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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J. C. Dithers who wrote (31088)	10/7/2001 4:31:42 PM
From: E	Respond to of 82486

Some pre-war background, beginning in 1900. (The next post discusses other aspects of your post.) History of the Japanese - U.S. Relationship From: The LegiSchool Project... A Civic Education Collaboration between California State University, Sacramento and the California State Legislature Excerpt: II. Immigration And Anti-Japanese Activities The vast majority of Japanese emigrated to the U.S. between 1900 and 1920. 1900 \| Under pressure from U.S., the Japanese government stops issuing passports to laborers desiring to enter U.S. Since territory of Hawaii is not mentioned in agreement, Japanese continue to immigrate there. 1904 San Francisco: The National Convention of the American Federation of Labor resolves to exclude Japanese, Chinese and Koreans from membership. Japan declares war on Russia. Russia badly defeated. American sentiment, initially with Japan, soon turns antagonistic. 1905 Japan and Russia sign Portsmouth Treaty with U.S. as mediator. Provisions of treaty cause outbursts of anti-government and anti-American feelings in Japan. Renewed anti-Japanese feelings swell in U.S. San Francisco Chronicle runs anti-Japanese series for a year and a half. California legislature urges U.S. Congress to limit Japanese immigration. Sixty-seven organizations meet in San Francisco to form Asiatic Exclusion League of San Francisco. 1906 San Francisco School Board orders segregation of 93 Japanese American students. 1907 On orders from President Theodore Roosevelt, S.F. School Board rescinds segregation order, but strong feelings against Japanese persist. Anti-Japanese riots break out in San Francisco in May, again in October, much to the embarrassment of U.S. government. Congress passes immigration bill forbidding Japanese laborers from entering the U.S. via Hawaii, Mexico, or Canada. 1908 The Asiatic Exclusion League reports 231 organizations affiliated now, 195 of them labor unions. U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root and Foreign Minister Hayashi of Japan formalize the Gentlemen's Agreement whereby Japan agrees not to issue visas to laborers wanting to emigrate to the U.S. 1909 Anti-Japanese riots in Berkeley. U.S. leaders alarmed at tone and intensity of anti-Japanese legislation introduced in California legislature. 1910 Twenty-seven anti-Japanese proposals intro-duced in the California legislature. White House urges Governor Hiram Johnson to seek moderation. 1913 Alien Land Law (Webb-Haney Act) passed, denying "all aliens ineligible for citizen-ship" (which includes all Asians except Filipinos, who are "subjects" of U.S.) the right to own land in California. Leasing land Iimited to 3 years. Similar laws eventually adopted in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Minnesota. 1915 The Hearst newspapers, historically hostile to Japanese, intensifies its "Yellow Peril" campaign with sensational headlines and editorials, fueling anti-Japanese feelings. 1918 California's Alien Land Law amended to close all loopholes. Forbids Issei to buy land in the names of their Nisei children (see date 1913). 1920 Under pressure from U.S., Japan ceases issu-ing passports to so_called picture brides, who had been emigrating to the U.S. from about 1910 to join husbands they had mar-ried by proxy. Becomes effective in 1921. 1922 Supreme Court rules in Takeo Ozawa v. U.S. that naturalization is limited to "free white persons and aliens of African nativity," thus legalizing previous practice of excluding Asians from citizenship. Congress passes Cable Act. Which provides that "any woman marrying an alien ineligible for citizenship shall cease to be an American citizen." In practice, this meant that anyone marrying an Issei would automatically lose citizenship. In marriages terminated by death or divorce, a Caucasian woman could regain citizenship, whereas a Nisei woman could not. Act amended in 1931, allowing Nisei women married to Issei men to retain citizenship. 1924 Congress passes Immigration Exclusion Act, barring all immigration from Japan. Protests held throughout Japan. July 1 declared "Day of Humiliation." 1936 Cable Act repealed. 1937 Japan invades China by end of the year, cap-turing Nanking, capital of Nationalist China. U.S. breaks off commercial relations with Japan. Britain and France declare war on Germany, signaling beginning of World War II. bss.sfsu.edu

To: J. C. Dithers who wrote (31088)	10/7/2001 4:32:14 PM
From: E	Respond to of 82486

I remind you that it was not I, but J. Edgar Hoover and the Attorney General of the United States who described the internments as unnecessary and simply a response to local political pressures. And it was Curtis Munson, a specially appointed presidential investigator, who found in a ten year study "an extraordinary degree of loyalty," among Americans of Japanese descent-- a study which btw only "corroborated years of surveillance by PBI and Naval Intelligence." As for motives, Hawaii proves they weren't based on military necessity, as does the absence of convictions -- oh, wait, not of convictions, of charges, even! -- of the arrested citizens for the dastardly acts you suspect. Additional evidence that there was another force at work than 'military necessity' is the conditions of privation, malnutrition, non-notification of families of where their beloved ones had been taken, and perfect willingness to break up these families and impoverish them. Here are more data suggestive of what caused the vileness, and it was not the behavior of the Japanese Americans: LA Times quote: "[a] viper is nonetheless a viper wherever the egg is hatched..." Gen. DeWitt before Congress: "[y]ou needn't worry about the Italians [Italian Americans]... ...the same for the Germans [German Americans]... But we must worry about the Japanese [Japanese American] all the time until he is wiped off the map." I remind you again that none of the 'dastardly' acts you propose those Americans who were arrested might have committed had they not been incarcerated occurred in Hawaii, where Japanese Americans remained free. (That was your oddest defense, and suggests that mere innocence should not deter us from imprisoning citizens at will on the grounds that if free, some of the arrested might conceivably take it into their heads to commit crimes.) In my previous post I provided some of the "Yellow Peril"- mentality background that had been going on for decades, and that flowered at last into the camps as the flames were fanned by opportunist politicians and the media. It addresses your naive question about motivation. "Purely" racist? No. Not purely. Racism is never "pure," it always benefits some constituencies. I've provided some of this background in the previous post. Item: The American Legion, since its founding in 1919, had never once failed to pass an annual resolution against the Japanese Americans. The Associated Farmers in California had competitive reasons for wanting to get rid of the Japanese Americans. Item: The 100thd and &442d of Japanese American soldiers, the most-decorated, the bravest of the brave, the most loyal of the loyal, were sent to rescue a Texas "lost battalion," and did so, after five days of battle, suffering 800 casualties, including 184 killed in action, to rescue 211 Texans. Thank you, dead American heroes, thank you also to the American children and grandchildren of Japanese descent who were never born because, to save caucasians, you died too young to experience the joys of fatherhood. Thank you, thank you, I am sorry, and ashamed, for your families' losses, and for what they were forced to endure while you fought and died. Please forgive those of us who feel remorse, as well as those of us who don't.