Growing Fat 'n' Happy with the Japanese American Reparations Movment

I'm glad Dave Niewert is a mouth for the Japanese American reparations movement rather then a Friend of Historical Accuracy. Like his buddy Eric Muller, Dave has found exploiting the wartime sufferings of others is great business!

Sadly, rather than allowing for open debate of the history, Dave and his buddy Muller long ago banned me (attempted to) from participating in the discussion on their web blogs. No big loss really. Dave and Eric prefer to preach to the peanut gallery who are their regular readers.

A recent assinine comment from Dave deserves a response here at Friends of Historical Accuracy.

Art Jacobs was interned with his parents alongside ethnic Japanese during the war. Art has devoted a good portion of his life ensuring the history of the internment of ethnic Germans and their American born children also be acknowledged.

Fortunately for historical accuracy, he is succeeding but it's hard work.

Apart from maintaining The Freedom of Information Times widely regarded as the best source for information on German American internment, Art spends much time scanning the mass media for stories on the "Japanese American Internment" and responds with a letter asking for acknwledgement of the German American Internment.

A friend of historical accuracy would demand no less, right?

Sometimes members of the mass media will respond to Art with a polite acknowledgement, others will attempt to debate the history (find they are losing and stop responding) - and on occassion a publication will actually print a correction to their original article and mention the internment of other Axis nationals rather than just ethnic Japanese.

Then sometimes the responses are so assinine they demand a response from me.

Such is the case with Dave Niewert. Read the exchange for yourselves.

Here is the intial letter from Art to a faculty member at University of California at Riverside.

The letter was copied to Dave.

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Arthur D. Jacobs" <adjacobs@cox.net
To: <celeste.durant@ucr.edu CC: <dneiwert@hotmail.com
Subject: The rest (or should I say the truth) of the story....
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2006 04:21:10 -0700
RE: The Legacy of Japanese Internment Examined
UCR Hosts Award Winning Journalist at "Issues and Dialog" Lecture Series (January 19, 2006).
From: http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=1225

Dear Ms. Durant:

In this article you report: "His [David Neiwert] talk, titled "Memory and Meaning: the Continuing Relevance of the Japanese-American Internment," will focus on how race continues to be a critical subtext of American politics, affcting both domestic and foreign policies."

First, I want to let you know that Mr. Neiwert does not understand the internment program of World War II. It was not racist! Almost 11,000 German Americans and 3,300 Italian Americans were interned-that we know of. Furthermore almost one million permanent resident aliens, 600,000 Italian Americans and 300,000 German Americans lost their freedoms and civil liberties during World War II. As a matter of fact, they were branded as "Alien Enemies."

And you also report: "David Neiwert, one of the nation's leading journalists on the subject of race, culture and politics,..." Second, it is hard for me to understand how Mr. Neiwert can be considered one of the leading journalists on the subject of race, culture and politics if he does not have a full understanding of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration's WWII internment program. The internment program was not racist.

For myths on internment I invite you to read the web page of factual information on the myths arrest and internment during World War II; see: http://www.foitimes.com/internment/Myths.htm.

Sincerely,

Arthur D. Jacobs
Major, USAF Retired

P.S. Mr. Neiwert, I located your e-mail address after I wrote this e-mail to Ms. Durant. ADJ

In typical fashion here is the response from Dave Neiwert.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Neiwert [mailto:dneiwert@hotmail.com] Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 7:20 PM
To: adjacobs@cox.net; celeste.durant@ucr.edu
Subject: RE: The rest (or should I say the truth) of the story....

Mr. Jacobs: You seem all too willing to gloss over the fact that the vast majority of Japanese Americans who endured internment camps during World War II were American citizens -- which was certainly not the case for either the Italian or German internments. Neither was there a mass evacuation of any geographical area based entrirely on race for Italians or Germans. To claim that it was not racist also grossly overlooks the kind of rationalizations that were proferred by the military authorities for the evacuation and relocation. I consider folks like yourselves, in terms of historical accuracy, to be roughly akin to Holocaust deniers, with whom I also have a great deal of experience. Feel free to respond, but do not expect any further response from me.

-- David Neiwert

That's a pretty moronic comment for Dave to make to a German American who spent the war alongside ethnic Japanese in Crystal City, Texas. I know Art's story and suffice to say the suffering endured by Art was above and beyond that endured by the vast majority of ethnic Japanese.

Dave still hasn't (most likely won't) acknowledge the difference between the Deptartment of Justice Relocation Camps and the Wartime Relocation Authority Relocation Centers.

Here's a quick refresher.

“Relocation” refers to voluntary or enforced movement from the West Coast exclusion area to locations in non-effected states from which movement to jobs and schools in other states was arranged. Approximately 9,000 ethnic Japanese relocated voluntarily, 30,000 relocated from centers to other states and 4,300 left centers to attend college.

The civilian War Relocation Authority ran relocation centers. Originally the centers were to be temporary points that evacuees could relocate from, not points that they were to relocate to. This was an admitted failure from the beginning as some uprooted ethnic Japanese didn’t speak fluent English, had few relatives or friends east of the exclusion area and were greeted with hostility from many locals. The alternative was to wait out the war in the centers.

Internment camps were run by the Department of Justice and held only enemy aliens who had been deemed security risks and their U.S. citizen family members who were allowed at their choice to stay with them. Internees included 10,995 Germans, 16, 849 Japanese (5,589 who voluntarily renounced U.S. citizenship and became enemy aliens), 3,278 Italians, 52 Hungarians, 25 Romanians, 5 Bulgarians, and 161 classified as “other”. Only a small fraction of enemy aliens were interned. Japanese citizens with families were sent to Crystal City, Texas and lived side-by-side with German and Italian families. Single men were sent to internment camps in other states. Not all enemy aliens were placed in internment camps, and no American citizen was forcefully placed in an internment camp. If you were interned it was determined that you, a spouse or parent was an enemy alien and a security risk.

It should be noted that all 16,849 Japanese enemy-aliens including the 5,589 that renounced American citizenship were eligible for an apology from the United States and a $20,000 reparations payment while the Germans, Italians, Hungarians, Romanians and Bulgarians received nothing.

Also, German Americans on the east coast and throughout the country were arrested, interned, and in some cases deported. Almost 11,000 German Americans were interned in the U.S. during World War II. Many German Americans sat, worked, played and went to school in the same camps as their Japanese American counterparts.

Furthermore even before the first person was interned, 600,000 Italian Americans and 300,000 German Americans were deprived of their civil liberties when they (all persons, male and female, age 14 and older) were required to register as "Alien Enemies." This registration entailed photographing, fingerprinting and the issuance of identification cards which the Alien Enemies had to have on their possession at all times. In addition they were forbidden to fly; to leave their neighborhoods; to possess cameras, short-wave radio receivers, and firearms. Finally, these persons were required to report any change of employment or address to the Department of Justice.


Moreover, approximately two-thirds of the adults among those evacuated were Japanese nationals--enemy aliens. The vast majority of evacuated Japanese-Americans (U.S. citizens) were children at the time. Their average age was only 15 years. In addition, over 90% of Japanese-Americans over age 17 were also citizens of Japan (dual citizens)under Japanese law. Thousands had been educated in Japan. Some having returned to the U.S. holding reserve rank in the Japanese armed forces.

Then Dave comments on a "mass evacuation based entirely on race" which in reality was based on ethnic origin as Chinese and Filipinos were not evacuated because they were not enemy aliens as the Japanese were - along with their Japanese children who were American citizens based on birthright citizenship, many having dual citizenship.

Dave also fails to mention this MAGIC intercept. It doesn't mention Germans or Italians.

Dave doesn't acknowledge this either:

1.Office of Naval Intelligence memorandum for the Chief of Naval Operations, Feb 12, 1941,"Japanese Espionage Organization in the United States," which suggests that the information therein be brought to the attention of the President and stating that the Japanese government had decided to strengthen its intelligence network by, among other moves to employ "Nisei Japanese and Japanese resident nationals" using extreme caution in doing so.

2. The Tachibana case (March 1941) about which Peter Irons' wrote in his "Justice at War":"...There was no question that Tachibana headed an espionage ring on the West Coast that enlisted a number of Japanese Americans, both aliens and citizens (sic), nor that the government knew the identities of its members..."

3. Military Intelligence Div. 336.8, Honolulu, 14 October 1941. "Japanese Ex-Service Men's Organization" which reports on two Japanese ex-military member groups active in the U.S. with 7200 members, stating in part: "...these two organizations have pledged to do sabotage (railroads and harbors)in the states mentioned (California, Washington, Oregon, and Utah) in time of emergency. Similar organizations are in Hawaii. Sixty-nine local units of these two organizations are said to be carrying on activities."

4. U.S.Army MID Information Bulletin No.6 of Jan.21, 1942,titled "Japanese Espionage," forwarded to Ass't SecWar John J. McCloy by Brig. General Mark J. Clark,then Deputy Chief of Staff, U.S.Army, which, among its conclusions states: "Their espionage net containing Japanese aliens, first and second generation Japanese and other nationals is now thoroughly organized and working underground."

I could go into more detail regarding Japanese nationalism among ethnic Japanese in America and the ten years of the Japanese-American press convincing the rest of us that Japanese invasions of Manchuria and China were a good thing. I could also discuss comparisons between Japanese naval power and German and Italian naval power or the fact the vast majority of ethnic Japanese had been in America just fourty years prior to Pear Harbor that many had initially arrived with no intention of staying...

For people like Dave Niewert that's irrelevent and get's in the way of his lucrative business hurling assusations of racism. Discussing broad historical contexts of historical events isn't Dave's thing.

In Dave's world if someone hurls a racial epithet at you, don't go inside the gas station and call the police. You go inside the gas station take a knife off the shelf and go back outside and stab the guy to death! (That's another book by Dave. He makes his living off the sufferings of others, you know.)

Same with Dave's foray into the reparations movement.

Preach to the peanut gallery.

Hurl acccusations of racism.

Call a guy interned alongside ethnic Japanese during the war a "holocaust denier" and run away.
In a word, Dave is pathetic!

I'm glad Neiwert is a mouth for the Japanese American reparations movment and not Friends of Historical Accuracy.

Art Jacobs is a man of integrity, a public educator and veteran.

His story is the truth and deserves to be acknowledged - not shoved under the carpet because an ethnic minority grievance group lobbied a bunch of politicians to pass a law giving them millions in taxpayer dollars to re-write history with pigs like Niewert (and his buddy Muller) feeding at the trough.