A Comparative Study of Second World War Internment Experiences in Great Britain and the United States of America Rachel Pistol R
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A Comparative Study of Second World War Internment Experiences in Great Britain and the United States of America Rachel Pistol Royal Holloway, University of London PhD History In Memory of Andrew Dickinson (1981-2014) and Professor David Cesarani OBE (1956-2015) 1 I, Rachel Pistol, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. 2 Abstract This thesis is the first comparative history of internment between the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and compares a nation with both a Constitution and a Bill of Rights to one with neither. Government files, personal correspondence, memoirs, and oral testimony have been used to describe the years preceding internment, the camps themselves, the aftermath, and how internment has been remembered. New sources such as previously unseen letters, interviews, memoirs, monuments, and commemorative ceremonies have been used to describe the experiences of the internees and how this blot on the Allied war record has been remembered. Memoirs, letters, and oral testimony help to put a human face on the suffering incurred during the turbulent early years of the war, and serve as a reminder of what can happen to vulnerable groups during times of conflict. This thesis also considers how these ‘tragedies of democracy’ have been remembered over time, and how the need for the memorialisation of former sites of internment is essential if society is not to repeat the same injustices. 3 Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. 3 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................. 6 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 1 – The Origins of Internment..................................................................................... 36 Chapter 2 – Life in the Camps ..................................................................................................... 69 Chapter 3 – Endings and Aftermath ........................................................................................ 133 Chapter 4 - Memory ...................................................................................................................... 161 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 208 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................... 218 Primary Sources ............................................................................................................................ 218 Manx National Archives, Douglas, Isle of Man ................................................................. 218 National Archives, Kew.......................................................................................................... 222 AJR Journal ............................................................................................................................... 226 Special Collections, UCLA ..................................................................................................... 227 Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley .............................................................................................. 227 Private Collections ................................................................................................................... 229 Printed Primary Sources ......................................................................................................... 229 Legislation ................................................................................................................................. 232 Films, Television Programmes, and Radio Broadcasts ...................................................... 232 Interviews .................................................................................................................................. 233 Electronic Media ...................................................................................................................... 234 Secondary Sources........................................................................................................................ 239 Fiction ........................................................................................................................................ 250 4 Table of Figures Figure 1 - Women and children boarding trains at Wandsworth en route to the Isle of Man ............................................................................................................................................................... 73 Figure 2 - Location of Internment Camps on the Isle of Man ................................................... 77 Figure 3 - Sketch of Onchan Camp, 1940 ...................................................................................... 83 Figure 4 – Animal drawings scraped out of the blackout paint by the animal trapper Neunzer on the windows in one of the houses in Hutchinson camp ........................................................ 84 Figure 5 - Knitted gloves and handmade items from Rushen Camp ......................................... 85 Figure 6 - A watercolour of Douglas promenade, 1940 ............................................................... 86 Figure 7 - Drawing of the square in Hutchinson Camp, 1941 .................................................... 88 Figure 8 - A Football Match at Onchan, 1941 ............................................................................... 90 Figure 9 - Christmas Card produced in Onchan by Klaus Meyer .............................................. 94 Figure 10 - ‘Disguised Parachutists’ ................................................................................................. 99 Figure 11 - Camps and Holding Facilities for those of Japanese Ancestry in the Western United States ...................................................................................................................................... 103 Figure 12 - Example of the Evacuation Notice ........................................................................... 108 Figure 13 - Children at school in Manzanar ................................................................................. 121 Figure 14 - Mooragh camp, Ramsey then and now .................................................................... 165 Figure 15 - Hutchinson camp, Douglas then and now .............................................................. 166 Figure 16 - The Arandora Star pre-war was a popular cruise liner............................................. 167 Figure 17 - Clockwise from top left: The memorial plaques at Middlesborough, Clerkenwell, Liverpool, and Cardiff ...................................................................................................................... 169 Figure 18 - Excerpts from the 'Schwitters in Britain' programme released by Tate Britain . 173 Figure 19 - Commemorative stamps issued 24th September, 2010 ......................................... 174 Figure 20 - The recreated barracks and guard tower at Manzanar ........................................... 189 Figure 21 - Manzanar in 1942 and 2010 ........................................................................................ 190 Figure 22 - A Japanese man tends his water garden in 1942; recently excavated water garden foundations in 2010 .......................................................................................................................... 191 Figure 23 - The Tule Lake Visitor Centre ..................................................................................... 192 Figure 24 - Inside the Tule Lake stockade 1945 and 2010 ......................................................... 194 Figure 25 - Camp Amache at Granada during the Second World War and in 2010 ............. 195 Figure 26 - The memorials in the cemeteries at Manzanar and Granada ................................ 198 Figure 27 - 'Go for Broke' memorial commemorating the Japanese Americans who served in the 100th, 442nd, and MIS .............................................................................................................. 200 Figure 28 - Part of the 'Common Ground' exhibition at the JANM ....................................... 202 5 Acknowledgments The idea for this thesis originated over a decade ago in conversation with David Cesarani at a student party I attended in the final year of my Bachelor’s degree. Following our discussion, David said to me, ‘I can tell you’re serious, so go away, do what you need to do, and when you come back with a Masters, we’ll start on the PhD’. So that’s what I did, although I did not stray at all from my roots at Royal Holloway, University of London, where David ended up supervising my Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral work. I am indebted to David’s knowledge, care, understanding, and humour this past decade, and without him I would not be the person I am today. I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with David, and privileged to have been his last viva. He was an incredible mentor, but more than that, he was also a friend, and I know that