Heroic editors in short supply during Japanese internment

Newspaper Research Journal, Spring 2002 by Thornton, Brian

All editorials and most letters to the editor published in seven West Coast newspapers and The New York Times in 1942 supported the internment.

Several scenes in David Guterson's recent popular novel, "Snow Falling on Cedars," can make journalists feel proud. For once a journalist is portrayed as a hero. The editor, Art Chambers, is shown standing up to his Pacific Northwest community in 1942. He bravely defends the rights of Japanese-- Americans who are being hauled away by the thousands, without benefit of due process or trial, to "internment camps"1 simply because the United States is at war with Japan. Not only does the small-town editor rail against the injustice of incarcerating United States citizens without any proof of disloyalty, he also opens his editorial pages to a variety of citizen comments, publishing letters to the editor both for and against the internment. The editor prints predictable, outraged letters to the editor that proclaim, for example, that "Your newspaper is an insult to all white Americans who have pledged themselves to purge this menace from our midst." But he also publishes letters from readers who condemn "the spirit of small-mindedness" that has overtaken some local citizens while in the grip of "war hysteria."

The defiant editor pays dearly for his integrity as several advertisers pull out of his newspaper. In addition, many angry readers cancel their subscriptions.2

This image of the fearless editor portrayed in Guterson's book certainly makes for compelling reading. There is also a feeling of great service being done by the paper as it airs many sides of an emotional issue. But in response, a journalism historian might ask how well the cold facts of history match Guterson's powerful image of a courageous editor who opens his editorial pages up to a freewheeling discussion of the rights of a largely defenseless group of people. This research attempts to answer that question by examining how eight daily newspapers in the United States--seven in the West and one in the East-responded on their editorial pages - with letters to the editor and editorials-to the imprisonment of some 120,000 Japanese-Americans in 1942.(3) This research explores a series of questions: Did newspapers publish anti-internment letters? How many, in comparison to pro-internment letters and how often? And what about letters that specifically attacked newspapers that supported the internment? Did any critical missives from readers get published?

Background of Japanese Incarceration

In March 1942 the American government herded an estimated 120,000 Japanese people out of their Pacific coast homes at gunpoint. Three-fourths of these Japanese were United States citizens. Some were naturalized. The majority were Nisei, meaning they were American born and raised citizens. Soldiers forced these people into 10 desolate, makeshift internment camps, quickly slapped together in the country's interior. Army authorities said they had to act immediately to protect the country from Japanese saboteur "sneak" attacks on military bases.4

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order that allowed the United States military to evacuate all people of Japanese ancestry from sensitive military areas to internment facilities. On March 2,1942, the order took effect. All people of Japanese descent in California, Oregon and Washington and the southern one-third of Arizona were removed from their homes immediately. One historian says it was simply a case of guilt by association.5

All Japanese were hauled away to "some of the most uninhabitable parts of the interior of our continent."6 The camps were located in the most remote areas of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.7

Japanese families were torn apart and financially wiped out. Many lost their West Coast homes and businesses - in addition to their dignity - as internment sentences lasted until the end of the war.

The United States Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians reported some 50 years later that the government imprisonment of the Japanese was "motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria and a failure of political leadership."8

Thus, widespread prejudice as well as envy and corruption caused one of the single largest forced racial migrations in recent United States history.9 In 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed a Japanese American Redress Bill, proclaiming that "a grave injustice" had occurred. Each Japanese internment victim was paid $20,000 in reparations. The monetary awards were accompanied by a signed apology from Reagan on behalf of all Americans. Yet this apology was 46 years too late for most internees, many of whom died while waiting to be released from the camps.

What is Missing from the Historical Record

The historical record is generally bereft of any detailed studies of how newspaper readers responded in 1942 to the Japanese-American imprisonment. Did editors print letters critical of the government that may have warned of government overreactions and wholesale deprivation of civil liberties? And by so doing did the press live up to its watchdog role, questioning authority and providing a voice for the voiceless?10 It is worth exploring whether newspaper readers of this time frame went beyond merely accepting the government's description of the "threat" of Japanese-Americans and instead fought against attempts to foment racial hatred. And how did letter-to-the-editor comments compare or contrast with the editorial stances of different newspapers?