Thank you Henry for strengthening my Argument

Submitted by Caleb (United States), May 9, 2011 at 02:55

If the Niihau Incident really showed that citizens of Japanese ancestry resident in the Hawaiian Islands were likely to aid the enemy, then why were the Hawaiian Japanese not relocated **en masse** as on the American West Coast? I doubt that the imposition of Martial Law made it practical or even possible to watch all of them, all the time!

That "Incident" was treated quite properly as a very minor matter. A downed pilot in the midst of a hostile if small population is a figure to be pitied, not a threat. The relocation of many thousands of loyal US citizens was the result of popular prejudice and the feeling by paper pusher Gen. DeWitt that other Army generals did not afford him the proper respect.

Of course, the Japanese-Americans bear some of the responsibility in that they were slower than most to assimilate in the American culture. There was no Japanese Joe DiMaggio, no Japanese Bruno Walter to proclaim their loyalty to the American populace.

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