Extensions of Remarks (PDF 8MB)

3032 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS February 24, 1983 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS PERSONAL JUSTICE DENIED ing American citizens-were prohibited from Few Americans were familiar with Ameri living and working on the West Coast. can citizens of Japanese descent. The opin Almost all were later sent to "relocation ions of those with intelligence responsibil HON. ROBERT T. MATSUI centers"-bleak barrack camps ringed by ity, such as the FBI, who believed that OF CALIFORNIA barbed wire and military guards in isolated there was no sound basis for mass exclusion, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES areas of the West. Most remained in the were ignored or drowned out in the fright Thursday, February 24, 1983 camps until the mass exclusion was ended in ened uproar of the time. December 1944, more than two and a half The Commission has carefully reviewed • Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, today, years after the policy of exclusion and de the extensive record of events which led to the Commission on Wartime Reloca tention began. These events are unique in Executive Order 9066. It has found no evi tion and Internment of Civilians will our history. dence of a military or security threat from deliver to Congress and release to the No program of mass exclusion or deten the Japanese Americans. As General public its report setting forth the facts tion was imposed on German and Italian DeWitt conceded at the time, no sabotage and circumstances surrounding Execu aliens nor upon American citizens of had taken place. The later justifications of German or Italian descent. fered by DeWitt in his Final Report on the tive Order 9066 and the impact of the The government justified the exclusion exclusion and by the Justice Department order on Japanese American citizens from the West Coast of all American citi which defended the exclusion in court also and resident aliens. zens of Japanese descent and Japanese resi fail to demonstrate any military or security The report, entitled "Personal Jus dent aliens on the basis of military necessi threat. In fact the realistic estimates of the tice Denied," sets forth the circum ty. The first task of the Commission has time suggested that there was as much or stances surrounding the initiation and been to look at the facts and consider more danger from other segments of the implementation of orders from the whether military necessity justified this population. highest authorities of our land to course of action. DeWitt's contention that ethnicity deter evacuate and intern American citizens The Commission has found that the mined loy?..lty was answered as early as May record does not permit the conclusion that 1942, by a Congressional Committee which and resident aliens of Japanese ances there was any military justification for the examined the impact of the · Executive try. mass exclusion and detention of American Order in extensive hearings on the West The commission, after l 1/2 years of citizens of Japanese ancestry and their resi Coast: study and after hearing from over 750 dent alien parents. "This testimony has impressed upon us in witnesses, has concluded that there There were no documented cases of sabo convincing fashion the fundamental fact was no military or security justifica tage, espionage or fifth column activity by that place of birth and technical noncitizen tion for the mass exclusion and deten Japanese Americans on the West Coast. ship alone provide no decisive criteria for as tion. The commission identified the There was a widespread-but false-belief sessing the alinement of loyalties in this causes of these decisions as race preju that the attack on Pearl Harbor had been world-wide conflict." dice, war hysteria, and a failure of po aided by sabotage and fifth column activi True of aliens, that statement can only be ties. The President and his cabinet officers more powerful with regard to Amercian citi litical leadership. did not forcefully dispel these stories and zens. Our legal system is founded on deter Mr. speaker, I commend the mem rumors. On the West Coast, where there mining guilt or fault on an individual basis, bers of the Commission on Wartime had been a long history of prejudice and dis and citizens must be given the presumption Relocation and Internment of Civil crimination against the ethnic Japanese, of loyalty. Moreover, the conclusion that ians for their outstanding report. It is there were sustained and even louder de ethnicity determined loyalty was not a mili a report that for the first time sets mands for the exclusion of Japanese Ameri tary judgment deserving of any deference. cans. These demands were made by orga Generals are not experts on race; their forth the tragic and shameful chapter nized anti-Japanese interest groups, the views on the political loyalties of civilians of our history that is unknown to mil press and the West Coast members of Con are only as good as the facts they can mar lions of Americans. It is a chapter in gress-they came from every segment of the shal in their support. The lack of any evi which over 120,000 American citizens political spectrum. dence of disloyalty on the part of Americans and resident aliens were denied their The civilian clamour for exclusion was re of Japanese ancestry in 1942 speaks for freedom without consideration for flected in the actions of the War Depart itself. their constitutional rights. ment. Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, The Commission has concluded that the in command of Army forces on the West broad historical causes of the Executive The grave injustice forced upon Coast, recommended to Henry L. Stimson, Order wefe race prejudice, war hysteria, and these Japanese Americans is truly a the Secretary of War, that authority be a failure of political leadership. Widespread case of personal justice denied. I en sought to remove the Japanese Americans ignorance about Japanese Americans con courage all of my colleagues to read from the West Coast. DeWitt made his rec tributed to a policy conceived in haste and this report. ommendation on the ground that loyalty executed in an atmosphere of fear and was determined by ethnicity, "In the war in anger at Japan. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would which we are now engaged," DeWitt wrote like to include for the RECORD a state Secretary Stimson, "racial affinities are not Ending the exclusion was bitterly and ment by Joan Z. Bernstein, chairper severed by migration. The Japanese race is forcefully opposed on the West Coast. just an enemy race and while many second and as the decision to exclude and detain had ef son of the Commission on Wartime fectively been promoted. The Commission's Relocation and Internment of Civil third generation Japanese born on United States soil possessed of Unites States citi report provides substantial new information ians. zenship, have become 'Americanized,' the on those events. Today the Commission on Wartime Relo racial strains are undiluted." The record Secretary Stimson and John J. Mccloy, cation and Internment of Civilians is deliv shows that DeWitt's views were substantial who served as Assistant Secretary of War. ering to Congress and releasing to the ly influenced by the governors and public approved the original order of exclusion, public its findings with regard to the pro officials of the West Coast states whose but they were men who were open to an un mulgation of Executive Order 9066 and the views he sought out before taking his own derstanding of the facts and they did not wartime events which followed from it. position. accept General Dewitt's views on race or On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Secretary Stimson and President Roose believe that the Japanese Americans should D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. velt did not subject this program to suffi be excluded from the West Coast for the du Under that Order 120,000 people-American ciently close and critical scrutiny. The At ration of the war. citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident torney General, Francis Biddle, did not be McCloy and Stimson opposed professional aliens of the immigrant generation from lieve the program necessary, but acceded to military opinion in deciding that the Army Japan, who were barred by law from becom- it when proposed by the War Department. would seek volunteers among the Japanese e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. February 24, 1983 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 3033 Americans, thus opening the door to per among West Coast politicians and interest and cabinet members, the President him suading even the most prejudiced of the loy groups to the return of Japanese Americans self-were personally involved in a course of alty of Japanese Americans who returned to the West Coast. These views prevailed. action which today we can only find gravely from European battlefields loaded with For at least the last six months of that unjust and deeply injurious. The bulwark of honors won in the service of the United period, immediately before the Presidential our Constitution did not withstand it. Igno States. election of 1944, the decision to continue rance was a major contributing factor in Most importantly, by the spring of 1943, the exclusion was that of President Roose these events; knowledge is the surest guardi the civilians at the head of the War Depart velt. an against their repetition. We can only ment had reached the position that no justi By any analysis with the least sensitivity hope to abide by our better judgement in fication existed any longer for excluding to American constitutional values there was the future if we have made our past our loyal Japanese American citizens from the no justification for holding loyal American own and are determined to learn by its les West Coast.

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