Leland Dirks

American Outcasts Leland Dirks

On December 7, 1941, at 7:48 am Hawaiian Time (13:18 EST), the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service began bombing the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, in the territory of Hawaii. The next day, the United States declared war on the Empire of Japan, but there was another war, undeclared, fought on the West Coast of the United states over the next four years. It was against people of Japanese ancestry, citizen and non-citizen alike. Without trial, without evidence, some 110,000 from Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington were sent to detention centers. Most received a week or less to prepare for their imprisonment. About two-thirds were American citizens. Many lost their jobs, their land, their possessions, and their faith in American justice. This book provides transcripts and facsimiles of some of the documents of that time, including Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech, Executive Order 9066, Public Proclamations and Civilian Exclusion Orders that forced persons of Japanese ancestry to leave the West Coast, some iconic photos by Dorothea Lange and others, and some protest pamphlets. More than six years ago, the author began research for a series of books telling the story of one family affected by World War II. He was drawn into the story by the wealth of material that was available, much of it from people who lived in those detention centers, euphemistically called "Assembly Centers" and "Relocation Centers." The quantity of oral histories, newspapers, letters, photographs, and other ephemera was staggering. And the author kept asking himself, what could the government possibly have been thinking to do this to so many? And so his research into the official documents began. The documents were scattered across many locations, but together and separately, they told a sobering story of the extent that a government will go to in order to justify maltreatment of a minority. There were tortured exercises in linguistics and logic. For instance, instead of saying "aliens and citizens," the phrase "aliens and non-aliens" was used. Despite a secret report finding that there was "a remarkable, even extraordinary degree of loyalty among some of this generally suspect ethnic group..." there was pressure from some groups to "round them up." The General in charge of their incarceration famously said "A Jap is a Jap - it makes no difference whether he is an American citizen or not." The first of the Origami Moon novels is scheduled for publication in 2018, and the author has collected many of these official documents and other notes in this book. This is an opportunity for an unfiltered look at the face of a nation that was willing to trample the Constitutional rights of some of its citizens, and a few people and organizations who protested the incarceration of their fellow citizens. This collection is not exhaustive. The extensive bibliography and other resources section provides information about how to learn more. These are a writer's notes, not a history book, but the writer hopes that this brief glimpse of the past will spur you to join in the cry of "Never forget. Never again."