American Intolerance: Our Dark History of Demonizing Immigrants by Robert E. Bartholomew & Anja Reumschuessel

Author:Robert E. Bartholomew & Anja Reumschuessel [Bartholomew, Robert E. & Reumschuessel, Anja]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Emigration & Immigration, history, social history, Psychology, Social Psychology
ISBN: 9781633884496
Google: y2VJDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2018-10-23T23:37:33.600537+00:00

From these, squads of troops were sent to search out with rifle and bayonet every small cabin hidden away in the coves or by the sides of mountain streams, to seize and bring in as prisoners all the occupants, however or wherever they might be found. Families at dinner were startled by the sudden gleam of bayonets in the doorway and rose up to be driven with blows and oaths along the weary miles of trail that led to the stockade. Men were seized in their fields or going along the road, women were taken from their wheels and children from their play. In many cases, on turning for one last look as they crossed the ridge, they saw their homes in flames, fired by the lawless rabble that followed on the heels of the soldiers to loot and pillage.82

During the Second World War, several high-ranking members of the American military harbored deep prejudices against Japanese Americans. Their views were a reflection of popular attitudes. Even Arizona Senator Henry Ashurst once proclaimed: “Against the Japanese and their civilization I have no evil word, but we are a different race. They will vitiate our population, and once it is vitiated, it is beyond repair.”83 For these officials, the conflict was a race war. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the commander of the Western Defense Force, General John DeWitt, sent a report to Secretary of War Henry Stimpson, urging the “evacuation” of Japanese from the West Coast. He asserted that it was not necessary to make a distinction between Japanese in Japan and Americans of Japanese ancestry because they both were part of the same race. He wrote: “The Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second and third generation Japanese…have become ‘Americanized,’ the racial strains are undiluted.”84 DeWitt viewed all Americans of Japanese ancestry as potential traitors. In April 1943, he would famously declare: “A Jap's a Jap,” noting that even if they have American citizenship, “he is still a Japanese and you can't change him.”85 That he was not immediately dismissed from his command is a testament to just how deep and widespread anti-Japanese sentiments were at this time. Seventy-three years later in 2016, Donald Trump echoed DeWitt's sentiments in claiming that among Muslim immigrants to America, “there's no real assimilation” even for “the second and third generation.”86 This is why the mistreatment of Japanese Americans by their fellow citizens is an important lesson to remember, as it is just as relevant today as it was during World War II. As journalist Katelyn Taira observes, “when America forgets its past disgrace, it is likely to commit the same mistake again.”87 DeWitt's views put the military in an awkward position. Just three months earlier, the War Department had announced the formation of an all-volunteer all-Japanese American military unit. The official name was the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, or “RCT.” While much was made about the military trusting Japanese Americans to join in the war effort, the reality was very different.

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