Baker: My response to story on Japanese internments during World War II

Your article in Saturday’s Independent regarding the Japanese Internment Camps in the U.S. during World War II was very interesting, but like most writers on the subject, you left out some major factual information that needs to be included in any discussion of the subject.

Obviously, this was a time in our history that things were done to people that later we would consider unfair.

This is certainly true regarding the treatment of Asians who immigrated to the United States, Chinese and later Japanese, because of intolerable conditions in their native countries. The Chinese were very poorly treated primarily because of their cultural differences, and later, when Japanese immigrants appeared, they faced some of the same problems.

However, in the early 20th century, the Chinese were recovering from attempts by European powers to control and colonize their country and had mainly succeeded in gaining control from the European nations, but the Japanese didn’t face the same problems, as the Europeans and Americans never attempted to occupy their country as a colony.

However, the Japanese differed from the Chinese in that they began to expand into adjacent areas, notably China and Southeast Asia, dominating them as the Europeans had tried to do before them. They had actually defeated the Russians at times, and controlled some areas, notably Manchuria, where the Chinese and Russians had previously dominated.

When Japanese people started migrating to the United States, they were received much the same as the Chinese had been, although they were generally better equipped for survival in a more modern society. One differing factor is that many of them maintained ties with the homeland through patriotic societies and other contacts.

If you have read Rear Adm. Edwin Layton’s book, “And I Was There,” which described his career as a naval officer and Adm. Nimitz’s intelligence chief during World War II, you would realize that the Japanese nation was vigorously expanding in China and Southeast Asia during this period, and one of their targets was the United States. They had built up a modern army and navy, and were actively gathering intelligence information about the United States through the planting of intelligence officers and agents

Throughout the country, many from the homeland, but others from Japanese who had already lived in this country for some time. Some had only recently arrived, but others were second generation, having been born in the U.S., and were therefore, by American law, American citizens by birth. The problem is that by Japanese law, anyone of Japanese parentage, regardless of birthplace, was still considered a Japanese citizen.

Since the United States military and the FBI were aware of the extensive contact that some Japanese people kept with their homeland, there were many in the federal government that considered some of these people to be security risks, and Adm. Layton describes these activities that were monitored by the Navy and FBI before the outbreak of war.

It is a very complicated subject, but when the Japanese deliberately attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines, President Roosevelt felt that it would be best to remove these people from the general population in order to prevent any further harm.

This is the origin of the relocation camps. Obviously, most Japanese were not guilty of anything, but this was war, and the president felt he had no choice, especially with the aggressive nature of the Japanese government. The people were relocated and lived through the war years, finally being released when the war was over.

The reason given for their confinement was that they were, by Japanese law, all enemy aliens. In most countries, when they go to war against another country, the enemy’s citizens are identified and either repatriated, confined, or allowed to function within the country’s society. In Japan, however, enemy aliens were very badly mistreated, and the horror stories you read about American and European civilians in countries occupied by the Japanese are mainly true.

In recent years, this action by the United States government in relocating these people is described by writers as a form of racism. However, I don’t think any of them would have wanted to trade places with the Jews in Germany or the Chinese population who were murdered by the thousands by Japanese troops while they occupied parts of China.

The Japanese-American population was relocated, and many were later released, some to serve in our armed forces, and little if any disloyalty was ever detected during the war years. But here, they survived,

I’ve never heard of this being taught in our schools, and it should be.