Deep Discrimination in a Classic of Anti-Discrimination: Japanese Americans and World War II

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 299

For another project of mine I’ve been reading about the Japanese internment camps (posting an earlier post here), and just started to read some post war material on the interpretation of those actions. The first book I turned to is regarded as a liberal (in the classic sense of the word) regard and homage to the Japanese in the Hawaiian Islands by John Adrian Rademaker, (a Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawaii 1944-1947), who in 1951 published These Are Americans: The Japanese Americans in Hawaii During World War II . It documents the contributions made to the war effort by of people of Japanese ancestry living in Hawaii, including the Varsity Victory Volunteers, the 100th Infantry Battalion, and the 442nd RCT, and so far as I can determine is one of the earliest pioneering works to attempt to right the significant wrong done to these people.

In the past I always thought of it as a photographic essay, and I’m sure that I never actually read the thing., But this time I, I did, and I was stopped almost immediately, half-way through the first sentence.

It reads:

“During World War II, I was one of a considerable number of persons who were directly concerned with the care and re-establishment of the Japanese Americans in the continental United States.”

 To be honest about it, I’m not sure what this means or where it came from.   The rest of the sentences in the 277 pages of this book are laudatory and informative and attempt to right the public opinion wrongs of the wartime Japanese-American persona. But “care and re-establishment” is awful and weird, and stupid—so much so I wonder if the phraselet was stuck in there by some zealot editor. Removing 110,000 Americans from their lives and residences and families and communities and businesses, stripping them ¾ of whom were American citizens) of their rights, forcing them to sell whatever they couldn’t carry at fire sale prices, and then sticking them all in horse stalls or deeply removed and very difficult locations for three years is disgustingly-not “care and re-establishment”.

Unless of course the author believed it, and if such is the case then he really didn’t understand what happened to those 110,000 people, sociologist or not; or at least didn’t get it in 1951.

He did make a strong case overall for the American Japanese in Hawaii being loyal citizens/ Rademaker points out that 1,440 Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJA) who were detained by local authorities (excluding Federal efforts) out of a population of over 150,000 AJA in Hawaii. They were nearly all Issei (first generation immigrants) and Nisei (born in the USA)

From December 7, 1941till the end of the war, some 1,440 AJAs were picked up by the authorities. This constituted nine-tenths of one percent of the AJAs in Hawaii. 879 of those were Japanese Issei, first-generation immigrants. 534 were Nisei. Nearly half of this number were released after preliminary hearings, with the rest being “kept” for other reasons, though they were simply community leaders (doctors, nurses, school teachers, benign) and that sort of thing. He states that no AJA in Hawaii was ever convicted or found to have committed any treasonable offense or committed any sabotage whatsoever.

I’m just pointing out how odd this first sentence is in the face of the rest of the book. Was it meant to diminish the American government’s actions in rounding up and removing these people? (The government has had a very long history of doing exactly this, and doing it deathly well—just look at the hundreds of Indian “removals”, the entire institution of slavery, and many, many others, up to and including to a lesser degree the displacement of Katrina refugees.) Arrest and disappearing people is not “care and re-establishment”, period.

For the record, another truly measurable aspect of AJA fortitude is their military participation during WWII which stands as follows (presenting the 100 Battalion of the 442 and then the 442 as a unit):

The 100th Battalion and 442nd Combat team:

Killed in action  569.
Died of wounds 81.
Missing in action 67.
Wounded in action 3,506.
Injured in action  177.
Total casualties  4,120.

The 100th Battalion and the 442nd Combat Team won the following decorations:

1 Medal of Honor

1 Medal of Honor
47 Distinguished Service Cross
1 Distinguished Service Medal
12 Oak Leaf Cluster to Silver Star
350 Silver Star
18 Legion of Merit
16 Soldier's Medal
41 Oak Leaf Cluster-to Bronze Star Medal
823 Bronze Star Medal
1 Air Medal
500 Oak Leaf Cluster to Purple Heart Medal
3600 Purple Heart Medal
2 Army Commendation Ribbon
40 Army Commendation
87 Division Commendation
1 brigade Commendation
12 Croix De Guerre (French)
2 Palm to Croix De Guerre (French)
2 Croce Al Merito Di Guerra (Italilan)
2 Medaglia De Bronzo Al Valor Militare (Italian)

Overall the 442—composed entirely of Japanese Americans, emerged as the most decorated combat unit of its size in the history of the United States Army —suffered an “unprecedented casualty rate of 314 percent and received over 18,000 individual decorations. Many were awarded after their deaths for bravery and courage in the field of battle. Among the decorations received by the 100th/442nd soldiers were one Medal of Honor, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 560 Silver Stars, 28 Oak Leaf Clusters to the Silver Star, 4,000 Bronze Stars and 1,200 Oak Leaf Clusters to the Bronze Star and, perhaps most telling of the sacrifices made by these gallant soldiers, 9,486 Purple Hearts.” The 442nd Combat Infantry group emerged as the most decorated combat unit of its size in the history of the United States Army.

Comments

[Jerry McBrayer]

Not sure you can have a casuauty rate of 314 %

[Jeff]

Since "casualty" usually refers to dead AND wounded, those who are repeatedly wounded and repeatedly return to action can take the percentage over 100. So 314% represents a remarkable amount of dedication and suffering.

[John Ptak]

Thanks, Jeff; that's exactly correct. The confusion and incredible, unbelievable nature of that number is really I guess the largest part of the story on the 442. *That's* the point.