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World War 2, Japanese internment & comics
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87 posts in this topic

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When looking at vintage photographs containing comics, it is interesting to look for historical connections. I felt I had to include some historical background on World War 2 Japanese internment so that these pictures are viewed with their historical context in mind. Any additional information on the Okajima pedigree would be appreciated.

 

1. Executive Order 9066 and Relocation

 

My initial attention was drawn to the comics in this widely distributed photo of “four young evacuees from Sacramento California read comic books at the Tule Lake relocation center in Newell California in July 1, 1942”. Probing deeper into the background of this photo, revealed a sad and compelling chapter in American history of the severe abridgement of the civil rights of ethnic Japanese of whom the majority were American citizens. Without the description, one might not have known of the circumstances that these young Japanese Americans were living behind barbed wire and guard towers in an internment camp in America during World War 2. Comics were cheap entertainment that provided relief and escape from their current situation.

 

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The boy on the left is reading Marvel Mystery 34 that contains the stories “Exposed! The Jap Invaders” & “Dr. Watson Makes Monkeys Out of the Japs”.

Photo by Francis Stewart.

 

For many Americans, December 7th is remembered as “a day that will live in infamy” for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 but February 19th is a National Day of Remembrance for Japanese Americans marking the day President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in 1942 which authorized the War Department to declare areas of the United States as military areas “from which any or all persons may be excluded.”[1] This order authorized and facilitated the evacuation of over 110000 people of Japanese descent living in the western United States to internment camps. After declaration of war with Japan, the American government was concerned with potential espionage and sabotage by the Japanese. Many government officials such as commander of the U.S. Army’s Western Defense Command (WDC) Lieutenant General John L. Dewitt, California Attorney General Earl Warren, Colonel Karl Bendetsen of the General Staff, Secretary of War Henry Stimson, Secretary of the Navy Colonel Frank Knox and Secretary of State Cordell Hull believed there was no easy way to distinguish between loyal and disloyal Japanese and that all Japanese American citizens and resident aliens had their allegiance to Japan. First generation Japanese immigrants (Issei) and Japanese Americans who were educated or lived in Japan (Kibei) were believed to be the most disloyal. These officials believed the Japanese in America were a national security threat so everyone with Japanese ancestry living along the west coast in the exclusion area was forced to evacuate to 10 main relocation camps in the western states.[2] About two-thirds of the Japanese evacuees were American citizens and about 40000 were under the age of twenty. In 1941 there were 127000 people of Japanese descent in America with 93000 in California and 19000 in Oregon and Washington.[3]

 

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Although Executive Order 9066 did not name any nationality or ethnic group, Americans of German and Italian ancestry were also targeted by these restrictions and over 11000 persons of German descent and 250 persons of Italian descent were in internment camps.[4][5] Families were given a few weeks and in some cases only 48 hours to dispose of their belongings, settle their personal affairs and pack for relocation. Careers, property and businesses were sacrificed and families were limited to what they could carry into the camps. Internees were first sent to assembly centers to wait for facilities to be built at the main camps before relocating again.

 

The government made this film to explain the Japanese relocation in 1942. The narrator Milton Eisenhower was the initial director for the War Relocation Agency (WRA) which was under the control of the U.S. Army’s Western Defense Command. He said the Japanese happily volunteered to be relocated and willingly sacrificed their property and businesses for the war effort. In reality, those that disobeyed the evacuation order were arrested and jailed. Eisenhower resigned in June 1942 and was replaced by Dillion S. Myer.

 

 

Notable photographers such as Ansel Adams, Dorthea Lange and Russell Lee were hired to document the relocation and life in the camps. It is believed that the photographs were used mainly as propaganda to show Americans and other countries the internees were fairly treated and as propaganda for not giving the enemy extra incentive to mistreat any American prisoners of war. All photos were reviewed by censors and many show smiling internees and camp life in a positive light. Only a few of Dorthea Lange’s 800 plus photographs of the Japanese American relocation and internment were used during the war. Her photos were so critical of the Army and the treatment of the Japanese Americans that the bulk of her photos were impounded during the war, filed away in the National Archives and were not seen by the public until recently in 2006. [6] All of Lange’s internment photos can be seen here.

 

 

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Photographers document the evacuation of the Japanese in San Francisco on April 6 1942. You can almost sense the anguish reflected in the faces of the family and notice one boy is holding a copy of Looney Tunes 7. Photo by Dorthea Lange.

 

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Boys read comics while waiting for the evacuation bus in Centerville CA on May 9, 1942. Photo by Dorthea Lange.

 

 

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Photo titled “Tagged for Evacuation, Salinas CA May 1942” taken by Russell Lee.

This boy is eating a candy bar with his comics; Pep 28 and the June 1942 issue of True Sports Picture Stories.

All evacuees were tagged and numbered for identification.

 

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Magazines and comics were donated for the internees to pass the time on the relocation train on October 2 1943. Photo by Charles Mace.

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In a closeup at the lower right is an Action and a Donald Duck comic.

 

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Reading True Comics #12 while waiting to be evacuated in 1942.

 

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Boys read discarded magazines at the Fresno CA assembly center in 1942.

 

Notes

1 Executive Order 9066: http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=219

2 Weglyn, Michi Nishiura, Years of Infamy, Univ. of Washington Press, 1996, p. 27-75

3 Ibid., p. 36

4 German American Internee Coalition: http://www.gaic.info/

5 Italian American Internment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_American_internment

6 Gordon, Linda & Okihiro, Gary, Impounded, W.W. Norton & Co., 2006, p. 5-39

 

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[font:Book Antiqua]2. Comics in the Internment Camps

 

The internees faced harsh living conditions in the hastily constructed and substandard housing in the assembly centers and internment camps. Families were usually kept together but Japanese considered disloyal were separated from their families and sent to the Tule Lake camp.

 

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The Tule Lake camp was in a remote location in northern California as seen in this picture taken of the internment camp in 1942 or 1943. In this maximum-security “segregation” camp for disloyal Japanese, about 18000 internees were housed and guarded by a full battalion of campaign-equipped troops. In stark contrast with the cheerful newsstand picture, Tule Lake internees faced oppressive conditions with substandard housing, sanitation, health care, food shortages, limited job opportunities, repeated questioning about their loyalty and camp administration indifference to harassment and violence by loyal and disloyal factions. Internees held meetings to demand better conditions but were met with indifference by camp administration which led to protests and riots. This in turn resulted in arrests, nighttime raids, beatings and incarceration in the stockade for internee camp leaders and anyone who was suspected of causing trouble. People were locked up for long periods without any formal charges. [7]

 

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Shown here is one type of barracks for family use. These were formerly the stalls for race horses. Each family was assigned to two small rooms, the inner one with no outside door nor window. The center was in operation about six weeks when this photo was taken and 8,000 evacuees were assembled here at the Tanforan assembly center in San Bruno California. Photo taken by Dorthea Lange on 6/16/42.

 

Despite the harsh conditions of the camps, the internees established a relatively self sufficient community with farms, businesses, schools and hospitals. All of the camps had their own newspaper or newsletter.

 

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While evacuees operate a mimeograph machine at an assembly center newspaper office, a boy reads a coverless copy of Our Gang 1.

 

A wide variety of goods was available but the camps were subjected to the same rationing restrictions as the rest of the country. Ninety percent of the employable internees had jobs and they earned $12 to $19 per month depending on their skills. In comparison, the starting salary of a serviceman was $21 per month. [8]

 

Comics were extremely popular reading material and they were available in the camp libraries too. According to internee letters at one camp, comics were so popular that they were removed by the librarians since they believed comics were detrimental to the reading of books.

 

According to the camp newsletter, the Tule Lake newsstand was remodelled and enlarged in January 1943 with comics dominating the bookcases. Two bookcases were stacked with about a hundred different titles of comics from Action to Zip and with 15 different titles of pulps. Life magazine was the most in demand title. [9]

 

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The Tule Lake newsstand on March 29 1944. Photo by Carl Mydans. Terry-toons #18 and Jolly Jingles #12 (Hitler cover) on the left top shelf.

 

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A newsstand in Nyssa Oregon in July 1942. Photo by Russell Lee.

 

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A magazine stand in Amache Colorado on 12/10/42. Comics and pulps along the wall and behind the counter. Photo by Tom Parker.

 

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Another shot of the same magazine counter in Amache where you can see comics on the top shelf. Photo by Tom Parker.

 

 

War Heroes 3, Rangers 9, Fight 23, Sparky Watts 2, Jungle 37 and Large Feature 12 Private Buck

 

 

In his blog Gary Ono, a former internee at the Amache Colorado internment camp, re-examines some of his photos from the camp to determine where they were taken. In one photo he is holding a comic book and pictured with his brother, grandmother and a family friend. [10]

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Gary Ono holding a comic in Amache Colorado in 1943.

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In a closeup he is holding Target comics #38.

 

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The Manzanar newsstand in the community store on 2/12/43. To the left of the female cashier’s head are copies of Fight and Rangers comics. Photo by Francis Stewart.

 

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This is the general store in Manzanar California in April 1944. This photo was taken by Toyo Miyatake, a famous professional photographer from Los Angeles, who was interned at the Manzanar camp. Internees were prohibited from having cameras in the camps but Miyatake smuggled in a lens and shutter and had a box camera built in camp. He wanted to document what the camps were really like. He took many photos in secret but eventually was discovered and was allowed to take pictures by a sympathetic camp director with the stipulation that he would be followed by a Caucasian escort who would snap the shutter. The escorts got tired of following him around and he was free to take any pictures within the camp. [11]

Can you recognize the comics at the side wall?

 

 

Wonder 1, Fight 32, World’s Finest 13, Marvel Mystery 55, Green Hornet 18, Suspense 3, Leading 10, Supersnipe 15

 

 

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Reading comics (Boy 5 & Top-Notch Laugh 29) at the recreation center in Manzanar 7/1/42. Photo by Dorthea Lange.

 

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Reading Boy comics #5 in Manzanar 7/1/42. Photo by Dorthea Lange.

 

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Orphan reading comics in Manzanar 7/1/42. Photo by Dorthea Lange.

 

Notes

7 Weglyn, Michi Nishiura, Years of Infamy, Univ. of Washington Press, 1996, p. 156-216

8 NBC network speech by Dillion Myer, 7/15/43

9 Daily Tulean Dispatch, 1/16/43

10 Gary Ono’s blog: http://www.discovernikkei.org/pt/journal/2008/5/29/csi-amache/

11 Gordon, Linda, Dorthea Lange A Life Beyond Limits, W.W. Norton & Co., 2009, p. 498 & Densho Encyclopedia

 

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[font:Book Antiqua]3. The Okajima Comics Pedigree

 

High quality original-owner books from the gold and silver ages are highly prized by comic collectors. The Okajima Pedigree comes from a young female collector from central California who was in an internment camp and accumulated a wide variety of comics from the prime golden age years from 1943 to 1953. The comics were left untouched until they were found at the family home in 1995 and the books were split among 3 buyers in an estate sale. Alan Bahr, owner of Heroes Comics in California, got 415 books. The Okajima books were carefully wrapped in newspaper when they were found and many are notable for their high quality and white pages. Documentation found among the books indicated the books were owned by a young female named Okajima. The books from this pedigree can be recognized by an arrival date on the front cover, a purchase date stamped or written on the back cover or the name Okajima written on the front cover on pre-1945 books. [12]

 

From a search of the Japanese internment records in the National Archives, surprisingly there are only 6 people with the Okajima name out of thousands of internees. Four of them are from Fresno county in California and are presumably from the same family. Only one of these names is of a young woman, Fumiko Okajima, who was born in America in 1921 and worked on a fruit farm. George Okajima was born in 1925 and was possibly her brother, Takano Okajima born in 1904 in Japan was probably the widowed mother and Yoshi Okajima was another widow (grandmother?) who was born in 1885 in Japan. The first three Okajimas were interned at the Gila River camp in Arizona and Yoshi was interned at the Colorado River camp in Arizona. [13] The Gila River camp was in operation from July 20 1942 to November 10 1945.

 

Ron Murry, a dealer who had most of the Okajima books pass through his hands, talks about the pedigree in an episode of The Incurable Collector. [14]

 

 

Murry says comics were shipped to Okajima while she was in the camp and this raises many questions about the collection. Where were these books purchased? Why did she collect and save so many comics? Did she share them with someone else like a relative or friend? What other books are in the collection? It is highly possible she had a job in the internment camp to be able to afford that many comics. In some cases multiple books were bought in the same month based on the arrival dates seen on some books. Some examples of books from the Okajima predigree owned by board members can be seen here. The original owner of the books must have really cared about the books she accumulated in the camp since it took great effort to keep the books in excellent condition and to transport so many books out of the internment camp.

 

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The Gila River camp in Arizona 1945.

 

Notes

12 Okajima pedigree certificate, Heroes Comics

13 www.japaneserelocation.org

14 The complete video that aired on A&E in 2001 can be seen here:

 

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[font:Book Antiqua]4. Internment Camps in the Comics

 

Although comics were considered disposable ephemera, they can reflect the current social atmosphere of their time period. The Superman comic strip published by the McClure syndicate, debuted on January 16, 1939. [15]

It was very popular and by 1941 it was featured in 230 newspapers with a combined circulation of 25 million readers. As Superman became more popular, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster set up a studio in Cleveland Ohio and hired a staff of artists to assist Shuster to handle all the Superman material the publishers wanted. [16] In July 1943 Siegel was drafted into the army.

 

In the episode “The Sneer Strikes!” written by Whitney Ellsworth and Al Schwartz and published from June 28, 1943 to August 21, 1943, Clark and Lois investigate conditions inside a Japanese internment camp. While in camp, Clark using his X-ray vision detects a group of evil Japanese planning an escape and intending to take Lois and the Army officer hostage. [17]

 

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The Office of War Information (OWI), a government agency for controlling the content and imagery of war messages, was horrified by the advance strips it received, noting the narrative “was about disloyal Japanese, with only a passing mention of loyal Japanese”. The OWI had no censorship powers however and the McClure syndicate declined their request to retract the entire episode. The narrative also drew protests from the public, who criticized the strip for “inciting race hatred” and implying that “the Army was lax enough to allow concealed weapons” into the camps. [18]

 

Imagine how some of the Japanese American internees might have felt seeing their ancestry negatively portrayed and being lumped in with the enemy Japanese in newspapers, magazines, comics and movies while they were in the camps. Internees were deeply concerned about how they were being portrayed in the media. After seeing this Superman strip, Reverend Royden Susu-Mago from the Gila River camp wrote on June 30 to WRA director Dillion S. Myer complaining about the negative portrayal and negative implications of Japanese American internees and enclosed clippings of the strip. Susu-Mago received a reply from Myer a month later. Myer wrote that he had spoken to the syndicate about Susu-Mago’s concerns and the syndicate expressed regret about the damage that had been done and the artists and writers had no malicious intent. The syndicate asked the WRA to supply examples of Japanese American loyalty for material to include in other cartoon strips controlled by the syndicate. [19][20]

 

The storyline for this episode ends with Superman in the final panel acknowledging the loyalty of Japanese Americans in the camps and armed forces and differentiating them from the enemy Japanese. [21] This reminder message may have been a conciliatory gesture to the OWI and to other critics. There would be no more war related storylines for the rest of the war.

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In an unusual instance, Japanese Americans in internment camps are seen in a sympathetic light in a story from Four Favorites #9 in 1943. Captain Courageous fights Japanese saboteurs while a Japanese American boy from an internment camp looks for his dog. The story takes a very simplistic view that being a good American means following the government’s orders unconditionally and knowing American popular culture like baseball.

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2696251.html

 

Notes

15 Archive of Superman newspaper strips: www.thespeedingbullet.com/daily/index.html#

16 Kobler, John, Up, Up and Awa-a-a-y!, Saturday Evening Post, 6/21/41

17 San Francisco Chronicle, 6/28-6/29/43

18 Darowski, Joseph ed.,The Ages of Superman: Essays on the Man of Steel in Changing Times, McFarland & Co., 2012, p. 8-9

19 Gila News-Courier, 7/31/43

20 Gila News-Courier, 8/24/43

21 San Francisco Chronicle, 8/21/43

 

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[font:Book Antiqua]5. Post-War Resettlement

 

In December 1944 the exclusion order was rescinded and limited numbers of pre-screened internees were allowed to continue their studies in colleges and some workers were allowed to leave for jobs in the midwest and east coast. When the war was over, only some of the remaining internees left the camps initially. Some had no place to go and many of the internees felt safer in the camps since they were fearful of persecution and harassment after hearing some instances of attacks on Japanese Americans. It would be difficult to turn off the anti-Japanese sentiment after it was set to a such a high level during the war and with the memories of the war still fresh on people’s minds. [22] The last of the major camps to close was the Tule Lake camp on March 1946.

 

Upon leaving camp, evacuees received a $25 allowance and a one-way train ticket to the destination of their choice. [23] Some of the internees who still had property or businesses returned home and others without property resettled in various parts of the country and the younger Nisei (2nd generation Japanese, born in America) went back to school and assimilated into American society. The older generation who had very little had to essentially start over. The WRA provided some housing and job assistance.

 

The Japanese internment was still not widely known in America for many years after WW 2 because of wartime censorship and internees’ reluctance to speak of the topic, some due to shame or a reluctance to dredge up their unpleasant past. Japanese American Mamoru “Morrie” Kuramoto was discharged from the Army, and, according to the later recollections of his daughter, “given the choice of being interned or going to the East coast.” He heads for New York, joins the Art Students League, and eventually begins work at Timely Comics. He continues with Timely until 1957, and then returns in the late 1960s, by which time it’s called Marvel Comics. He remains there until his death in 1985.

 

Rick Parker, Marvel staff penciller and writer, remembers: ”…I remember that every December 7th, we would mercilessly tease the one Japanese co-worker we had in the Marvel Bullpen, a fellow by the name of Morrie Kuramoto. Cartoonist, Marie Severin would annually do a hilarious cartoon of Morrie engaged in some type of war-like situation and we'd all gather 'round his desk when she presented the cartoon to him and we'd all have a good laugh....everyone, that is, except Morrie, who managed a tight-lipped smile or took a long drag on the Chesterfield King that hung permanently from his lips, making him look like some character in a B movie. One year, though, when Marie had him piloting a plane and dropping bombs on the Empire State Building, he just couldn't take it anymore. That was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. This time instead of bombs exploding, or peals of laughter bursting forth from the assembled multitude, it was Morrie who exploded. He really let us have it. We learned a lot that day. We learned that following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, as a young man, Morrie and his parents and sister were rounded up by the U.S. government and locked up in a prison camp in Arizona. We learned that his family's house and property were confiscated. And this was all done to protect them from possible repercussions to the attack on Pearl Harbor--or in case they were thinking of sabotage. Morrie was born in the U.S.A. He was an American citizen. Morrie did manage to escape from the camp by serving honorably with the United States Military in WWII. We learned that there is often more to that co-worker sitting quietly in the corner doing his job, than we thought. We also learned that freedom is not something we can take for granted, even in America. Morrie had a heart attack and died on the subway on his way to work one morning. I heard it said that his old black raincoat hung in the closet in the back of the Marvel Bullpen for many years after he died. I wonder if the person who eventually took it out and disposed of it realized to what kind of person it had belonged”.[24]

 

Kuramoto was born in Tulare California in 1920, worked in Marvel’s production department and was officially a letterer. More memories of Kuramoto can be found in Jim Shooter’s blog here.

 

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Timely office photo late 1940s. Morrie Kuramoto in center.

 

Notes

22 After Internment: Seattle’s Debate Over Japanese Americans’ Right to Return Home, http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/after_internment.htm

23 Commision on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (Wash DC: GPO, 1982), p. 241

24 Marvel Comics: The Untold Story’s Photos page.

 

6. Redress & Compensation

 

In 1988 Congress voted to formally apologize to Japanese Americans who were driven from their homes in World War 2 and to give compensation to the surviving internees. On August 10, 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed legislation for a formal apology for the forced relocation of Japanese Americans and compensation of $20000 ($2755 in 1942 dollars) to each of the 60000 surviving internees. In 2004 the House of Representatives passed a resolution to acknowledge the signing of Executive Order 9066, acknowledge the wartime treatment of Japanese, German and Italian Americans and called for a National Day of Rememberance on February 19th. [25] Although Congress has authorized and funded commissions for studies on German American and Italian American internment during World War 2, no formal apology or compensation has been approved so far.

 

Despite the ordeal of great injustice, the Issei and Nisei had great tolerance, patience, resilience and perserverance to rebuild their lives. The Japanese American internment has been widely documented and I’ve only mentioned only a small part of the story but many people in America are still unaware or misinformed about this history.

 

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

George Santayana, philosopher

 

Notes

25 National Day of Remembrance:

www.gaic.info/ShowPage.php?section=Legislative_Efforts&page=National_Day_of_Remembrance

 

Other Sources

 

Densho Encyclopedia: (recommended resource)

On-line resource about the history of the Japanese American WWII exclusion and incarceration experience

http://encyclopedia.densho.org/

 

Densho: the Japanese American Legacy Project

www.densho.org

 

Japanese American Internment Camps

www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/japan/camp.html

 

Japanese American National Museum

http://www.janm.org/

 

Calisphere: University of California’s archive of the history and culture of California

http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-cs.html

 

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/index.html

 

Barriers and Passes, War Relocation Authority color film of relocation centers ca. 1945

http://archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.39227

 

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Jeff,

 

Really cool thread you put together! I can see this lasting several pages lol

The historical impact on pop culture is really nice to study and appreciate. I owned one Okajima (Jungle Comics 163?) and knowing the story of the little girl is cool :)

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What an interesting read to start my morning! Thanks so much.

 

Another Japanese-American that was in an internment camp was actor George Takei of Star Trek fame.

 

The only comic cover that references an internment camp?

 

19greenhornet.jpg

 

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An article that doesn't once make reference to current valuations? :o :o Seriously, a very nice piece of scholarly research. I enjoyed it immensely. What a refreshing way to begin the day :headbang:(worship) Here's one I picked up in 1995 that I just had certified:

 

th_Venus09-75-Oka_zps3dbf5c2c.jpg th_Venus09-75-Okab_zps25af48cd.jpg

 

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Best thread of the year, perhaps ever.

 

I can't make out all of the covers but I know that those books were full of racially stereotypical images of the time. I’m struck beyond words by the juxtaposition of the photos showing children in those circumstances bombarded with the negative racial depictions.

 

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What an interesting read to start my morning! Thanks so much.

 

Another Japanese-American that was in an internment camp was actor George Takei of Star Trek fame.

 

The only comic cover that references an internment camp?

 

19greenhornet.jpg

 

Interesting, at the time this comic would have been published , spring 1944, Tule Lake Camp was being converted by Italian POWs to a POW camp that would eventually house 800 German POWs. In 1943 it had been briefly used to detain 100 "disloyal" internees from the neighboring Tule Lake Segregation Center, itself a destination for Japanese-Americans and Japanese resident aliens who refused to or incorrectly answered loyalty questions from the War Relocation Authority or were otherwise deemed troublemakers, and subsequently housed a couple hundred J-A "strikebreakers" who agreed to work in the fields when other inmates at TLSC refused.

 

Schomburg was probably vaguely aware of the camp's reputation as a destination for more troublesome internees and conflated that with a Japanese POW camp , judging by the PW lettering on the Japanese uniforms.

 

 

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Interesting article on a strife-torn period of history. Looking back, it is sometimes easy to lose perspective...

 

On Dec. 7, 1941, with no formal warning, 353 Japanese planes attacked the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor. This surprise attack, on a country which had not entered the war, killed 2,402 Americans and wounded 1,282 more. The Japanese damaged all eight U.S. Navy battleships, sinking four of them. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. The Japanese destroyed 188 U.S. aircraft.

 

Part of the intelligence for the Japanese attack was gained through spies from the Japanese Navy. One of these, Takeo Yoshikawa, was escorted around Pearl Harbor by Richard Kotoshirodo, a Japanese-American clerk for the Japanese consul. Kotoshirodo later observed and reported ship movements to Japanese spies.

 

On December 7, 1941, Japanese pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi, who had just bombed Pearl Harbor, crashed his plane on the small Hawaiian island of Niʻihau. He was captured by Hawaiians living on the island. The captive pilot convinced several Japanese-Americans living on the island to change loyalties. They helped him escape his captors. They helped him reach his downed plane, where he tried to use the radio to contact Japanese command.

 

The Japanese pilot and his Japanese-American allies took an Hawaiian family hostage, and threatened to kill everyone on the island. The hostages fought with their captors. The Japanese pilot shot one Hawaiian man three times, but the man was able to pick up the pilot and throw him against a wall. The Hawaiian man's wife bashed the pilot's head with a rock, and then the Hawaiian man slit the pilot's throat. The Japanese-American man who had helped the pilot killed himself with a shotgun.

 

The Japanese-American woman who had helped the pilot was put in prison for 31 months. After her release, she would say she was sorry for her actions in English, but when she spoke in Japanese to a Japanese audience, she said she felt sorry for the pilot and wanted to help him more. She was later visited by Mitsuo Fuchida, the leader of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

Historians say the Niʻihau Incident played a role in the internment decisions. They said Hawaiians were disturbed by "the rapidity with which the three resident Japanese went over to the pilot's cause."

 

In the official Navy report on the incident, dated January 26, 1942, Navy Lieutenant C. B. Baldwin wrote, "The fact that the two Niʻihau Japanese who had previously shown no anti-American tendencies went to the aid of the pilot when Japan domination of the island seemed possible, indicate likelihood that Japanese residents previously believed loyal to the United States may aid Japan if further Japanese attacks appear successful."

 

On December 11, 1941, a Japanese submarine sank the freighter SS Lahaina off the coast of Honolulu.

 

On December 17, 1941, another Japanese sub sank the SS Manini in Hawaiian waters.

 

On December 18th, 1941, another Japanese sub sank the SS Prusa near Hawaii.

 

Several other December attacks occurred within 20 miles of the California and Oregon coastlines.

 

On February 23rd, 1942, a Japanese submarine bombarded the Ellwood oil fields in Goleta, California.

 

The war by Japan was already reaching American shores.

 

Decoded Japanese cables from 1941 described Japanese spies in southern California who were reporting on movements of troops and supplies. The cables also said there were Japanese-American spies in the U.S. Army.

 

A U.S. Army intelligence report from January 3rd, 1942 said, “‘there can be no doubt that most of the leaders within the Japanese espionage network of Japanese clubs, business groups, and labor organizations continue to function as key operatives for the Japanese government along the West Coast.”

 

In 1944, 28% of draft-age Japanese-American evacuees refused to swear allegiance to the United States or to forswear allegiance to the emperor of Japan. When given the chance, 5,620 Japanese-Americans chose to abandon their U.S. citizenship.

 

The internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II will remain controversial...as will the WW II internment of German-Americans and Italian-Americans, and the internment during World War I of 6,300 "European-born civilians". Keep in mind that Canada and Mexico also moved Japanese away from their coasts during WW II. It was a time of total war, and sabotage by just a few enemies could have had devastating effects...

 

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