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IN DEFENSE OF INTERNMENT
Michelle Malkin.com ^ | August 03, 2004 | By Michelle Malkin

Posted on 08/03/2004 8:47:30 AM PDT by aculeus

The word is out about my new book, In Defense of Internment: The Case for "Racial Profiling" in World War II and the War on Terror. I've been keeping it under wraps over the past year as I quietly toiled away in the wee hours of the morning, but since Instapundit kindly mentioned receiving the book yesterday, I am delighted now to share a few more details with you.

The official launch is Monday, August 9. Please check my books page for more info (including documents, bibliography, resources, errata, etc.) and notices of upcoming appearances, speeches, and book signings. For those of you in the Seattle area, I shall return to the Pacific Northwest this Friday, Aug. 6, for a speech sponsored by my friends at KVI-AM. It's at 7 pm at Cedar Park Church in Bothell. More info is here. Hope you can make it.

My aim is to kick off a vigorous national debate on what has been one of the most undebatable subjects in Amerian history and law: President Franklin Roosevelt's homeland security policies that led to the evacuation and relocation of 112,000 ethnic Japanese on the West Coast, as well as the internment of tens of thousands of enemy aliens from Japan, Germany, Italy, and other Axis nations. I think it's vitally important to get the history right because the WWII experience is often invoked by opponents of common-sense national security profiling and other necessary homeland security measures today.

A few things compelled me to write the book. Ever since I questioned President Clinton's decision to award the Congressional Medal of Honor to Japanese-American soldiers based primarly on claims of racial discrimination in 2000, several readers have urged me to research the topic of the "Japanese-American internment." World War II veterans wrote to say they agreed with my assessment of Clinton's naked politicization of the medals, but disagreed with my unequivocal statement that the internment of ethnic Japanese was "was abhorrent and wrong." They urged me to delve into the history and the intelligence leading to the decision before making up my mind.

I was further inspired by some intriguing blog debates last year between Sgt. Stryker and Is That Legal?. After reading a book by former National Security Agency official David Lowman called MAGIC: The untold story of U.S. Intelligence and the evacuation of Japanese residents from the West Coast during WWII, published posthumously by Athena Press Inc., I contacted publisher Lee Allen, who generously agreed to share many new sources and resources as I sought the truth.

The constant alarmism from Bush-bashers who argue that every counter-terror measure in America is tantamount to the internment was the final straw. The result is a book that I hope changes the way readers view both America's past and its present.

If you are a history buff, you will undoubtedly enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it. There are some incredible stories of untold courage and patriotism, as well as espionage and disloyalty, that have been buried in the mainstream WWII literature. If you are a parent with kids in high school, college, or law school, I hope you buy the book for your students or their teachers. And if you are simply an informed citizen, seeking answers about why we have failed to do what's necessary to combat our enemies on American soil (e.g., airport profiling, immigration enforcement, heightened scrutiny of Muslim chaplains and soldiers, etc.), I hope you buy the book to help gain intellectual ammunition and insights on our politically correct paralysis.

Liberal critics always ask if I've ever changed my mind about anything. Yes, I take back what I wrote in 2000; I have radically changed my mind about FDR's actions to protect the homeland. And I hope to persuade you all to do the same.

It's a daunting task, I know. This issue is fraught with emotion. Already, the first two reviews at Amazon.com have been posted--one on either side of the debate by individuals who have obviously not read a single page of the book. Another individual, who also admits she hasn't read the book, e-mailed the following to me today with the subject headline, "Shame on you:"

I have been a fan of yours since spotting you a while ago on FOX news…and I often agree with your views. I’m therefore appalled to read on Instapundit that you have published a book which endorses the internment of Americans of Japanese descent during WWII...I’m shocked that you would use Michael Moore-ish “truth-telling” to make the case for the internment camps. My parents’ families were interned in the middle of the desert in Arizona, and it was far from the summer-camp-like experience your publisher describes on Amazon.com. You apparently note the many “amenities” in the camps---sounds almost like Moore’s depiction of pre-OIF days in Iraq. Geez, Louise. She compares me to Michael Moore without having read a single sentence of the actual book.

Neither has Eric Muller, who runs the blog Is That Legal? that I mentioned earlier. (He is also mentioned in my book on p. 352.) Yet, based on the book cover and publisher's description alone, he comments that they do "not inspire confidence that Ms. Malkin is going to be giving us history that is Fair and Balanced." He complains that the cover unfairly likened "a Japanese-American man to Mohammed Atta"--but he does so without bothering to find out who the man on the cover is. He is Richard Kotoshirodo, a Japanese-American man who by his own admission assisted the Honolulu-based spy ring that fed intelligence to Tokyo that was key to the design of the Pearl Harbor attack. Every scholar and student who writes about Roosevelt's decision to evacuate the West Coast should know his name and story.

I expect much more emotion-driven criticism like this in days and weeks to come. And I look forward to whatever substantive debate the other side can muster up.

All that said, the fact that the book is being published at all is what made all the hard work of the past year--and the harsh ad hominem attacks sure to come--worth it. Most publishers wouldn't touch this with a 100-foot pole, and I am grateful to Regnery Publishing for fully embracing my idea. Everything else is icing on the cake (though it would be nice to outsell fluffball Maureen Dowd).

So, stay tuned. I think we are in for a wild but very necessary and educational ride.


TOPICS: Extended News
KEYWORDS: aliens; malkin; michellemalkin; needed; racialprofiling
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To: politicket

Yeah, its almost as bad as judging someone based on what you *think* they are saying, without even reading the book.

Maybe we should read the book first, and then discuss the merits of her argument.


21 posted on 08/03/2004 9:17:55 AM PDT by Ramius (The pieces are moving. We come to it at last. The great battle of our time.)
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To: politicket
So you would have preferred them to be blown to bits in Coventry? Both were cases of protecting the paramount secret of WW2: the broken Axis codes.

Internment sure beats a Nazi bomb on the head, and both Coventry and internment were justified, in order to protect the broken codes, shorten the war by years, and save millions of lives.

22 posted on 08/03/2004 9:18:26 AM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: robowombat

>>>"genuine risks. These numbered at less than a thousand."

Good point, and you are probably right. Looking back on Monday morning we probably could have put less of the Japanese away.

From what I can tell the real damage to the Japanese occured afterwards, when their properties were stolen or taken at little compensation.

Their internment could be excused for security reasons, the confiscation of their properties can not be excused at all. The local citizens conspired to take properties from their neighbors.

Hoppy


23 posted on 08/03/2004 9:21:17 AM PDT by Hop A Long Cassidy
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To: aculeus

I'm not a victim, I just play one on the internet!


24 posted on 08/03/2004 9:22:20 AM PDT by Revolting cat! ("In the end, nothing explains anything!")
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To: politicket
See my other post raising a metaphorical eyebrow about the intelligence background of Roosevelt's internment decision. I worked with a fellow in Sacramento that was probably your FIL's contemporary. His family had a farm near Fresno which had been developed by sweat equity. When the internment order came they were bought out by a local hero who was a Doctor. The MD wanted to avoid the medical draft and knew that he could finagle an agricultural deferment if he could claim his primary occupation was operating a farm. He cashed this fellow's family out at about $.05 on the dollar of assessed value. The medical hero went on to build one of the largest practices in that part of California since he was around during the war and all the other physicians except a couple who were to old were drafted into the services. There are thousands of similar stories in California and the other Pacific Coast states. Small wonder that many of the Americans of Japanese descent that I met seemed to be very self contained and politely distant.
25 posted on 08/03/2004 9:23:27 AM PDT by robowombat
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To: Travis McGee
It looks like we'll have to agree to disagree. Your "ends justify the means" attitude is an afront to all that this country stands for.

I doubt that you would do well having Tom Ridge come to your home and putting your family in an internment camp (while all of your property is disposed of).

26 posted on 08/03/2004 9:23:32 AM PDT by politicket
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To: aculeus

Without commenting on whether internment was right or wrong, as one who watched every blessed minute of last week's demcon, I found it interesting that two speakers chose to decry the internment of the Japanese during WWII and both managed to not mention "FDR" or that it happened under a democrat president.

I was waiting for them to say something along the lines of "even though is happened under a democrat" or "even though it happened under FDR", but no, they just were ranting about "the government".


27 posted on 08/03/2004 9:26:58 AM PDT by cyncooper ("We will fear no evil...And we will prevail")
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To: Ramius
I don't need to read various books to form my opinions (especially when they're written by foolish people).

I don't read books written by Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, ACLU attorneys, NAMBLA, etc.

I have first-hand experience with the effects of interning American citizens (we're the government - and we're only here to help you!).

28 posted on 08/03/2004 9:27:21 AM PDT by politicket
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To: Travis McGee
Re: #6

Excellent analysis, in order for our tolerant system to remain tolerant, our SYSTEM must survive and prevail. Suffering too much damage and loss can fail the system. When war is forced upon you, death and destruction of some of your citizens is inevitable, it is the wisest course of action to make the enemy pay the dearest price for those sacrfices, and if necessary, to select those sacrifices to be least valuable to the final victory. (This is not an indication of their value as human beings or citizens.) A dispute with this policy is simply politically correct attempted suicide, and would be gladly welcomed by all enemies of America.

Stupidity is a capital crime, and often the execution of sentence is self-imposed.

29 posted on 08/03/2004 9:28:01 AM PDT by Navy Patriot
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To: Travis McGee

You are propagating a myth about Churchill's knowledge of the imminent destruction of Coventry.

He was, in fact, under the impression that the most likely target for that night's bombing was central London, NOT Coventry.

I know this is a bit off topic, but you have referred to this incident several times on this thread as justification for other actions. Does your argument stand up after knowing that your premise was false?


30 posted on 08/03/2004 9:28:36 AM PDT by Kraken
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To: Navy Patriot
Some kind of Navy Patriot, as long as Tom Ridge doesn't show up at your door.

True patriots pledge their lives and their sacred honors to protect and defend this country. I would lay odds that there are many Americans of Japanese ancestry who have defended this great country of ours in ways that we can only dream of. Don't lower yourself to the foolishness of the author...

31 posted on 08/03/2004 9:32:59 AM PDT by politicket
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To: E Rocc; Physicist; Poohbah; veronica

E Rocc, Physicist, you two have said it far better than I ever could.


32 posted on 08/03/2004 9:33:24 AM PDT by hchutch (I only eat dolphin-safe veal.)
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To: politicket
, let alone forcing them to relinquish ALL of their valuables for pennies on the dollar.

This for me is the telling detail. Not merely that they were rounded up during the hysteria of the opening days of the war, but that their properties were seized and never returned, and their losses were never made whole.

I am no fan of Roosevelt's, and this is another example. The first being his economic ineptitude which turned a stock market crash into a decade of stagnation, the second being his failure to prepare the country for war, despite having two terms of office to see it coming, and respond; the third being his unwillingness to support anti-lynching laws, the forth being the return of jewish refugees to their deaths, the fifth being the internment of Japanese Americans and the failure to compensate them, the sixth being his weakness at Yalta.

In retrospect it is easy to say that the internment was wrong, and that it was a racist response to treat Japanese Americans as enemy aliens. But it was the willingness of young Japanese American men to serve in combat that made the difference in our view of it. Now, in our present situation where we are under attack by muslim fascists, I can see how easy it would be to do the same in this case. I can see how very different has been Bush's response from Roosevelt's, how Bush has bent over backward to avoid stigmatizing people who have not been shown to be enemies.

But I also see another big difference, as muslims seem unwilling to join other Americans in the defense of the country. A few have, to be sure, but never in the numbers that the Japanese Americans did.

We have the WW2 internment as history to look back on, and it is because of this that we are so careful now. We didn't have this history then. That is one big difference. But as I say, it wouldn't take too many more 9/11s before we started aggressive deportations now.

33 posted on 08/03/2004 9:41:20 AM PDT by marron
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To: politicket
WW2 generated tens of millions of refugees who were driven from their lands penniless and propertyless. Most of these families saw relatives raped, murdered, and starved. So in reality, the internment of the Japanese was far from unique, and far from the worst refugee story of WW2.

By shortening the war by literally years, the broken codes saved MILLIONS of innocent lives. You may at least know that the sacrifice your family made was for the reason of protecting the paramount secret of the broken Magic codes. Indirectly, their sacrifice helped to shorten the war by years and saved millions of lives. That's something, isn't it?

Anyway, it sure beats being blown to bits in Coventry, because your leader made the hard decision to protect the broken Ultra code, instead of your town. Again, this sacrifice shortened the war by years, and saved millions of lives. The Nazis were just introducing jets, ballistic missiles and were working on the atomic bomb, so shortening the war by years literally did mean saving millions of lives.

On the other hand, perhaps you feel that your family's sacrifice was too great, and you would have preferred that FDR would have spared them their hardship, and condemned millions more to die as WW2 dragged on into the late 1940s?

In war, leaders from president to lieutenant routinely use feints and diversionary operations which they know are doomed, in order to win the greater battles. Is this immoral? Is it more moral to try 100% to save every soldier at every moment, if it means you will surely lose a war to a cruel enemy, because you will never use feints or diversionary operations? Sacrifice is part of war, unless you want to surrender to your enemies.

Sadly for your family, they were made to sacrifice, for the greater good of protecting the secret of the broken codes. But now you understand something you have never been told: there was a reason, and millions of lives were saved as a result of that sacrifice.

That sacrifice, and the reason for it, is what Michelle Malkin is going to describe in her book.

34 posted on 08/03/2004 9:44:42 AM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Kraken

So you say. My point is intact, you have not touched it.


35 posted on 08/03/2004 9:46:31 AM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: politicket

You should be ashamed for dragging in your father in law. The greater good of America was more important than your lame outrage... pure emotionalism. Japanese were lopping off the heads of American prisoners and putting them on death marches which is the real outrage.

Not Japanese Americans interned, who suffered for the sins of their brothers in Japan. Tuff luck!


36 posted on 08/03/2004 9:46:36 AM PDT by dennisw (Once is Happenstance. Twice is Coincidence. The third time is Enemy action. - Ian Fleming)
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To: dennisw

Apparently you didn't read what the freeper wrote. It wasn't lame outrage.


37 posted on 08/03/2004 9:51:07 AM PDT by cyborg (http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
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To: Kraken; Navy Patriot; politicket

CHURCHILL'S DILEMMA AND THE BOMBING OF COVENTRY

The following is a disturbing historical case that raises some interesting questions for utilitarianism. Actually, some see it as an argument in favor of utilitarianism; some see it as a source of shame for the those who argue according to the "cold" logic of utilitarianism.

During the autumn of 1940, the German Luftwaffe campaign, called "Battle of Britain", had been
raining bombs on major cities in the U.K., in an attempt to demoralize the British and to win air
superiority over the British Isles. Instructions from Goering were communicated to the fighter
pilots by radio, using a super-secret encryption technology called "Ultra". By 1940, the British
had developed deciphering technology that allowed them to reading thousands of messages a day.

The first rule of military cryptography, however, is that you never act on the information in a way that
will lead your enemy to think that you have broken the code. Because then the enemy will switch
to a new code. So, throughout the war, Allied Intelligence had to be very cagey about using this
information, and very often, they had to withhold life-saving information. The most notorious (if
disputed) case of this came on November 14, 1940. At 3 pm that afternoon, a German signal was
deciphered containing the bombing targets for that evening, including the name of one city,
Coventry, which had mistakenly not been given its code name.

Prime Minister Churchill was
informed, and this generated a terrible dilemma. He could have ordered the evacuation of the
city, but then the Germans would have known that their code had been broken, they would
certainly have shifted to a different code, and the Allies would have, in effect, been blinded about
Nazi war plans. Instead, he allowed the fire brigades and other emergency services to be given
the information, confidentially, that they should be on alert. This was the standard response to
such information. Coventry was bombed and 554 people died.

For more on the Coventry Blitz, read the following gripping account of what happened that night (with historical photos of the damage):
http://www.cwn.org.uk/heritage/blitz/

[This account is based on the book, The Ultra Secret, by F.W. Winterbotham (New York: Harper
& Row, 1974), esp. pp. 60-1. Winterbotham oversaw the Ultra deciphering unit. His claim
that Churchill was informed of this information has since been contested. What is not contested,
however, is that the Intelligence services knew this information and that they had a policy of
informing fire brigades and emergency services merely that an attack was likely. Thus, even if Churchill never himself faced this dilemma, Intelligence officers did, on a daily basis.]


38 posted on 08/03/2004 9:53:12 AM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Travis McGee

"So I say"?!

So the history books say. So the diaries of those involved say. So the people who know what the hell they are talking about say.

Do yourself a favor and study some actual history before you start using it as a rationale for depriving people of their Constitutional rights, ok?


39 posted on 08/03/2004 9:54:14 AM PDT by Kraken
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To: politicket
Some kind of Navy Patriot, as long as Tom Ridge doesn't show up at your door.

Effectively, he has. I have served, and I volunteered, in addition, I was classified as one of those "sacrifices" I spoke of. I was informed and well aware of the fact that I would be sacrificed to keep secret intelligence secret.

True patriots pledge their lives and their sacred honors to protect and defend this country.

And I didn't? Remember, the "system" I reffered to is America. I put it on the line so Hanoi Jane Fonda, John Kerrie', and you could say the things about me that you do here on FR.

Don't lower yourself to the foolishness of the author...

By author I assume you mean Travis McGee who promotes the "foolishness" that America win her wars. Well, tough..

40 posted on 08/03/2004 9:54:23 AM PDT by Navy Patriot
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