Teaching American History Application Survey

September 18, 2009
“World War II and the Japanese –American Experience”

Dr. Seuss, 4 cartoons in “A Catalogue of Political Cartoons by Dr. Seuss,” (4 pp.). In these cartoons, Dr. Seuss, who was the chief editorial cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM (1940-1948), illustrates Hitler and the Japanese more generally as threats to the United States. He suggests that they follow a different code of conduct in combat than native-born Americans and that they are lining up to accept gun powder to set off explosions in the U.S. Using stereotypical features and stylized expressions, Dr. Seuss’s images were part of a general trend by cartoonists and propagandists during World War II to caricature Japanese. Whereas such caricatures of foreigners and particularly of enemy powers were typical during World War I, when the concept of 100% Americanism reigned, such representations were less common during World War II, when government officials tended to emphasize pluralism and the contributions of diverse ethnic and racial groups toward the war. Japanese and Japanese Americans were excluded from that more inclusive story.

Executive Order 9066, February 19, 1942 (2 pp.): This Executive Order, signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, gave the military broad powers to ban any citizen of Japanese descent from a fifty- to sixty-mile-wide coastal area stretching from Washington state to California and extending inland into southern Arizona. The order also authorized transporting these citizens to assembly centers hastily set up and governed by the military in California, Arizona, Washington state, and Oregon. Less well known, the same order was applied to smaller numbers of U.S. residents of Italian or German descent. For example, 3,200 resident aliens of Italian background were arrested and more than 300 of them were interned. About 11,000 German residents—including some naturalized citizens—were arrested and more than 5,000 were interned. War-time measures for Japanese Americans were, however, the most sweeping, uprooting entire communities and targeting citizens as well as resident aliens.

Louise Ogawa to Miss Breed, four letters dating between January 1942 and September 1943 from a Japanese internment camp (7 pp.): Clara Estelle Breed, or Miss Breed, was the Children’s Librarian at the San Diego Public Library from 1929 to 1945. Her patrons included many Japanese American children and teenagers who frequented the East San Diego Branch Library; some of these were later incarcerated after Pearl Harbor. The day of their departure at the San Diego train station, Miss Breed distributed stamped and addressed postcards asking them to write and describe their life in camp. These four letters from Louise Ogawa describe living conditions, food, and entertainment. She also asked Miss Breed for assistance in securing supplies and noted the uncertainty associated with moving between camps and losing and reconnecting with friends. Miss Breed kept these letters for decades. In 1993 they were donated to the Japanese American National Museum.

Ansel Adams, 4 photographs documenting Japanese-American internment (4pp.)In 1943, Ansel Adams documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese Americans interned there during World War II. Adams’s Manzanar work, which he gifted to the Library of Congress in 1965, is a departure from his signature landscape photography. These four images represent a small part of that collection. While certainly making a statement about the conditions in the camps, Adams’ work tends to focus on the individual, and presents a more stylized interpretation of daily life.

Dorothea Lange, 4 photographs taken in 1942 documenting Japanese-American internment (4 pp.). Dorthea Lange’s photographs of the forced relocation of Japanese and Japanese American citizens form part of a Library of Congress’ online exhibit “Women Come to the Front” (website address listed above). Her images, compared to those of Ansel Adams, area more realistic—stressing the hardships of camp life. These four photographs embody optimism before interment, the uncertainty of registration, loss of individual identity in long lines, and bleak surroundings

“How to Tell Japs from the Chinese,” Life Magazine (Dec. 1941): 81-82 (2 pp.): After Pearl Harbor the number of attacks on Japanese Americans and other Asians assumed to be Japanese escalated. Chinese groups began producing pins declaring “I am Chinese” to repel anti-Japanese hostility. This article reflects the shortcomings of relying on pseudo-scientific notions of anthropological representation to educate the public about distinguishing “friend” from “foe.” The magazine piece failed, however, to note that most Chinese would be difficult to visually distinguish from the Japanese. More importantly, it did not alert readers to the fact that most Japanese immigrants were permanent residents of long standing and that two-thirds were American born. Finally, it left unanswered the moral and ethical question that—even if Asian populations could be accurately distinguished—should assault on one group be sanctioned?

“Justice Robert A. Jackson, Dissent in Korematsu v. United States (1944),” in Eric Foner, Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History, vol. 1 (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005), pp. 170-174 (5 pp.): In 1944, the Supreme Court denied the appeal of Fred Korematsu, who had been arrested for refusing to present himself for internment. Speaking for a 6-3 majority, Justice Hugo Black insisted that an order applying only to persons of Japanese descent was not based on race. But as Justice Robert A. Jackson pointed out in his dissent, Korematsu had not been accused of any crime. Jackson condemned the majority for justifying a massive violation of civil liberties, and warned that the decision “lies about like a loaded weapon ready for the had of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim” of national security.

100th Congress, Civil Liberties Act HR 442, Jan. 25, 1988 (2 pp.); for a 1988 television news broadcast about this event go to http://digital.lib.csus.edu/mats/timeline.php?item=vid7): The Civil Liberties Act of 1988, also known as H.R. 442, provided an official apology and individual payments of $20,000 from the U.S. government to about 60,000 Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II. The legislation stated that government actions were based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” The accompanying television news broadcast aired on August 10, 1988 and runs approximately 3 minutes. It includes historic footage of internment camps from the 1940s, interviews with internment camp survivors, a congressional speech by Rep. Robert Matsui of California prior to passage of the Civil Liberties Act, and of President Reagan signing the bill into law. Several additional news broadcast clips about reparation are filed under “Browse Resources—Video.” These resources are part of the “Legacy Project: Road to Redress and Reparations” sponsored by California State University, Sacramento.

“Seabrook at War,” a radio documentary narrated by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and written and produced by Marty Goldensohn and David Steven Cohen, 1995 (audio recording) http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol2no1/seabrook.html: “Seabrook at War” documents a little-known chapter of the homefront during World War II. During the war, Seabrook Farms of southern New Jersey supplied the military with fresh, frozen and deyhdrated food. Plagued by a chronic labor shortage, however, farm owners recruited agricultural and cannery workers including German prisoners of war, West Indian contract laborers, Japanese Americans, and Japanese Peruvians from wartime detention camps in America. The full documentary runs approximately one hour, though this website provides, in addition to the full recording, excerpts on discrete subjects. “Seabrook at War” is narrated by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., written and produced by Marty Goldensohn and David Steven Cohen, and is a co-production of WWFM, Trenton and the NJ Historical Commission. A copy of this production is available from the New Jersey Historical Commission. Contact them at: New Jersey Historical Commission, PO Box 305, Trenton, NJ 08625-0305.