X-Message-Number: 16842
Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2001 00:34:56 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Re: Japanese Internment

Lee Corbin writes

>Mike Perry writes
>...
> >I hadn't heard of the Black Dragon, but I have studied the
> >Japanese-American incarceration, and I strongly disagree with
> >the  conclusion that it was "absolutely necessary."  Innocent
> >people lost their property, not to be recovered,
>
>Yes.  It has always been perfectly clear that the failure to
>return their property was a disgrace.  But this needs to be
>separated from the action of internment itself, for which there
>was no alternative.  Even if God had waved a magic wand, and
>the Japanese-American population had become inhumanly loyal to
>the United States, the danger to them from the Anglos would have
>warranted separation.

Wow! I've never heard that justification before! I don't buy it. I don't 
think there was any substantial anti-Japanese action on the part of Anglos 
(or other groups) to serve as an indicator that this sort of thing would 
follow. Not at all.


> >in addition to undergoing a long detention without trial or due
> >process.
>
>There simply wouldn't have been time for it.  Besides, how could
>you prove *which* one-fifth of the population would one day aid
>the invading army?

I haven't seen any proof that *any* one fifth of the population would aid 
the invading army.


> >Hawaii had a much larger fraction of Japanese-Americans than did
>
> >California at the time, yet it was unmolested while Californians
> >were subjected to the infamous "relocation."
>
>You're right; I can't explain that.

My explanation (and comment) is (1) the example of Hawaii shows that the 
Japanese-Americans posed no serious threat and were not threatened in turn 
by Anglos, thus the internment was unnecessary and unwarranted, and (2) in 
California there were certain unscrupulous, racist elements who stood to 
gain if the property was seized, etc., and who managed to play on fear and 
hysteria enough to bring about the infamous action in *their* home territory.

Mike Perry

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