The Japanese American Cases. A Disaster

Abstract

All in all, the internment of the West Coast Japanese is the worst blow our liberties have sustained in many years.Over one hundred thousand men, women and children have been imprisoned, some seventy thousand of them citizens of the United States, without indictment or the proffer of charges, pending inquiry into their "loyalty."They were taken into custody as a military measure on the ground that espionage and sabotage were especially to be feared from persons of Japanese blood.They were removed from the West Coast area because the military thought it would take too long to conduct individual loyalty investigations on the ground.They were arrested in an area where the courts were open, and freely functioning.They were held under prison conditions in uncomfortable camps, far from their homes, and for lengthy periods-several years in many cases.If found "disloyal" in administrative proceedings they were confined indefinitely, although no statute makes "disloyalty" a crime; it would be difficult indeed for a statute to do so under a Constitution which has been interpreted to minimize imprisonment for political opinions, both by defining the crime of treason in extremely rigid and explicit terms, and by limiting convictions for sedition and like offenses.2 In the course of relocation citizens have suffered severe property losses, despite some custodial assistance by the GovernmentA Perhaps 70,000 persons are still in camps, "loyal" and "disloyal" citizens and aliens alike, more than three years after the programs were instituted.Although the process of relocation has been recently accelerated, many will remain in the camps at least until January 2, 1946.4 By the time the question reached the Supreme Court, the crisis which was supposed to justify the action had passed.The Court faced two issues: should it automatically accept the judgment of the military as to the need for the relocation program, or should it require a judicial City by the Japanese American Citizens League is an indispensable source of material on events and attitudes with respect to the process of evacuation, internment and relocation.2. See Cramer v. United States, 65 Sup.Ct. 918 (U. S. 1945) (treason).For the evidence required to justify imprisonment for attacking the loyalty of the armed forces, see Hartzel v. United States, 322 U. S. 680 (1944).It is notable that persons--citizens or aliens-who actively propagandize in favor of the Axis cause cannot be convicted of sedition, nor placed into protective custody, although loyal citizens of Japanese descent can be arrested and held in preventive custody fo periods of more than three years.See also Keegan v. United States, 65 Sup.Ct. 1203 (U. S. 1945), which reverses the conviction of active members of the German-American Bund, a Nazi organization, for conspiracy to obstruct the draft.Apparently the defendants included persons of German nationality as well an of German descent, id. at 1212.As for the difficulty of obtaining individual exclusion orders against persons-usually naturalized citizens-with strong German political affiliations, see cases cited infra note 13. On the handling of evacuees' property see WAR RELOCATION AUTHORITY, A STATE-

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