An Open Letter to Pearl Harbor

To Pearl Harbor:

December 7th, 1941 iconically became known as the day that will live in infamy. Seventy-seven years ago, the Pearl Harbor naval base was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Empire. This surprise attack drew the United States into World War II and rallied the nation around its country. Because of the cooperative effort within the United States and between our different Allies, the fascist and militaristic powers in the Pacific and European theaters were soundly defeated.

That's the story we all know.

And that story is not wrong, but it does leave out some key details. Pearl Harbor had an astounding effect not just on the outcome of the war, but also on the social relations in the United States.

Japanese internment is something that is widely discussed in U.S. history classes all over the country. I remember when I was in sixth grade, our class read a book called Journey to Topaz, which grappled with the terrible ramifications of internment.

Many Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II were citizens, and yet their rights were violated. They were accused of treachery and of hating their country. They lost their homes, their businesses, their livelihoods, and their freedom.

So, what distinguishes a citizen who gets to keep his/her rights versus one who does not?

Race.

Some historians have argued that FDR's internment of Japanese residents was justified because we were in wartime. When I was learning about Japanese internment, I heard this rationalization many times. In fact, it was something that we debated in my high school history classroom.

However, there are two huge reasons that prove the main reason for Japanese internment was racial fear: 1) most Japanese residents in Hawaii were not interned because of their significance to the economy, and 2) white German and Italian residents of the United States did not undergo the same internment.

Let's unpack these.

At the time of Pearl Harbor, there were about 158,000 Japanese residents living in Hawaii, making up about one-third of the islands' population. Only about 2,000 of these residents were interned. On the mainland, however, 120,000 Japanese-Americans were interned.

One would think that because Hawaii was the state that was attacked, that there would be a greater "spy" population there than on the mainland. Therefore, if the government was going to intern any members of the Japanese population, it would make the most sense to start with the place where the surprise attack occurred. Plus, if Japan was planning on attacking the mainland, wouldn't they have done that first?

As we have learned multiple times, the U.S. government usually does not adhere to logic.

The Japanese population in Hawaii could not be interned because they made up such a large portion of the Hawaiian economy. Without them, the islands would lose financial stability.

Don't you think that if the Japanese were such a threat to American safety and security that the U.S. government would find a way to sustain Hawaii's economy while also securing potential threats to national security?

Well, they didn't.

And despite the conclusion that the Japanese residents of Hawaii did not need to be interned, 120,000 of them were interned on the mainland. This hypocrisy is a clear indication that Japanese internment was passed based on racial biases, not out of need for necessity.

The Japanese were often depicted as greedy savages in U.S. propaganda throughout the war.

Furthermore, if the Japanese-American citizens on the mainland were such a threat, then why weren't German-American and Italian-American citizens interned along with them? Yes, Germany and Italy did not launch a direct attack on the United States like Japan did, but how did we know that they weren't planning to initiate one once the United States got involved in the war?

German-Americans and Italian-Americans were not interned because they were white and, therefore, did not impose the threat of racial "impurity" onto their country. Japanese Americans were still considered "new" immigrants to the United States and had not assimilated to the extent of their German and Italian counterparts, who arrived to the U.S. earlier. Japanese-Americans were unfortunately still defined by their otherness, rather than the fact that they were citizens just like you and I.

In the Naturalization Act of 1790, citizenship was limited to people with white skin. Today, we like to think that we live in a totally modern era that has left these outdated requirements in the past. But, World War II was not that long ago. Japanese internment exists in our recent past, and there are still living people who vividly remember this tragedy.

So, as you remember Pearl Harbor today, please keep Japanese-Americans on your mind because seventy-seven years ago, they were betrayed by their own country.

Yours truly,

P.S. In 1941, LIFE magazine published a horribly racist article called "How to Tell Japs from the Chinese." Check it out at the link below!

https://anthropology.net/2007/08/06/life-magazines-1941-article-how-to-tell-japs-from-the-chinese/