JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Corporate Business English Trainers
- ACT Systems, Inc.（株式会社アクト・システムズ）, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥269,500 ~ ¥280,000 / Month
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- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
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- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
- Salary: ¥255,000 ~ ¥275,000 / Month Travel Expenses, Encouragement of Japanese learning*
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The_Berserker
Here's another interesting piece of history regarding dual citizen Japanese-Americans and the the Selective Service reinstitution of January, 1944.
Selective Service Monograph No. 10 (1953)has this to say about dual citizen Japanese Americans:
(With)... "The reinstitution of Selective Service for Japanese Americans in January 1944...the request for repatriation or expatriation (to Japan)showed a marked increase. These were mainly from men of military age who used dual citizenship as a way of evading service both here and in Japan. Most of these were Kibei...they claimed exemption as Japanese citizens."
And another:
Over 9,000 Purple Hearts are commonly claimed for the just over 8,000-man 100/442d Regimental Combat Team by latter-day activists, but according to the Washington Infantry Journal Press 18 months after war's end, the true number was only 3,600.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
The memorial does not count all Japanese Americans who served during WWII, and so using that number for the purposes you are trying to sell here is deceptive.
So you think the Nisei vets would leave names off their own memorial?
The site, Americans of Japanese Ancestry WWII Memorial Alliance lists well over 18,000 names.
They probably say Nisei vets liberated Dachau, too. I'm sure there are a number of sites with incorrect information regarding the history of Nisei vets. I've debated the producers of some of them and find they're all getting taxpayer money to mis-lead the American people via bogus websites, media programs, media fluff pieces and especially bogus school curriculums which I find to be insidious.
What other reason could there be for such willful misrepresentation than sheer prejudice and hatred?
How about over 20 years knowledge regarding this history and a plethora of primary documents on the subject. Hurling accusations of prejudice and hatred doesn't give you a whole lot of credibility either. Try debating subject instead.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
In a Congressional inquiry in late '80's this prove not to be the case. The Congress approved a reparation of $20,000 and apology letter from President was presented.
The Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians submitted its much flawed report "Personal Justice Denied" in the early 1980's. The Money Bill was signed into law by Reagan in August 1988, and election year. I posted a link explaining this above, too.
Here's a few more things to consider when talking about the CWRIC.
Consider that of the nine commission members, six were biased in favor of reparations. Ishmail Gromoff and William Marutani, relocatees themselves, sat in judgment of their own cases. Arthur Goldberg and Joan Bernstein made sympathetic, pro-reparation statements publicly before hearings even began. Arthur Fleming had worked closely with the JACL (he was a keynote speaker at its Portland convention in the '70s). Robert Drinan was a co-sponsor of the bill establishing the commission.
Consider that notices of when and where hearings were to be held were not made known to the general, non-Japanese public.
Consider that witnesses who gave testimony were not sworn to tell the truth.
Consider that witnesses who were pro-reparation were carefully coached in their testimony in "mock hearings" beforehand.
Consider that witnesses against reparation were harassed and drowned out by foot-stomping Japanese claques, that the commission members themselves ridiculed and badgered these same witnesses.
Consider that not one historian was asked to testify before the commission, that intelligence reports and position papers contrary to reparations were deliberately ignored.
Consider that as a result of the above, the United States Department of Justice objected strongly to the findings of the commission.
Reagan waffled on signing the bill until near the end of his term in an election year and then did so for political reasons.
As stated above, the bill is a product of intense lobbying by an ethnic activist group and when then signed into law for political considerations - a good example of why politicians shouldn't be in the business of legislating history.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
Manzanar, which you claimed did not have barb wire fence
No, I said the first pic was of Manzanar and the boys are standing next to the perimeter fencing OUTSIDE THE FENCE. It was cattle wire fencing used as perimeter fencing and was routinely crossed which is why the boys were standing outside of it.
...since Poston, which is closest to this river did have barb wire fence.
Not according to Harry Nakamura.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
WOW just WOW. Famous last words.
I don't know where you're from but the temporary suspension of civil liberties in a time of war is nothing new to American history.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
There is no way of knowing that without an accurate tally.
Sure there is. Go down to L.A.'s little Tokyo and count the names on the memorial. I already provided the numbers for those who served during hostilities in a post above. The number is approx 16,000. Why not go back and read it.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
(War Department Releases indicate that between November 1940 and December 1945, 25,778 Japanese Americans were inducted into the Armed Forces -- 438 officers and 25,340 enlisted men -- with an estimated 13,528 from the mainland and 12,250 from Hawaii.)
We weren't at war with Japan in November of 1940 nor December of 1945.
Those Nisei in the service before Pearl Harbor were, with few exceptions, discharged at the beginning of the war. Those who entered service after August 1945 did not serve during the period of hostilities between Japan and the U.S.
Accordingly, the 25,778 figure you cite does not fairly represent the total number of Nisei who served in the U.S.armed forces during the war with Japan.
So much for your claim of 95% of the Japanese sitting out the war.
The document can be read here.
http://www.internmentarchives.com/showdoc.php?docid=00002&search_id=44247
The intial volunteer rates from the Relocation Centers are correct. You think 95% percent sitting out the war is a stretch, then let's say 95% sitting out the war until January 30, 1944 and the vast majority sitting out the war.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
There is no factual evidence, any more than Italian-Americans and German-Americans. This was more of a propanganda which you are gullable to
Well, there is plenty of evidence, much of which I have already posted here. Why did your Dad wind up at Santa Fe?
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
From the link below, we see this: "More than 1,100 citizens from the Gila Center served in the U.S. armed forces. Twenty-three of them never made it home. And out of more than 1,200 soldiers who served from the Poston Center , 24 were killed in action."
The 16,000 Nisei vets were the exception and not the rule. They deserve gratitude and recognition, but that doesn't negate the fact they were minorities in their own community.
Here are some more numbers for you.
The 7,200 members was the Zaibei Heimusai [Japanese Military Service Men League] described in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Division's report No. 336.8 of October 14, 1941 which stated:
"Each member gives...to the Japanese War Fund and others engaged in intelligence activities. This includes military age Nisei as well as Japanese aliens. Y650,000.00 were sent to Japan as of May 1941."
In addition the report tells of the Imperal Comradship Society and states that the two organizations "have pledged to do sabotage (railroads and harbors) in time of emergency..."
The report said that there were over 60 local chapters of these two organizations.
Japanese-American males of military age (approx 19,000) in the relocation centers of whom more than 25% refused to swear an unqualified oath of allegiance to the U.S.
According to War Relocation Authority records, 13,000 applications renouncing their U.S. citizenship and requesting expatriation to Japan were filed by or on behalf of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Over 5,000 had been processed by the end of the war.
It is also credibly estimated that between 5,000 and 7,000 (of approx 15-20,000 Nisei in Japan at the time of Pearl Harbor) actually served in the Japanese armed forces fighting against the U.S. during WWII.
Two members of the Japanese surrender team who flew to Manila to arrange the formalities connected with the Japanese surrender were Nisei--one, George Shuichi Mizota, was secretary to Japanese Navy Minister Misumasa Yohnai. Five Nisei went down with the Japanese battleship "Yamato" and two other Nisei were aboard the cruiser "Yahagi" which also went down, one of the Nisei survived.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/specials/pearlharbor60/.photos/4ajamain.gif
This pic is of Manzanar. You'll notice it's not to hard to cross the cattle wire because the boys are outside the wire.
http://library.thinkquest.org/trio/TTQ04160/Complete%20Site/aftermath/000250.jpg
They don't say where this pic is from, but I suspect a DOJ internment camp.
http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/TuleLake/fence.jpg
Tule Lake Segregation Center for Japanese American disloyals waiting to sent to be deported.
http://www.freeinfosociety.com/media/images/806.jpg
Santa Anita Race Track used as an assembly center and house American GIs after the Japanese were evacuated. The fencing was there before it was used as an Assembly Center.
The best example of what the fencing was like at Relocation Centers was the first pic of Manzanar.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
...some pseudo-interview that is unsubstantiated and regurgitate it.
Pseudo-interview? Here's the source from Cal State, Fullerton.
Japanese American Evacuation O.H. 649 Harry Nakamura Interviewed by John McFarlane on May 2, 1971 California State University Fullerton Oral History Program Japanese American Project
To sfjp330: I invite you to look at Berserker's earlier post and compare it with the link below. It's simply a cut and paste of unfounded misinformation.
Tell me what's unfounded.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
The Tolan committee looked very closely at the need to evacuate Germans and Italians from the West Coast combat zones, also.
It was learned that the vast majority of the German enemy aliens were Jewish Germans who had escaped Hitler's oppression starting in the early 1930's. The Italians were by and large illiterate farmers who had never gotten around to applying for citizenship.
After careful thought and discussion it was decided these people were not a threat to the West Coast combat zones to the extent the ethnic Japanese were a threat.
To argue there must be some kind of proportionality between Germans, Italians and Japanese because they both happen to be the enemy without acknowledging the extent of the security threat from ethnic Germans compared to ethnic Japanese didn't make a whole lot of sense to America's political and military leaders in a time of total war when America was losing the war.
Up until mid-March 1942 plans were in place to evacuate Germans and Italians also, but it was considered overkill. The Japanese were the threat and that's a tuff pill for you to swallow but the evidence proves it.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
Does this applies to Italian-Americans and German-Americans too? Why no interment camp for them? U.S. was at war also with Nazi's and Mussolini's army. Civil liberties sort of goes out the window if you are Japanese-Americans only.
Internees included 10,995 Germans, 16,849 Japanese (5,589 who voluntarily renounced U.S. citizenship and became enemy aliens), 3,278 Italians, 52 Hungarians, 25 Romanians, 5 Bulgarians, and 161 classified as “other".
It should be noted that all 16,849 Japanese enemy-aliens including the 5,589 that renounced American citizenship were eligible for an apology from the United States and a $20,000 reparations payment while the Germans, Italians, Hungarians, Romanians and Bulgarians received nothing.
German Americans on the east coast and throughout the country were arrested, interned, and in some cases deported. Many German Americans sat, worked, played and went to school in the same camps as their Japanese American counterparts.
Furthermore even before the first ethnic Japanese was interned, 600,000 Italian Americans and 300,000 German Americans were deprived of their civil liberties when they (all persons, male and female, age 14 and older) were required to register as "Alien Enemies." This registration entailed photographing, fingerprinting and the issuance of identification cards which the Alien Enemies had to have on their possession at all times. In addition they were forbidden: to fly; to leave their neighborhoods; to possess cameras, short-wave radio receivers, and firearms. Finally, these persons were required to report any change of employment or address to the Department of Justice.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
Who is Nakamura? WERE YOU THERE?
Nakamura was there.
My father...he was also in Santa Fe, where German POW's were on the other side with BARB WIRES. Tule Lake had BARB WIRES.
Santa Fe was a real Department of Justice internment camp. Internment camps were run by the Department of Justice and held only enemy aliens who had been deemed security risks and their U.S. citizen family members who were allowed at their choice to stay with them.
Japanese citizens with families were sent to Crystal City, Texas and lived side-by-side with German and Italian families. Single men (or men seperated from their families) were sent to internment camps in other states, such as Santa Fe. Not all enemy aliens were placed in internment camps, and no American citizen was forcefully placed in an internment camp.
If you were interned it was determined that you, a spouse or parent was an enemy alien and a security risk.
Tule Lake was also a Segregation Camp for Japanese American disloyals.
DOJ internment camps and Tule Lake segregation camp had real high-wire fencing. The Relocation Centers had three-strand cattle wire used as perimeter fencing that was rountinely crossed. In the case of Poston, there was little if any perimeter fencing. Obviously Harry Nakamura didn't see any.
So what did your dad do that made him wind up at Santa Fe?
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
Before you make this type of statement, spend 4 years in Poston Arizona, under barb wires, with machine gun on top watching you 24 hours a day and enjoy 115 degrees temperature without air conditioner and tell me you had a special treatment.
He's talking about Poston.
Japanese American Evacuation O.H. 649 Harry Nakamura Interviewed by John McFarlane on May 2, 1971 California State University Fullerton Oral History Program Japanese American Project
McFarlane Were you conscious of the enclosure, the barbed wire and the guards, there at the camp?
Nakamura Well, our camp didn't have that barbed wire. We were able to go to the Colorado River and hiking to the mountains. The only guard I know of that they had was at the main gate. So other than that I don't think it was very strict.
McFarlane Then you didn't see the guards, they weren't very apparent; they weren't driving around watching you?
Nakamura Oh, no.
Besides, how about my family's civil liberties? They got sent to New Guinea, Italy and Okinawa.
Here is an interesting quote from the Tolan Commission on National Defense Migration made by Representative Carl Curtis of Nebraska March 7, 1942.
Mr. Curtis: May I say something right here. I don't believe anything will be gained by assuming that everyone who has to be evacuated is disloyal. These military decisions must be made upon the basis of the best judgement of those military authorities who are in charge. The rest of us will have to comply. It will be tuff, it will be cruel and there will be hardships.
Sherman had an old idea of what was war, but that was a long time ago and it is old-fashioned. But that is going to fall upon every American.
I live in a little town of 1,700 people. One of the car dealers there sells automobiles. He did sell automobiles, radios, washing machines and tires. His Government at Washington says, "You can't sell any of those things. You can't even buy them."
It so happens that that family has two sons in the armed forces and a third one about to go. Well, now, they are not sitting down at their supper table and talking about their liberties and their precious rights to do business and their precious things being taken away. It is one of those things that all of us are just going to have to take on the chin and like it.
(Rep. Curtis made this comment to Japanese American members of the United Citizens Federation. It is amazing from reading the National Defense Migration testimony that the arguments made by the Japanese American Reperations Movement today is nothing more than the same old positions used by similar groups in 1942.)
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
Berserker I like your style
Thanks! I'm just a Japanese history buff, that's all.
I do think it's a shameful bit of our history, but understandable in some ways.
I don't know of anyone who has studied the issue and concluded that the so-called "internment" was justified who denies that there was racial prejudice against resident Japanese aliens and Japanese Americans at the time of Pearl Harbor.
But the fact that racism existed doesn't mean that racism was the reason for the "internment". On the contrary, had "racism" been the reason for the "internment" why was it that the thousands of ethnic Japanese not living in the West Coast military areas were not bothered at all?
The reality was that there was an abundance of military intelligence which led to the decision to evacuate/relocate the West Coast Japanese for prudent military reasons. It's all on the record and available for anyone to see. But unfortunately, many present-day critics of the "internment" persist in viewing WWII realities through the prism of their current socio/political agendas. As a result such ideologues have confused race with enemy nationality while remaining otherwise uninformed about the military reasons behind the evacuation decision.
Hence, the accusations of "visceral hatred" and "racism".
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
A total of 33,000 Japanese Americans, men and women, served in the armed forces—many with great distinction."
The figure you cite does not fairly represent the total number of Nisei who served in the U.S. armed forces during the war with Japan.
A more accurate total can be arrived at this way:
Approx 8,500 Nisei can be accounted for in the 100/442d.
Another approx 3,500 in the MIS. That total of 12,000 jibes with the number announced by SecWar in January 1945.
Allowing for another 4,000 in miscellaneous units, we reach the grand total of 16,000.
The 16,000 figure just happens to be the appox number of names the JA WWII Memorial organizers in L.A. were able to come up with after their exhaustive search for for Nisei WWII veterans to list on the memorial.
...like Joe Ichiuji, were kicked out of the military...
Here's a MAGIC intercept relating to this:
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.
I don't know if you are regurgitating from that poster, or whether you both are regurgitating from the same source of misinformation. Whichever, it is fairly easy to discern the visceral hatred behind your agenda.
Misinformation? I have found that the truth is generally consistent. Provide your own facts if you want to dispute me but accusing me of "visceral hatred" is hardly a debate.
Do you think my initial post quoting Eizo Hori makes him a "visceral hater"?
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
Though I'm sure you're going to find some way to poke holes at that too right?
It's not hard to do. See my post above regarding the percentages of Nisei who acutally volunteered to fight. It was only 5%-7%.
As for "most decerated" you should clarify by saying "for size and length of service".
No dispute about the DSCs but the MOHs given 55 years later were affirmative-action-driven. The Army Review Board study instigated by Sen. Akaka applied only to those awaded the DSC who were Americans of Asian or Pacific Island descent (all ethnic Japanese and one token Filipino).
Caucasian awardees of the DSC were excluded from the upgrading study. The mission of the review could not have been more racially based.
Despite its motivation, the study found no evidence of downgrading of MOH recommendations to DSCs as Akaka and his fellow-travelers had hoped to show.
In the words of Army Command Historian, James C. McNaughton in the board's final report on September 30,1998:
"What did we find? ....in the Army awards process we found NO evidence that award recommendations were rejected or downgraded on the basis of race." (Empasis added)
Despite these findings, 22 Japanese-Americans were upgraded from DSCs to MOHs anyway. In so doing, the judgement of WWII combat award officers whose original decisions that DSCs (not MOHs) were appropriate at a time when the facts were fresh and corroborating witnesses alive and on hand to verify them, were politically overruled.
Put another way, Bill Clinton, motivated by legislation from Sen Akaka of Hawaii started handing out medal upgrades like candy canes against the advice of the Pentagan many years and miles away from the battlefied in complete defiance of American Military Tradition.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
Then why did the US government apologize?
Intense political lobbying by an ethnic activist group towards a bunch of politicans 40 years after the fact with little to no knowledge of the history.
Reagan wasn't keen an apologizing. He sat on the bill and reluctantly signed it in 1988 (an election year) against the advice of his own Department of Justice. There is an excellent scholarly piece by Professor Tim Maga desribing the intense lobbying effort directed at President Reagan by Japanese American ethnic activist lobbiests and their political allies. It was a full court press. It was ugly and it's a perfect example of why politicians should not be in the business of legislating revisionist history.
While Maga makes some errors on the history of the evacuation, he does a great job describing the lobbying of the 1980s. Here's a link to his piece.
http://www.bainbridgehistorians.org/page12.html
So now Americans have a piece of legislation, P.L.100-383 (the Japanese Money Bill), that grants millions of taxpayer dollars each year to "re-educate" the American people regarding this history, through the "Civil Liberties Public Education Fund" - the monies of which are managed by Japanese Americans.
Below are the "suggestions" for applications for grant money to use certain teminology in applying for the $$, the strong implication being that if such terminology is not used the grant request will be denied.
"While the CLPEF does not wish to dictate individual choice of vocabulary, it strongly urges grant applicants and the public at large to discontinue the usage of terms such as "relocation," "evacuation," and "assembly centers" as clearly misleading references for this historic event.
The CLPEF concurs with the alternatives suggested by, among others, the National Japanese American Historical Society's (NJAHS) in its publication, Due Process -Americans of Japanese Ancestry and the United States Constitution (1995, NJAHS, p. 48).
Specifically, rather than "evacuation" or "relocation," the following terms for this event are more accurate: "imprisonment, incarceration, internment, detention, confinement or lockup."
Rather than "assembly centers," the term "temporary detention centers" is an accurate alternative; rather than "relocation camps," "internment camps, detention camps, prison camps, or concentration camps" is more accurate; rather than "evacuee," "detainee, internee, inmate or prisoner" is more accurate. This is based on a comparison of the dictionary definitions of such terms and the documented facts of this historic period.
The Board recommends that grant applications, as a starting point, begin to utilize more accurate terms such as the above, keeping in mind that "Continued use of these misnomers would distort history... The choice of term must reflect the fact that the inmates were not free to walk out without getting shot." (Due Process, NJAHS, p. 48.)"
If you're wondering why this history always seems to be in the media, it's because American taxpayer dollars are paying for it. Rather than acknowledge some of the darkers of their own history, Japanese-Americans have chosen to point fingers elsewhere and have been quite successful, really...
...but as Lincoln once said, "You can't fool all of the people all of the time."
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal
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The_Berserker
The real issue for us are the Nissei who were born in the United States and were American citizens.
Over 90% of Japanese-Americans over age 17 were also citizens of Japan (dual citizens)under Japanese law. Thousands had been educated in Japan. Some having returned to the U.S. holding reserve rank in the Japanese armed forces.
Sure their constitutional rights were violated and it was perfectly legal.
The West Coast combat zones were under military authority at the time and the military called the shots.
Such conditions are not under the same scrutiny as peacetime civil society. The military could have evacuated everybody if they had felt the need to. If you have a problem with designating an area a military combat zone, blame the civilian government. Executive and Legislative provided permission to militarize the West Coast and Judicial approved the decisions - that are still good law to this day.
Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal