19. The aftermath of the Japanese American internment during the Second World War
Thomas C. Clark, a Texan who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1949 to 1967, wrote in 1992, in the book Executive Order 9066: The Internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans, “The truth is – as this deplorable experience proves – that constitutions and laws are not sufficient of themselves”. Clark had been responsible for representing the United States Department of Justice during the relocation. He continued, “Despite the unequivocal language of the Constitution of the United States that the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, and despite the Fifth Amendment’s command that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, both of these constitutional safeguards were denied by military action under Executive Order 9066”.
Since the 1990s it has become commonplace to drop references to the camps as being internment centers, relocation centers, or detention camps and refer to them as what they were, which was concentration camps. Some Americans can’t reconcile themselves to the fact that America operated concentration camps, though they had done so previously during the Philippine-American War. The camps were created for the purpose of incarcerating Americans of Japanese descent during a time of fear of the Japanese and loathing of them as a race, against the backdrop of barbaric atrocities committed by troops of the Japanese Empire in the Pacific. It remains a little studied episode of the American experience, and deserves greater scrutiny as an example of what can happen when the rule of law is swept aside by passion, however that passion is created.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Immigration Bill Passes Senate by Vote of 62 to 6”. The New York Times. April 19, 1924
“How the Japanese Did It”. Robert J. Hanyok, Naval History Magazine. December 2009
“How Pearl Harbor created a climate of fear”. Daniel Greene, CNN News Online. December 7, 2016
“Executive Order 9066, dated 19 February 1942, in which President Franklin D. Roosevelt Authorizes the Secretary of WJar to Prescribe Military Areas”. National Archives of the United States. February 19, 1942. Online
“December 7, 1941: The Day the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor”. Gordon W. Prange. 1989
“Milton S. Eisenhower, Educational Statesman”. Stephen E. Ambrose, Richard H. Immerman. 2009
“Bad Landmark: Righting a Racial Wrong”. TIME Magazine, November 21, 1983
“The Truth about World War II Internment”. The Los Angeles Times. May 27, 2011
“Childhood Lost: The Orphans of Manzanar”. Renee Tawa, The Los Angeles Times. March 11, 1997
“Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II”. Roger Daniels. 1993
“Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps”. Michi Weglyn. 1996