publications.

Only persons of Japanese ancestry (alien and citizen) residing in the West Coast military zones were affected by the evacuation order. Those living elsewhere were not affected at all.

It is not true that Japanese-Americans were "interned. Only Japanese nationals (enemy aliens) arrested and given individual hearings were interned. Such persons were held for deportation in Department of Justice camps. Those evacuated were not interned. They were first given an opportunity to voluntarily move to areas outside the military zones. Those unable or unwilling to do so were sent to Relocation Centers operated by the War Relocation Authority.

At the time, the JACL (Japanese American Citizens League) officially supported the government's evacuation order and urged all enemy alien Japanese and Japanese Americans to cooperate and assist the government in their own self interest.

It is also misleading and in error to state that those affected by the evacuation orders were all "Japanese-Americans." Approximately two-thirds of the ADULTS among those evacuated were Japanese nationals--enemy aliens subject to detention under long-standing law. The vast majority of evacuated Japanese-Americans (U.S. citizens) were children at the time. Their average age was only 15 years. In addition, between 50 and 75 percent of Japanese-Americans over age 17 were also citizens of Japan (dual citizens) under Japanese law. Thousands had been educated in Japan, some having returned to the U.S. holding reserve rank in the Japanese armed forces.

During the war, more than 33,000 evacuees voluntarily left the relocation centers to accept outside employment in areas outside of the military zones. An additional 4,300 left to attend colleges in the East.

In a recent study made by the National Park Service for the Manzanar memorial site, it was revealed that during the war over 26% of Japanese Americans over military age said they would refuse to swear an unqualified oath of allegiance to the United States.

According to War Relocation Authority records, 13,000 applications renouncing their U.S. citizenship and requesting expatriation to Japan were filed by or on behalf of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Over 5,000 such applications had been processed by the end of the war.

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 Supreme Court of the United States upheld the Constitutionality of the evacuation/relocation in Korematsu v. U.S., 1944 term. In summing up for the 6-3 majority, Justice Black wrote:

"There was evidence of disloyalty on the part of some, the military authorities considered that the need for action was great, and time was short. We cannot -- by availing ourselves of the calm perspective of hindsight -- now say that at the time these actions were unjustified." That decision has never been reversed and stands to this day.

It should be noted that the relocation centers had many amenities. Accredited schools, their own newspapers, stores, churches, hospitals, all sorts of sports and recreational facilities. The centers also had the highest per capita wartime birth rates for any wartime U.S. community with over 6,000 babies being born therein during the war.

After the war, personal property losses of those evacuated were compensated under the Evacuation Claims Act of 1948 in which over 26,000 claims were settled in amounts up to $100,000. Only 15 claims were ever appealed.

Ever since Pres. Reagan signed into law (against the advice of his own Justice Department) the results of this terribly flawed "study", million of taxpayer dollars have been provided annually to support it. That's why this subject is in your newspapers, on T.V., museums, libraries, bookstores and especially schools...all at taxpayer expense and it isn't correct history!

Well, your kids are learning it anyway.

Politicians have no place writing this country's history.