Rationale Across The War

-->

       Since the end of World War II, many American historians have labeled it “The Good War.” This term in general may be used for certain aspects of the war, such as some of the people who fought in it, the reasons for coming, and the general victorious outcome for America as a country. However, many things occurred throughout the war that are now looked at as terrible occurrences, many of which should have never happened. The Germans are the prime example of this. With the brutal treatment, ghettoization, confinement to concentration camps, and the eventual plan of extermination of Jews, homosexual, gypsies, and other groups seen unfit to live, some of the worst actions known to mankind were committed by the German army during World War II. Germans were working behind racial ideologies and enslaving and killing groups of people simply because of who they were. Not only were they being enslaved and put to work which caused them starvation, disease, and eventually death, they were working in war factories to further the same regime that was putting them through these crimes against humanity. While slavery has been around for centuries, mostly confined to African Americans, simply because of their race, the complete extermination of a group of people because of their race was unheard of until World War II. While completely outrageous, Hitler was able to rationalize this to the German people by using the Jews as scapegoats for the failures of World War I as well as the failures of the current economic state.

          The Germans weren’t the only group working from racial ideologies. The Japanese saw themselves as the Yamato race; ancient people of pure blood and high culture, destined to lead other Asians. While genocide was not part of the Asian plan, they did want to rid the Asian countries of European colonial people and ideologies, creating what they called, an “Asia for the Asians.” They believed the Asian people should work together as one, under Japanese leadership. Each ethnic group within Asia would have its’ own proper place in the hierarchical order, with Japan at the top. They too were notably violent with the native people of newly obtained territories, especially the Japanese soldiers who raped many women while forcing them to be comfort women to fulfill the soldier’s needs. They simply rationalized these acts as a nationalistic view of Japanese people being the pure Asian race.

     In America, the questionable actions were seen through the propaganda, mostly against the Japanese people, and the creation of internment camps on the west coast where over one hundred thousand Japanese-Americans, many of them American citizens became displaced from their homes and forced to live in confined, guarded territories. While the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians has since made public that the “broad historical causes that shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership,” these acts were once rationalized by not only the American government, but everyday citizens as well (Kashima, 1982) . The President and government argued a need for national security, as well as propaganda and proper treatment within the camps to help rationalize this move and sell it to the general public. The ability to rationalize these actions helped protect them from the protest of the civilian population. Without a rationalization, the American public might be less understanding to why it was happening, and would be more likely to try and stop it or simply not support it.

Why Internment? Early Justification

-->

The internment of Japanese people in America began with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s drafting and putting into action Executive Order 9066. With this order, and within the exact wording of it, Roosevelt says that the country required, “every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities” (Roosevelt, 1942) This order was signed into effect February 14^th, 1942, just two months after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. A foreign country without warning had attacked his country, the one he was supposed to lead. After he put the situation under careful consideration, and a few months deliberation, he decided that this was the best course of action. It was not an immediate act that could spew from the hate and an overreaction to the attack. This was carefully planned out as means of protection from an enemy with whom the country was at war. In hindsight people wonder how the government, and civilians could have allowed this, but they were told repetitively that the country was simply trying to protect itself.

The fact that they weren’t the only ones definitely doesn’t hurt their rationale. Their Canadian neighbors to the north were also taking action against the Japanese to protect themselves from the danger that they believe the Japanese-Canadians posed. They had seen what happened to America and did not want to be brought into the war, and had a fear of attack, the same way The United States did. Over 22,000 Japanese-Canadians, 14,000 of whom had been born in Canada were removed from their homes, had their personal belongings confiscated, and sent to be confined in internment camps across Canada. Canada hadn’t been attacked. Not only had they not been attacked, but throughout the war they were barely involved, yet they worried of attack and sabotage, and the danger of the Japanese people, the same way as The United States did. Ian Alistair Mackenzie, a Canadian parliamentarian was quoted saying of the situation, “"It is the government’s plan to get these people out of B.C. as fast as possible. It is my personal intention, as long as I remain in public life, to see they never come back here. Let our slogan be for British Columbia: ‘No Japs from the Rockies to the seas” (Mackenzie, 1945). It makes it much easier to rationalize the internment of Japanese people when an American citizen can look to the calm, peaceful Canadian nation and realize they are not only doing the same thing, but some of their congress men like Ian Alistair Mackenzie want to take it to a whole new level. The Americans had the idea and notion that once the war was over and they were presumably safe from Japanese attack, the interned people would be free to live as they were. John L. DeWitt stated, “ The evacuation was impelled by military necessity. The security of the Pacific Coast continues to require the exclusion of Japanese from the area now prohibited to them and will so continue as long as that military necessity exists.” Canada on the other hand, at least in Mackenzie’s mind, felt that Japanese should never come back, and Americans were able to think at least they weren’t that hateful.

            The United States government had no way of knowing who was and who wasn’t an enemy and argued that it precautionary to defend themselves against all Japanese who may or may not be dangerous to American safety. American civilian opposition to internment wonder why it was only the Japanese that were treated this way when America was at war with other Axis powers like Italy and Germany. While this could be simply answered by the fact that the Japanese were the only ones to attack the United States on their soil, as well as the difficulty to identify Italian or German-Americans, the fact remains that, while to a smaller scale, individual Italians and Germans were removed from their homes. Title III of the Smith Act, required all people, “who is fourteen years of age or older, ... and remains in the United States for thirty days or longer, [is] to apply for registration and to be fingerprinted before the expiration of such thirty days” (United States Congress, 1940). Using this registration, over 3,200 Italians were arrested and approximately 300 were interned, and over 11,000 Germans were arrested and 5000 interned. The Japanese, having already attacked American soil proved the biggest threat, causing the United States government to take action, however, all action wasn’t just taken against them. This fact helped rationalize the Japanese internment. If it were truly only the Japanese that were being treated this way, it would be easy to see how Americans might question this acts legitimacy and true reasoning behind it. However, with the internment and arrest of many Italians and Germans, citizens were able to see that anybody who was an international enemy may have people working on American soil.

Propaganda Reinforces Justification

Propaganda has an important function in the war process. Not only does it rally the troops and use images and mantras to depict the reasons they are fighting and sacrificing their lives, but it rallies the home front and gives every body a reason to participate in the war effort whether that means buying war bonds, rationing food, entering the industry to make war products, or creating your very own victory garden. In World War II, propaganda served another purpose, especially on the home front. Propaganda was used to help rationalize the internment of Japanese-Americans on American soil. While Germans were often the subjects of American propaganda, the Japanese were at the forefront of most propaganda seen in The United States. Most of this propaganda served to dehumanize the enemy. “When our enemy is inhuman, especially when metaphorically figured as toxic, spreading, insidious, and contaminating, it becomes a civic, even a moral duty to inhibit its’ pernicious spread” (Steuter and Wills, 2008, 38). This dehumanization of the Japanese people gave the public good reason to contain them on American soil and put them into internment camps.

Not all propaganda against the enemy was dehumanizing and evil. Many frequently seen pieces of propaganda seen after Pearl Harbor simply displayed the mantra, “Remember – December 7, 1941.” One piece shows a navy personnel working the guns, trying to take down any Japanese plane he can, aboard a ship that looks damaged and had what seems to be a dead or injured body next to him (Alston, 1943).  The propaganda works to draw from the audience’s emotions, asking them to remember the men who died trying to stop the Japanese anyway they could. It is asking you to remember the evil acts that the Japanese are capable of without warning. Remember why we are fighting to not only stop them from committing more of these murderous acts, but to avenge the one they had already committed. This type of propaganda also helped rationalize the internment of Japanese Americans. It reinforced the central idea that the Japanese were, indeed, the enemy. One form of propaganda displayed by the government that helped rationalize the internment of Japanese Americans was the film Japanese Relocation. The government film, “emphasized the cheerful cooperation of Japanese Americans as they were moved hundreds of miles away from their homes into “pioneer communities”” (Brewer, 2009, 109). It was easy to rationalize the Japanese, rather than the other Axis powers, as enemies because of the acts that had been committed, and the American military members that had been killed. It was their identity as our enemy that provoked this propaganda, thus, the internment.

Lastly, they weren’t the only ones distributing propaganda. The Japanese, whose main goal in the war was ridding the Asian countries of western colonials and colonial ideals had their own propaganda. They had a race issue with the white westerners and they distributed propaganda depicting Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill depicted as monsters amongst a field of bones. They are implied to be eating the bones of their enemies. In writing on the side, in Japanese, it is translated, “Their true character is that of devils and beasts” (Unkown) The United States had not attacked them and should not have been seen as an enemy but because of their association with white westerners, they became the enemy. The Japanese used the same tactics of dehumanization to belittle the enemy. When an American citizen saw a piece of Japanese propaganda such as this one, it created visions of hate. When the enemy hates you, it makes it much easier to hate the enemy. If you happen to see propaganda depicting your American people as beasts, it helped rationalize the fact that Americans were distributing the same type of propaganda against the Japanese. The hate, dehumanization, and depiction of an enemy make it a logical choice by the American government to contain the Japanese people, in the eyes of the American public.

Treatment Justifies Rationale

There are many indications of the terrible treatment, brutality, and mass murder of the Jewish people in Europe, because of their race and religion. While the Japanese were secluded to internment camps in America, the conditions weren’t quite the same. While the Jewish people lived in large barracks, often times multiple people to a bed, Japanese families often had their own homes, although most were one or two rooms. While Jewish people were forced to work, no matter age, health, or gender, and under harsh conditions and careful watch of the Nazi soldiers, the Japanese often held jobs similar to their previous life and in many instances, such as Manzanar, news headlines often became similar to this; “Twenty-one young Island residents will leave this relocation center for Montana sugar beet fields today” (Ohtaki, 1942). While many people in concentration camps died of starvation and disease, Japanese people were able to grow their own gardens and feed themselves at their wish.

While conditions did not always start out the best, it has to be realized that creating perfect living conditions for mass amount of people would have been near impossible. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese were relocated to the camps almost without notice. They were moved to makeshift locations that had to be set up for their arrival. The short notice of the executive order forced the American government to put up these living conditions. While they could have been as terrible and neglected as the Nazi concentration camps, they officials did the best they could to create conditions to house all of those people in the best manner they could. While conditions at the beginning were decent at best, many still managed to enjoy them, and even the trip to the camps. One report stated that, “On the train there was group singing, card playing, and "chatting" with the soldiers who accompanied the evacuees. Islanders were treated "swell" by the Army and, in return, cooperated fully because the soldiers were so courteous” (Ohtaki, 1942). Later, once everyone began to get settled in at their new location, normal routine life began to take place. Some even found love and announced engagements, and eventually a baby was even born at the camp. The Japanese people had a lot of free time throughout their day to do what they please. Many turned to the arts, whether it be music, painting, or writing. The camp in Manzanar, even held their own baseball league. They even had awards for teams and people such as the, “Bainbridge Yankees as the "best sportsmen" in Manzanar's major baseball league” (Ohtaki, 1942). All sorts of camps around the west had improving conditions and relatively satisfactory people.

These newspaper articles from the Bainbridge Island Review were often circulated to large amounts of American citizens. In reading these articles, it is very plausible how citizens would get the idea that the internment camps, were in fact, not all that bad. When they see these news articles about the sports teams, or the weddings, and babies, it is easy to conceive why American citizens might have been okay with the idea and conception of internment. When they see Japanese people seemingly go ahead with daily normal life, the rationale of confining Japanese people becomes easier to see. Had reports surfaced of the terrible treatment of the Japanese people, the American public might not have been as accepting as they were. With the proper treatment, and more specifically, news of proper treatment, coupled with the government reasoning of safety, it is easy to see why the American public didn’t see a problem with it.

Why Rationale Matters

Many of the worst atrocities committed in history were committed during World War II. Most of these were committed because of the racial aspects of war. If a group of people were seen as less than you, less than human, and not worth taking up space and air in the world we live in. The Nazi’s had no problem killing over six million Jews and Gypsy’s and other people seen unfit to live. Not only were they content with killing them, they were content with the torture that took place before hand. Many people were worked to death, starved to death, while others had diseases that were left untreated. Dr. Mengele and other scientists held experiments on people, simply because they could. Dying bodies were left in the open and not cared for while others had to go on with the stench and the thought that they could be next. Yet they were able to rationalize this to the German public because of the anti-Semitism and the need to clear space for the Aryan race. The Japanese also raped and killed over 250,000 people who had seemingly surrendered at Nanking. Through the rest of the war in the pacific, the Japanese had no problem killing prisoners because they were of a lesser race. If that wasn’t enough, they were known for the practice of cutting of male genitals and other body parts as trophies. The rationalized this because of their nationalism and racial ideologies. It is known that the Americans were less than perfect in their actions against the Japanese in the pacific, however that was after witnessing the things that had been done to their fellow soldiers, their friends, and their brothers. This was a war that brought the worst out of men, but the actions of people in the heat of battle can always be rationalized to some extent. The anger and pain of seeing your friends die brought out a side that the soldiers didn’t even know they had in them. On the home front they had to protect their people, and rationalize it the best way they could.

            America faced a dilemma. Not long after the attacks on Pearl Harbor there American government and civilians began to believe that Japanese people on the islands had played a part in planning the attacks. How else could the Japanese have known the precise locations of the ships and the airfields? They had to assume that people inside the country, especially those with strong ties to their homeland, might sabotage America anyway they can. The internment of Japanese Americans was a logical choice. As shown, while it was a larger portion of Japanese that were sent to camps, other groups such as Germans and Italians were sent to camps. As Franklin Roosevelt pointed out in the executive order, the purpose of the internment was means for protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense. The protection of the country comes first, even if it comes as an inconvenience to others, and when it comes time and the war has ended, the Japanese people will be able to live, hopefully, as they have before. The treatment and conditions displayed in most internment camps, and the allowing for arts, sports, paying jobs, and the attempt to create a routine lifestyle similar to their previous lives helped rationalize it to the American public, and perhaps, themselves. Had the treatment and the inhumane torture and punishment, the mass genocide, and the expulsion of an entire race from America taken place, many would like to believe that the American public would have never stood for it, and that the government would have never even allowed such and order to take place in the first part. However, because that wasn’t the case, the government had a much easier time rationalizing their choice as one of national security.

Works Cited

-->

Works Cited

Primary Sources

Alston, Charles H. December 7^th 1941 – Remember!. Densho Digital Archinve. 1943.

DeWitt, John L, Final Report; Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942, Washington D.C.: Govt. Printing Office, 1943, pp. vii-x. 6/5/1942

Friedman, Herbert A. Japanese PSYOP During WWII. 11/01/03. http://www.psywarrior.com/JapanPSYOPWW2.html (accessed, 3/30/13).

Kashima, Tetsuden. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. Seattle: University of Washington Press and Washington D.C.: Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, 1997

Mackenzie, Ian Alistair. Interview. Japanese Internment. CBC.http://www. cbc.ca/ history/?MIval=EpisContent.html&lang=E&series_id=1&episode_id=14&chapter_id=3&page_id=3 (accessed April 1, 2013)

Ohtaki, Paul. Evacuees Sing on Trip. Bainbridge Island Review. 4/16/42

Ohtaki, Paul. First Island Baby at Manzanar Born. Bainbridge Island Review. 8/20/42.

Ohtaki, Paul. Island Japanese Voted 'Best Sports’. Bainbridge Island Review. 9/3/42.

Ohtaki, Paul. 21 Young Japanese Islanders Leave Manzanar For Jobs. Bainbridge Island Review. 9/24/42.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. Executive Order 9066. 2/14/1942

United States Congress. Alien Registration Act. Ch. 439, 54 Stat. 670, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2385.

Secondary Sources.

Brewer, Susan A. Why America Fights: Patriotism and War Propaganda from the Philippines to Iraq. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Steuter, Erin and Deborah Wills. At War with Metaphor: Media, Propaganda, and Racism in the War on Terror. Lexington Books, 2009.