JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

The_Berserker's past comments

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  The_BerserkerSep. 02, 2009 - 12:23AM JST

  The fact that so many fought against the japanese under the American flag.

  According to Selective Service Special Monograph Number 10 which was published after the war (1953 - This publication covered "Special Groups" who served during WWII and Chapter IX was titled "Japanese Americans." In that chapter on page 122 was the following statement:

  "In the continental United States, fewer than 1,500 Japanese Americans volunteered although there were 19,000 citizens of military age within the War Relocation Authority Centers and approximately 4,000 outside the centers."

  That would be a total of 23,000 of whom only 7% (1,500)volunteered.

  On the other hand, the WRA publication "The Evacuated People" (1946) mentions only 1,208 volunteers from the ten relocation centers (of whom only 805 were actually selected to serve) plus "several hundred" voluteers from outside the centers. Estimating a total of about 1,100 (805 plus an estimated 300 from outside the centers) out of a total 23,000 of military age, comes to 5%.

  Thus, the percentage of Japanese-American volunteers was somewhere between 5% and 7% of those of military age in the continental U.S. in and outside the centers.

  The other 93% to 95% sat the fighting out.

  Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal

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  The_BerserkerSep. 02, 2009 - 12:21AM JST

  Not exactly true. Yes, the American government gave them an apology years later, but there was little if nothing in the way of monetary compensation.

  Those that had losses could have filed claims under he 1948 Evacation Claims Act which was amended several times throughout the 1950s. Claims up to $100,000 were eligible for hearings and when all was concluded there were only 15 appeals to the settlements offered by the government out of more than 26,000 claims filed. How much fairer could that have been? No other group in the United States got that kind of special treatment for war losses, and there were plenty of losses other than those by the Japanese.

  Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal

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  The_BerserkerSep. 02, 2009 - 12:15AM JST

  Office of Naval Intelligence memorandum for the Chief of Naval Operations, Feb 12, 1941,"Japanese Espionage Organization in the United States," which suggests that the information therein be brought to the attention of the President and stating that the Japanese government had decided to strengthen its intelligence network by, among other moves to employ "Nisei Japanese and Japanese resident nationals" using extreme caution in doing so.

  The Tachibana case (March 1941) about which Peter Irons' wrote in his "Justice at War": "...There was no question that Tachibana headed an espionage ring on the West Coast that enlisted a number of Japanese Americans, both aliens and citizens (sic), nor that the government knew the identities of its members..."

  Military Intelligence Div. 336.8, Honolulu, 14 October 1941. "Japanese Ex-Service Men's Organization" which reports on two Japanese ex-military member groups active in the U.S. with 7200 members, stating in part: "...these two organizations have pledged to do sabotage (railroads and harbors)in the states mentioned (California, Washington, Oregon, and Utah) in time of emergency. Similar organizations are in Hawaii. Sixty-nine local units of these two organizations are said to be carrying on activities."

  U.S.Army MID Information Bulletin No.6 of Jan.21, 1942,titled "Japanese Espionage," forwarded to Ass't SecWar John J. McCloy by Brig. General Mark J. Clark,then Deputy Chief of Staff, U.S.Army, which, among its conclusions states: "Their espionage net containing Japanese aliens, first and second generation Japanese and other nationals is now thoroughly organized and working underground."

  Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal

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  The_BerserkerSep. 02, 2009 - 12:13AM JST

  "Back in Tokyo, Hori concentrated on American strategy in the Pacific. Hori considered the decision by President Franklin Roosevelt to intern Japanese-Americans was a blow to the network that Japanese military attaches in Washington had cultivated. Contrary to the contention that Japanese Americans were all loyal to the United States, Hori says there were some who gathered information for Japan prior to the Pearl Harbor attack. The internment of Japanese Americans thus cut Japanese access to information on American industrial capacity and troop movements, according to Hori."

  Eizo Hori, "Dai-honei Sanbo no Joho Senki," (Records of Intelligence War by a Staff Officer at the Imperial General Headquarters), Bunshun Bunko, 1996, 348 pages,

  Posted in: Japanese-American graduate recalls wartime ordeal

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