Document 1: Memorandum from F



Document 1: Memorandum from F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover, 1941



FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

To:  COMMUNICATIONS SECTION

Transmit the following message to:

CBC: CSH                                                

December 8, 1941

TO ALL SACs: MOST URGENT. SUPERSEDING AND CLARIFYING PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS

RE: GERMAN AND ITALIAN ALIENS. 

IMMEDIATELY TAKE INTO CUSTODY ALL GERMAN AND ITALIAN ALIENS PREVIOUSLY CLASSIFIED IN GROUPS A,B, AND C, IN MATERIAL PREVIOUSLY TRANSMITTED TO YOU.  IN ADDITION, YOU ARE AUTHORIZED TO IMMEDIATELY ARREST ANY GERMAN OR ITALIAN ALIENS, NOT PREVIOUSLY CLASSIFIED IN THE ABOVE CATEGORIES.  

IN THE EVENT YOU POSSESS INFORMATION INDICATING THE ARREST OF SUCH INDIVIDUALS NECESSARY FOR THE INTERNAL SECURITY OF THIS COUNTRY.  ABOVE PROCEDURE APPLIES ONLY TO GERMAN AND ITALIAN ALIENS, AND NOT TO CITIZENS.  ABOVE PROCEDURE DOES NOT IN ANY INSTANCE APPLY TO DIPLOMATIC OR CONSULAR REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GERMAN OR ITALIAN GOVERNMENT.  BUREAU MUST BE ADVISED TELEGRAPHICALLY AT EARLIEST POSSIBLE MOMENT CONCERNING INDIVIDUALS ARRESTED PURSUANT TO ABOVE INSTRUCTIONS.  THIS TELEGRAPHIC INFORMATION TO BUREAU SHOULD SPECIFICALLY DESIGNATE, WITH REGARD TO EACH INDIVIDUAL MENTIONED, WHETHER THE ALIEN IN QUESTION HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY CLASSIFIED ON THE A, B, OR C LIST, OR WHETHER HE IS BEING ARRESTED AS AN ALIEN CONCERNING WHOM INFORMATION JUSTIFYING 

HIS ARREST IS POSSESSED, ALTHOUGH NOT PREVIOUSLY CLASSIFIED IN THE ABOVE CATEGORIES. 

HOOVER

Document 2: Memorandum from Chief Supervisor of Border Patrol, 1941



MEMORANDUM FOR THE FILE 

     Yesterday [December 14, 1941] Dr. Prendergast furnished the undersigned the following data of the number of alien enemies for whom warrants of arrest had been issued in the United States, the number of warrants executed by the FBI, and the number of aliens arrested without warrant by the FBI:

             GERMANS:

                           Warrants Issued              -  1757

                           Warrants Executed            -   374

                           Arrested Without Warrant     -   500

             ITALIANS:

                           Warrants Issued              -   223

                           Warrants Executed            -    41

                           Arrested Without Warrant     -    85

             JAPANESE:

                           Warrants Issued              -   700

                           Warrants Executed            -   437

                           Arrested Without Warrant     -   628

W. F. Kelly

Chief Supervisor of Border Patrol

Pomona Reader: World War II Day 8

Document 3: Excerpt from New York Times Magazine, 1940

"We Shall Hate or We Shall Fail"



By Rex Stout, Chairman, President Roosevelt's Writers' War Board

New York Times Magazine, January 17, 1943.

"...I hate Germans, and am not ashamed of it. On the contrary, in view of what the Germans have done, and of what my countrymen are preparing to do to them, I would be profoundly ashamed of myself if I did not hate Germans. "

"...I hate all Germans who, reluctant to join the Nazis, nevertheless failed, through lack of courage or conviction, to prevent the Nazis from seizing power..."

"Those are the Germans I hate from the bottom of my soul. Ninety-nine percent of them are in Germany.”

"It is not true that if we hate the Germans now we are helping to fill a reservoir of hate-poison that will infect the future beyond all hope of antisepsis. On the contrary. If we do not hate the Germans now, we shall inevitably fail in our purpose to establish the world on a basis of peace...We shall hate or we shall fail."

Document 4: Political Cartoon by Dr. Seuss, 1942

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Pomona Reader: World War II Day 8

Document 5: Political Cartoon by Dr. Seuss, 1941



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Document 6: Commentary on Dr. Seuss, 1996



However, it is Dr. Seuss's portrayal of the Japanese that is most disturbing. His Japanese characters don't represent Hirohito or any other well-known World War II figure, in contrast to his obvious pictures of Hitler. Instead, Minear wrote, "...Dr. Seuss draws 'Japan' - piggish nose, coke-bottle eyeglasses, slanted eyes, brush mustache, lips parted (usually in a smile)." He went on to say, "Perhaps it is no surprise that American cartoonists during the Pacific War painted Japan in overtly racist ways. However, it is a surprise that a person who denounces anti-black racism and anti-Semitism so eloquently can be oblivious of his own racist treatment of Japanese and Japanese Americans. And to find such cartoons - largely unreproached - in the pages of the leading left newspaper of New York City and to realize that the cartoonist is the same Dr. Seuss we celebrate today for his imagination and tolerance and breadth of vision: this is a sobering experience." Written by the Springfield Library and Museums Association

Pomona Reader: World War II Day 8

Document 7: Popular Song by Carson Robinson, 1942



We're gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap

And Uncle Sam's the guy who can do it

We'll skin the streak of yellow from this sneaky little fellow

And he'll think a cyclone hit him when he's thru it

We'll take the double crosser to the old woodshed

We'll start on his bottom and go to his head

When we get thru with him he'll wish that he was dead

We gotta slap the dirty little Jap

We're gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap

And Uncle Sam's the guy who can do it

The Japs and all their hooey will be changed into chop suey

And the rising sun will set when we get thru it

Their alibi for fighting is to save their face

For ancestors waiting in celestial space

We'll kick their precious face down to the other place

We gotta slap the dirty little Jap

Document 8: Excerpt from "An Apology to Japanese Americans" from Time Magazine (date unknown)



The hysteria that engulfed the West Coast after the attack on Pearl Harbor was unbelievable. No rumor about Japanese-Americans was deemed too wild to be believed. Farmers were said to be growing tomatoes in arrow-shaped patches that pointed the way for enemy pilots to California defense plants. Japanese students were said to be pouring into German language classes at U.C.L.A., supposedly to help the Nazis. Japanese saboteurs were said to be quietly buying up the land around the West Coast military installations.

Document 9: Excerpt from “Racism and the Atomic Bomb” by Major Myron L. Hampton, USMC (1990)



Unlike the Japanese, the Germans and Italians were divided into two groups by the American public. Germans or Nazis were people from Germany and Italians or Fascists were people from Italy. The European connection between the United States and the Axis powers was very strong, and America was not ready to categorize all Germans or Italians as monsters. This unwillingness to group the entire German and Italian population as Nazis or Fascists led to the good German/Italian and bad German/Italian theory. The human atrocities that were being committed by the Nazis were not widely known or publicized, thus there was no deep down hatred of the German/Italian people. Besides, many Americans still had relatives and friends in Germany and Italy, and it was inconceivable that these people could be wicked.

Japan, on the other hand, was a different story. In the entire history of the United States, no enemy has been as detested as were the Japanese. This can be attributed to the infamy of the attack on Pearl Harbor, coupled with reports of Japanese atrocities, and the extraordinary fierceness of the fighting in the Pacific. The American news media, Hollywood, military leaders, and national leaders also played a large role in fanning the flames of racism into the war effort.

Pomona Reader: World War II Day 8

Document 10: Instructions for internment issues by General John L. DeWitt, 1942



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Pomona Reader: World War II Day 8

Document 11: Pictures from internment camps, 1942

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Pomona Reader: World War II Day 8

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Evacuation and relocation

Farm laborers

Colorado relocation center

Mrs. Naguchi and two children

Calisthenics

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Baseball

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