In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror

This is about history not politics. Label this rightwing/leftwing and you're missing the point. Roosevelt wasn't a right-winger. Why would Roosevelt sign E.O. 9066 if he and his political/military advisors did not believe the threat was real? Reagan wasn't a left-winger. The history of the evacuation was a product of Roosevelt and dredged up by Carter, both presidents from the far left. They dumped this in Reagan's lap! Why would Reagan sign H.R. 442 into law if he didn't support it (which he didn't for many years until 1988). Could it be resisting H.R. 442 would affect Republicans in the 1988 presidential election? History should be kept seperate from politics or the result is BAD HISTORY. A previous poster says, "The MAGIC cables in fact represented Japanese efforts to create a network of spies of all ethnicities, not just Japanese." Has he read the MAGIC cables? How does this MAGIC intercept "represent" an "EFFORT"? May 19,1941, from Los Angeles (Nakauchi) to Tokyo: "We have already established contact with absolutely reliable Japanese in San Pedro and San Diego area, who will keep close watch on all shipments of airplanes and other war material. We shall maintain connection with our second generations who are at present in U.S. Army to keep us informed of various developments in the army. We also have connections with our second generations working in aircraft plants for intelligence purposes." That's more than an "EFFORT". The MAGIC messages also reveal Japanese ATTEMPTS to develop intelligence networks in communist, anti-semitic and negro organizations - but MAGIC does not reveal this. MAGIC doesn't refer to "all ethnicities". That's a false statement. As for negro-organizations, this is rather vague as the organization MAGIC referred to but didn't mention by name was "The Moorish Temple of Science of America" a fanatical Muslim group that believed the Moors and the Japanese were related historically and should rise together to defeat the white man. Suffice to say "The Moorish Temple of Science of America" isn't exactly the NAACP when referring to the "negro organizations" in the MAGIC intercepts. Besides the FBI was all over the Moorish Temple. It's a story unknown to most Americans. You will also find that the seven whites convicted of spying for the Japanese by and far were employed by the Japanese before Pearl Harbor. They were traitors looking for dollars. Such Americans are still with us today. Of Japanese-American men of fighting age what percentage volunteered to enlist in WW2? Answer? 5%-7%! Maybe that's why they were such superb fighters! The other 93%-95% weren't interested in proving their loyalty. I challenge you to provide one instance where ethnic Japanese previously living in colonies overrun by the Japanese Imperial Army rose up and resisted the invaders. You can't because they didn't! In every country invaded by Japan, the ethnic Japanese already living there as long as Japanese in the United States welcom

I had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Malkin discuss her book nearly a year ago to an audience comprised mainly of fellow conservatives. Although I found her arguments to be quite persuasive at the time, I had substantial doubts, especially since I have one member of my family who was raised in an internment/detention camp. Having read "In Defense of Internment" finally, I am convinced that not only are Ms. Malkin's arguments sound, but more importantly, supported amply by MAGIC decrypts of Imperial Japanese diplomatic and military messages sent to embassies and consulates in the Americas as well as by other formerly classified United States government information. I have read with interest other reviewers noting how Ms. Malkin has missed some of her facts regarding the internment of Japanese aliens and American citizens of Japanese descent. But I believe these errors are quite few, since most of the text of her book is comprised of original documents that substantially bolster her arguments. Malkin's own words are an impassioned, well-reasoned defense of internment, most notably in this passage which is reprinted on the back of the book's dustjacket: "In war, desperate times call for disparate measures. Make no mistake. I am not advocating rounding up all Arabs or Muslims and tossing them into camps. But when we are under attack, 'racial profiling' - or more precisely threat profiling - is wholly justified. It is unfortunate that well-intentioned Arabs and Muslims might be burdened becasue of terrorists who share their race, nationality, or religion. But any inconvenience, no matter how bothersome or offensive, is preferable to being incincerated at your office desk by a flaming hijacked plane." Anyone who still contends that the internment of Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans during World War II was unneccessary and blatantly racist must be willing to ignore the fact that the Imperial Japanese government posed a serious, credible threat to the western United States and America's far-flung Pacific possessions in the months and weeks leading up to Pearl Harbor. Indeed, the Japanese had demonstrated already their bellicose nature by sinking the American naval gunboat Panay in central China in 1937, and killing many of the survivors who were escaping from the boat. Furthermore the Japanese did rely substantially on a well-organized espionage network in Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, and the Phillipines; all of these terrorities were conquered in a Japanese blitzkrieg which was aided and abetted by local ethnic Japanese who were resident "fifth columns". So substantial concerns of both military and civilian American officials that Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans residing in areas of Hawaii and the West Coast near military bases included those who were enemy saboteurs were well founded to say the least, judging from the MAGIC intelligence data that's been available to the American public since the 1970s. Ms. Malkin opens her book with the i

The main premise of the book is that the episode of the Japanese Internment in America is widely misunderstood, mistaught, and misused as a tool to silence policy debate in the War on Terror. It touches upon the War on Terror briefly, with the main focus of the book on the Japanese Internment. Ms. Malkin details the loyalty (and disloyalty) of various Japanese before, and during WWII. She also attempts to show how the top-secret MAGIC decrypts (coded messages intercepted and cracked unbeknownst to agents of imperial Japan before, during, and after WWII) influenced the key decision makers of the nation who had access to them, countering the claim that the decision to intern Japanese was based on racism and hysteria. Also of note, there is discussion (new to me) relating to historical tension between civil liberties and national security, a tension in which both causes must be balanced (for example, the book points to Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist's revisitation of President Lincoln's use of power during wartime in 'All Laws But One').

After suffering through dozens of earlier reviews, it became obvious that almost none of the harshest critics had even read Malkin's book. Most seemed oblivious to the fact that Germans and Italians were interned as well, or that Japanese-American citizens were NOT forced into camps but urged to relocate to the other 44 States (with ample government assistance) instead. EO 9066 was not a "roundup," but rather an exclusion from specific Pacific zones. Some of the critics' confusion obviously stems from their inability to distinguish between -- or simply ignorance of -- the different types of relocation centers or internment camps. Japanese citizens, however, were in a whole different category (enemy aliens), as were Americans caught in Japan; both sides interned and usually exchanged them. I had the advantage of doing much historical research on the subject before reading Malkin's book, so there were no surprises in it for me. I believe she could have further amplified the rather amazing PR job the younger Japanese (Nisei and Sansei) did to further the myth of their (and their families')persecution and -- not coincidentaly -- get their hands on the $20,000 checks we sent, even to Japanese citizens who were repatriated, fought against our troops in the Pacific, and came back afterward to get their share of the loot. The Congressional commission, and the Japanese-Americans who controlled it, put forth the most blatantly untruthful propaganda since Goebbels bit the dust. For those not too blinded by liberal guilt and actually curious about the facts of this interesting historical period, I'd suggest INTELLIGENCE, INTERNMENT AND RELOCATION, by Keith Robar -- a less-polished book containing a wealth of original source material from the MAGIC intercepts and period documents. Reading the Japanese diplomats' cables outlining the wide networks of spies and potential saboteurs they had in place in the US long before Pearl Harbor is sobering. The huge numbers of Kibei (Japanese-Americans born in the US but educated/brainwashed by living most of their lives in Japan) were a very real threat, as were the dual-citizens who held Japanese Naval commissions. The more dangerous ones were isolated along with Japanese citizens, and some Japanese-Americans who vocally supported Japan over the U.S., in separate camps. Most of this will no doubt be lost on the knee-jerk liberal apologists who supposedly "review" Malkin's book, since they don't really read it, but anyone with half a brain can do a bit of Googling to either confirm or deny her claims. As far as her historical accuracy, it's dead right. One further point -- many of the critics claim that there were no instances of Issei or Nisei espionage or sabotage, which is demonstrably false, but the reason for few actual arrests or prosecution is that our intel guys got more bang for their buck by spying on their spies or feeding them junk data. Again, Robar's book is the best source on this aspect. -- Retired I