One of the Wisconsin state Supreme Court justices who blocked an extension of the governor’s stay-at-home order on Wednesday falsely compared the COVID-19 safety measure to the U.S. government’s incarceration of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.
Justice Rebecca Bradley, appointed by former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), cited the widely condemned 1944 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Korematsu v. U.S., which at the time upheld forcing Japanese Americans into concentration camps and rejected that it was based on racial prejudice.
Bradley suggested the stay-at-home order enacted by Gov. Tony Evers (D) was a similar example of government overreach that “may lead to extraordinary abuses of its citizens.”
“The point of citing them is not to draw comparisons between the circumstances of people horrifically interned by their government during a war and those of people subjected to isolation orders during a pandemic,” she wrote. “We mention cases like Korematsu in order to test the limits of government authority, to remind the state that urging courts to approve the exercise of extraordinary power during times of emergency may lead to extraordinary abuses of its citizens.”
Unlike COVID-19 restrictions designed to protect public health, the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II was based on racism, xenophobia and false assumptions. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japanese Americans were falsely accused of harboring loyalties for Japan or being spies. President Franklin D. Roosevelt then ordered the mass removal and detention of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans, often separating families — part of a long, racist history of Asian Americans having their Americanness challenged.
I want to preface my comment by first saying I have great respect for the Japanese Americans of that era- what their families endured, with many volunteering to fight for a country that had their loved ones behind barbed wires. I take great pride in the 442nd- the most decorated military unit of its size in U.S. history; along with translators critical to the war effort. While in college, I took a pilgrimage to Manzanar during it’s 50th anniversary. My mother is Japanese; and I have good ties and relations to the Japanese-American community.
Growing up, I heard and read the same- that there was no evidence of ex-pat traitors or saboteurs; no instances of Japanese issei or nisei who displayed commitment to the ultra-nationalistic tradition of “doho” (unbending loyalty to the Emperor regardless of residence or citizenship status). That it was 100% based on racism and paranoia. However, my further reading says otherwise.
Yes, racism and prejudice played a big part of it. Yes, the military greatly overestimated the security risks and threat that Japanese-Americans might have posed. However, the fear of loyalists to countries of origin were not completely groundless and made up out of thin-air; nor 100% bigotry-driven.
The possibility of fifth column saboteurs and the dangers of further attacks on the West Coast were very real, and supported by the best military and civilian intelligence analysis at the time. Throughout Europe and the South Pacific, there were instances of Japanese immigrants who consorted with their ancestral homeland. Same held true with Germans who no longer lived in Germany. As you all know, Italians and Germans were also rounded up, albeit in lesser numbers- somewhere under 2,000 for Italians and 11,000 Germans.
Instances of disloyalty/questionable acts that I can recall:
-The 2 Japanese-Americans on Niihau who collaborated with a downed Japanese pilot
-The 3 Shitara sisters
-Richard Kotoshirodo
I believe that’s pretty much it. So about 5 or 6 minor acts versus 110,000 Japanese-Americans (including ones who refused to swear a loyalty oath to the U.S.- as an act of protest; and those 5,500 who renounced their citienship out of justified bitterness/anger at the U.S.). So, yeah, I believe EO 9066 was an over-reaction and Constitutionally deplorable in many ways; but I reject the notion that it was all due to racism and irrational hysteria as opposed to rational hysteria and serious deliberations and concerns over whether relocation policy vs. martial law (as in Hawaii) when it came to threats on the Westcoast on the heels of Pearl Harbor.
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.