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American Internment 2019 Hawaii Bar Journal.Pdf Troy J.H. Andrade and Ryan on the west coast to “pre - Hamaguchi scribe military areas . from which any or all per - Hawai‘i State law designates sons may be excluded, and every January 30 as “Civil Lib - with respect to which, the erties and the Constitution Day.” right of any person to enter, Enacted in 2013, this law cele - remain in, or leave be sub - brates, honors, and encourages ject to whatever restrictions “public education and awareness the . Military com - of the commitment of individuals mander may impose in his to preserving civil liberties for discretion.” 2 Americans of Japanese ances - lieutenant General try[,]” particularly after their John l. Dewitt, the ap - mass incarceration following the pointed Military com - 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. Four resistors, with the help of their mander of the western Defense command, carried forth lawyers, fought the government’s internment scheme through the judicial the President’s plan. in a March 2, 1942 Public Proclama - process. The often-forgotten stories of Mitsuye Endo, Gordon tion no. 1, General Dewitt stated that the entire Pacific Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu, and Min Yasui highlight the importance coast of the continental united States was “particularly sub - of resisting and speaking up against wrongs. ject to attack, to attempted invasion by the armed forces of nations with which the united States is now at war, and, in Seventy-six years ago, following the attack on the Amer - connection therewith, is subject to espionage and acts of sab - ican military in hawai‘i, President franklin D. roosevelt otage, thereby requiring the adoption of military measures signed executive Order 9066, which stated that the “success - necessary to establish safeguards against such enemy opera - ful prosecution of the war require[d] every possible protec - tions.” 3 Dewitt designated certain areas within his western tion against espionage and against sabotage to national Defense command as Military Areas and Zones thereby defense material, national-defense premises, and national de - laying the foundation for the exclusion of any person. 4 fense utilities . .” 1 to effectuate this purpose, President the President subsequently issued executive Order roosevelt designated and authorized military commanders 9201, which created the war relocation Authority to “pro - 4 March 2019 hAwAii bAr JOurnAl vide for the removal from designated areas of persons whose removal is necessary in the interests of national security.” 5 the executive Order authorized the Director of the war relocation Authority to “pre - scribe regulations necessary or desirable to promote effective execution of the pro - gram[,]” 6 including the segregation of loyal from disloyal evacuees and the relo - cation of the loyal evacuees. 7 Nakamoto Ad congress, on March 21, 1942, ratified executive Order 9066 and made it a crime to violate the military’s evacuation orders: that whoever shall enter, remain in, leave, or commit any act in any mili - tary area of military zone prescribed, under the authority of an executive [O]rder of the President, by the Sec - retary of war, or by any [M]ilitary [c]ommander designated by the Sec - retary of war, contrary to the restric - tions applicable to any such area or zone or contrary to the order of the Secretary of war or any such [M]ili - tary [c]ommander, shall, if it appears that he knew or should have known of the existence and extent of the restric - tions or order and that his act was in violation thereof, be guilty of a misde - meanor and upon conviction shall be liable to a fine of not to exceed $5,000 or to im - prisonment for not more than one year, or both, for each offense .8 the next day, General Dewitt began issu - ing a series of civilian exclusion Orders, which ordered that, for example, “all per - sons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien” were prohibited “from leaving Dale Lee Ad that area for any purpose until and to the extent that a future proclamation or order of [Dewitt’s] headquarters shall so permit or direct.” 9 in testimony before a house subcommittee, General Dewitt made clear why he believed those of Japanese ancestry needed to be removed: i don’t want any of them (persons of Japanese ancestry) here. they are a dangerous element. there is no way to determine their loyalty. the west coast contains too many vital installa - March 2019 hAwAii bAr JOurnAl 5 tions essential to the defense of the country to allow any applicant is going to live with designated classes of rela - Japanese on this coast. the danger of the Japanese tives. 14 was, and is now—if they are permitted to come back— espionage and sabotage. it makes no difference Despite satisfying any one of these conditions, an internee whether he is an American citizen, he is still a Japanese. American citizenship does not necessarily determine could not leave the camp if the proposed place of residence loyalty. but we must worry about the Japanese all or employment was within an area where “community senti - the time until he is wiped off the map. Sabotage and ment is unfavorable” or in an area closed by the war relo - espionage will make problems as long as he is allowed in cation Authority. 15 in other words, if an internee was 10 this area. determined to be loyal, they could theoretically leave, but could not return to their homes within the designated milita - the legal structure was, as rized zones. one scholar noted, “a master - with this system in place, 11 piece of political buck passing.” 120,000 individuals of Japanese indeed, the President’s order was descent—most of whom were written so vaguely that the subse - American citizens—were re - quent decisions of the military quired to report to detention cen - commanders could not be attrib - ters bringing with them only uted to him personally. it was a whatever personal possessions scheme designed such that “no they could carry. Although some single legal pronouncement ex - local churches provided coffee plicitly ordered relocation and in - and donuts, the move was humili - 12 ternment on racial grounds.” ating. Mary Matsuda Grue - nevertheless, the effect of the newald, an internee at tule lake laws was clear: Japanese Ameri - Segregation center, spoke of her can men, women, and children fear, with one man yelling at her, were placed in internment “Get outta here, you God damn camps—military-style barracks Japs! i oughta blast your heads heavily guarded by barbed wire off.” 16 She also spoke of the and gun towers. damning silence of the commu - the process for obtaining nity: “the other men didn’t say approval to leave an internment anything, but they spat on us as camp was a multi-step process we passed. Most of the crowd that required: ( 1) an approved application for leave clear - just stood and watched.” 17 the internees were then sent to ance, which necessitated an investigation of the applicant to assembly centers and eventually to “relocation centers”—the ascertain “the probable effect upon the war program and internment camps, which were located hundreds of miles in - upon the public peace and security of issuing indefinite land. One scholar described the conditions as “terrible, with 13 leave”; and (2) an approved application for indefinite leave. little running water, less privacy, and minimal food. tem - indefinite leave was only granted under fourteen cumber - peratures went below zero in the winter evenings and over some conditions, some of which included: 100 degrees in the summer days.” 18 Masaru Kawaguchi, an internee at the topaz war relocation center in utah de - (1) where the applicant proposes to accept an employ - scribed being locked away: “ [w]e were surrounded by the ment offer or an offer of support that has been investi - gated and approved by the [war relocation] Authority; barbed wire fence. You couldn’t just go out. You definitely or (2) where the applicant does not intend to work but knew that you were in a jail because they had the soldiers up has “adequate financial resources to take care of him - there with the rifles. in fact, one gentleman got too close to self” and a relocation Officer has investigated and ap - the fence and he got killed.” 19 proved “public sentiment at his proposed destination,” Many questioned their detention. harry urata, an in - or (3) where the applicant has made arrangements to live at a hotel or in a private home approved by a relo - ternee at the hono‘uli‘uli internment camp in hawai‘i, de - cation Officer while arranging for employment; or (4) cried: “how come i gotta stay inside here? Although i am where the applicant proposes to accept employment by [an] American citizen, we are there under suspicion. they a federal or local governmental agency; or (5) where the 6 March 2019 hAwAii bAr JOurnAl just suspect us.” 20 Several chose to chal - served in the united States Army. Despite lenge the military orders. One man, this, following the attacks in hawai‘i, endo twenty-six-year-old attorney Minoru Yasui was handed a piece of paper terminating of Portland, Oregon, who was a second her from her job because of her Japanese lieutenant in the united States Army, went ancestry. She would later recall: “we were for a walk in the hopes of getting arrested. accused of something, but i can’t even re - he passed a policeman, but instead of ar - member any of the allegations.” 24 Given resting him, the officer told him, “run the military orders, endo was forced to along home, sonny boy, or you’ll get in leave Sacramento and was relocated to the trouble.” impatient, at 11:00 p.m., Yasui tule lake war relocation center in Foley Ad presented himself to the neighborhood po - newell, california, and after filing a law - lice station and demanded to be booked.
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