Judgment without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment during World War II

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Summary: Diaries, contemporary sources, and official communications
Review: Judgment Without Trial is a college-level survey of Japanese American imprisonment during World War II and reveals that even before Pearl Harbor, the US government was making plans for the eventual internment of the Japanese American population. Newly discovered records traces this back to the 1920s and plans to prepare for a possible war with Japan. This plus new information on experiences of people of Japanese descent in the Justice and War Departments' camps for internees from Alaska, Hawaii and Latin America makes for an important, different guide which blends diaries, contemporary sources, and official communications in a revealing history.

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Summary: More activist Japanese-American reparations nonsense!
Review: These folks just won't stop. Kashima is a reparations demagogue who like his activist reparations colleagues is bent on re-writing the history of Japanese-American espionage before Pearl Harbor. MAGIC intelligence was the reason for the evacuation. If you want an accurate portrayal of the history, read "MAGIC" by retired National Security Agency Executuve David Lowman. The declassified documents will be enough to convince fair minded readers.

Until Japanese-Americans fess up to the darker chapters of their own history and quit attempting to portray themselves as victims and the U.S. government as racists this issue will always be controversial. Version of events of Kashima's ilk will always be taken with a grain of salt by the majority of Americans.

Did you know:

1. It is not true that Japanese-Americans were "interned". Only Japanese nationals (enemy aliens) arrested and given individual hearings were interned. Such persons were held for deportation in Department of Justice camps. Those evacuated were not interned. They were first given an opportunity to voluntarily move to areas outside the military zones. Those unable or unwilling to do so were sent to Relocation Centers operated by the War Relocation Authority.

2. During the war, more than 33,000 evacuees voluntarily left the relocation centers to accept outside employment in areas outside of the military zones. An additional 4,300 left to attend colleges in the East.

3. Approximately two-thirds of the ADULTS among those evacuated were Japanese nationals--enemy aliens subject to detention under long-standing law. The vast majority of evacuated Japanese-Americans (U.S. citizens) were children at the time. Their average age was only 15 years. In addition, between 50 and 75 percent of Japanese-Americans over age 17 were also citizens of Japan (dual citizens) under Japanese law. Thousands had been educated in Japan, some having returned to the U.S. holding reserve rank in the Japanese armed forces.

4. In a recent study made by the National Park Service for the Manzanar memorial site, it was revealed that during the war over 26% of Japanese Americans over military age said they would refuse to swear an unqualified oath of allegiance to the United States.

5. According to War Relocation Authority records, 13,000 applications renouncing their U.S. citizenship and requesting expatriation to Japan were filed by or on behalf of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Over 5,000 such applications had been processed by the end of the war.

6. The evacuation was not motivated by racism, as so often claimed today, but by information obtained by the U.S. from pre-war decoded Japanese diplomatic messages (MAGIC) and other intelligence revealing the existence of espionage and the potential for sabotage involving then-unidentified resident Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans living within the West Coast Japanese community. Many of these messages and associated intelligence documents have since been declassified and are available in a number of historical publications.

Don't fall for what Kashima and his activist buddies are feeding the public....

Rating:
Summary: Sheds new light on reasons for internment
Review: This book is a comprehensive look at some of the major reasons for the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans during WW2. Many people think that racial hatred of Japanese started with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, but actually this was only the culmination of years of anti Japanese feelings , especially on the west coast. Most of the first generation Japanese were farmers, and they made what was once thought to be barren wasteland into some of the most productive land in the US. However, the 1920 Land Act prohibited all Japanese nationals from owning any land, and first generation Japanese were PROHIBITED from becoming US citizens, laws influenced by racist white farmers to prevent any more Japanese from owning farm land. The ever resourceful Issei (first generation Japanese) bypassed this by putting their land in their childrens (by law, American citizens) names. In 1924, the Congress and President Coolidge passed the Anti-Asian exclusion act, which prohibited any more immigration by Japanese (and other Asians) (for an excellent reference, see Roger Daniels "The Politics of Prejudice" for an authoritative look at the laws used to discriminate against Japanese during the early 20th century). In addition, Newspaper publishers like William Randolph Hearst were making large efforts to inflame anti Japanese sentiment in their newspapers.
When Pearl Harbor occured, mass hysteria ensued. Many Japanese owned businesses were burned and looted and homes of Japanese families were vandalized and attacked. It was Feb. 1942 when Executive Order 9066 effectively gave all persons of Japanese ancestry, some times as little as 72 hours, time to pack their belongings, settle their affairs, and report for "relocation" (a euphemism if there ever was one).
One last fact that a previous reviewer conveniently doesn't mention- The US Army's 442nd and 100th all Nisei(second generation) combat units, comprising nearly 10,000 men, were the most decorated units for their size in the history of the United States.While their families were locked up or prevented from returning to their lawful homes, "these brave men fought prejudice and won" - spoken by Pres. Harry Truman in 1945 in a ceremony honoring the 442nd and 100th battalions.Its on archival news reels, for any doubters out there.
A previous reviewer says that the WW2 internment of Japanese Americans was NOT due to racial hatred and prejudice- this book and a look at history and the congressional record for the aforementioned anti-Japanese legislation would prove him dead WRONG.