Frankly, when reports of the Bataan death march hit the papers it was a good thing that they were in camps.
Righter than you knew. The principle reason for removing ethnic Japanese from the west coast was that riots were already starting to happen within days of Pearl Harbor.
The story you THINK you know is largely a fabrication by lawyers seeking compensation (and fat fees) from Congress in the 1980s.
The book is Magic: The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents from the West Coast During Ww II by David B. Lowman -- available from Amazon or Alibris.
Lowman was a former high level officer in the National Security Agency and a witness before congressional committees dealing with the evacuation he was uniquely qualified to tell this story. It touches closely on the American codebreakers' success in reading Japanese radio codes, hence the name. Until crucial documents were declassified he couldn't write this book, and consequently it was published posthumously.
“Frankly, when reports of the Bataan death march hit the papers it was a good thing that they were in camps.”
That is a great observation. Thanks for that.