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To: Congressman Billybob
It is a false statement that the imprisonment of 110,000 Japanese-Americans had NOTHING to do with espionage. None of them were ever tried and convicted of any such crime.

I am not sure what those two sentences next to each other are meant to say. It is my assertion based on recent declassified papers, that the purpose of the "imprisonment" was to prevent espionage and sabotage without revealing the fact that we had broken the Japanese codes. Are you disputing this assertion or supporting it?
53 posted on 12/31/2005 7:38:28 AM PST by SubMareener (Become a monthly donor! Free FreeRepublic.com from Quarterly FReepathons!)
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To: SubMareener
The breaking of the Japanese Naval Code had NOTHING to do with the imprisonment of 110,000 Japanese-Americans without charges or trial. The purpose of the imprisonments was to carry out the xenophobia and racism of the people of California, lead by their then Governor, Earl Warren, and promoted by the Commanding General on the West Coast, General deWitt.

Ultimately, the federal courts decided, forty years later, that Roosevelt's Executive Order to round up the Japanese-Americans was unconstitutional. A link earlier in this thread has both of the Korematsu decisions, the original one in which the Supreme Court (to its eternal shame) upheld that order, and the final one which expunged the conviction of Fred Korematsu for violating that Order.

The now-unclassified documents, some of which I got declassified for my book, make it clear that there was no justification for that imprisonment, as does the action of the Commanding General on Hawaii who avoided the order to ship "his" Japanese-Americans to the mainland on grounds of lack of transportation.

(0% of the carpenters on Hawaii then were Japanese-Americans, and the General needed them to rebuild from the attack on Pearl Harbor, and to do the construction required for the war effort build-up there. And he was right. They were essential, able, and loyal workers.

Your assumption that the round-up had any real (as opposed to claimed at the time) connection with espionage is wrong. General deWitt actually submitted a report saying that the lack of espionage before the round-up was an indication that the Japanese-Americans were "well-organized" and were "holding off on their attacks."

You are perpetuating the kind of wrong and racist thinking that was prevalent then. You should read my book. It contains the photograph of a Lt. from the 442nd, the "Christmas Tree" Regiment that fought with great honor and many casualties in Italy, returning to Manzanar to visit his parents, who were being held behind garbed wire by other American soldiers. Think about that.

John / Billybob

63 posted on 12/31/2005 8:30:32 AM PST by Congressman Billybob (The New Year has arrived for our friends in Australia. The best of wishes for all Freepers.)
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