The Decision to Intern Japanese Americans

People involved in the incarceration:

Identify the following figures who helped make the decision to intern Japanese Americans:

• Major Karl R. Bendetsen, Chief of the Aliens Division
  • Oral History Interview with Karl R. Bendetsen, Truman Presidential Library
    http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/bendet1.htm
• Attorney General Francis Biddle
  • Short biography from Wikipedia
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Biddle
• Lieutenant General John L. De Witt
  • Full text of Gen. John L. DeWitt’s first order to force the Japanese — citizens and aliens alike — out of San Francisco.
    http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist9/evacorder.html
  • A map of the zone designated for evacuation by Gen. DeWitt, published in the San Francisco News April 2, 1942.
    http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist8/sfevac.html
• Judge Advocate General Allen W. Gullion
• Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
• Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson

Agencies involved in Incarceration

• Western Defense Command was an army command area consisting of eight western states.
• Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) was responsible for the "assembly centers" evacuation.
• War Relocation Authority (WRA) ran the concentration camps.
  

Read the following pieces of evidence and explain:

• Why did the U.S. decide to relocate the entire west coast Japanese American population?
• Who was most responsible for this decision?

Primary Source Documents:
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1941

• Munson Report, Oct.- Nov., 1941
• Excerpt from the Diary of Henry Morgenthau, Jr., December 11, 1941
• Statements by Representative Leland Ford, December 15, 1941 and January 16, 1942

1942

• Attack on Pearl Harbor: Report of the Commission Appointed by the President of the United States to Investigate and Report the Facts Relating to the Attack Made by Japanese Armed Forces Upon Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii on December 7, 1941 [Roberts Commission, named after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts], January 23, 1942
• Statements by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, January 26, 1942
• Statements by Representative Leland Ford, Republican of California, Dec., 1941 & Jan, 1942
• John L. De Witt to Karl R. Bendetsen, Transcript of telephone conversation, January 30, 1942
• Walter Lippmann, “The Fifth Column,” Los Angeles Times, February 13, 1942
• California Attorney General Earl Warren, February 21, 1942
• Newspaper Articles about Internment, March - May, 1942.
• Newspaper headlines from the Los Angeles Times, from December 1941 to February, 1942
• Father Hugh T. Lavey, Catholic Maryknoll Center
• John L. De Witt to Karl R. Bendetsen, Transcript of telephone conversation, January 30, 1942
• Meeting of the California House of Representatives Delegation, January 30, 1942
• Attorney General Francis Biddle to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson
  February 12, 1942
• Attorney General Francis Biddle to President Franklin D. Roosevelt
  February 17, 1942

1943

• Relocation of Japanese Americans. Washington, D.C. : War Relocation Authority, 1943.

Salinas, California. Japanese-Americans boarding bus for transportation to reception center. Russell Lee,photographer, 1942 May. Library of Congress.

This site was updated on 09-Feb-10.