Japanese Internment in WWII and Sabbath Persecution

he Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 stunned the United States, and became a catalyst for challenging the loyalty of all Japanese people living in the U.S. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing military authorities to exclude "any and all persons" from designated areas of the country as necessary for national defense. E.O. 9066 was the first step in a program that uprooted Americans of Japanese ancestry from their West Coast communities and placed them under armed guard for up to four years.

uring the opening months of World War II, almost 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of them citizens of the United States, were forced out of their homes and into detention camps established by the U.S. government. Many would spend the next three years living under armed guard, behind barbed wire.

fter Pearl Harbor, citizens of Japanese ancestry were classified 4-C, enemy aliens. In December 1943, it was announced that all Nisei would be reclassified and eligible for the draft. They went to Europe to fight. After fighting their way up the Italian peninsula, the 100th would eventually be joined by the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a second segregated Nisei military unit. The 100th/442nd saw action in Italy, Belgium, southern France, and Germany. At war's end, 680 members of the unit had been killed in action, 67 were missing, and 3,600 Purple Hearts including 500 Oak Leaf Clusters had been awarded for wounds suffered in combat. Their motto was, "Go for Broke."

n December 17, 1944, Public Proclamation Number 21 ended the mass imprisonment of Japanese resident aliens and American citizens of Japanese ancestry. On the following day, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Ex Parte Endo that claims of military necessity could not justify holding American citizens against their will.

y 1946, Japanese Americans were released from the internment camps, but the injustice of the war years was not forgotten. Many members of the Japanese American community were determined to create a public understanding of the injustices they had suffered and to resolve the basic Constitutional issues related to their wartime incarceration. More than forty years after internment, the U.S. government finally acknowledged its wrongs with a formal apology to the Japanese American community, and passage of the Civil Liberties Act in 1988.

he executive order used to evacuate Japanese didn't mention Japanese Americans by name!  On the very day the order was signed, an intelligence report given to General George Marshall, said that an internment was not necessary! Prior to the executive order, General DeWitt, Commander of the Western Defense Command, in charge of the defense of the West Coast, issued Public Proclamation No. 3, which established an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew (i.e., house arrest) for "all persons of Japanese ancestry" as well as "alien Japanese, Germans and Italians" living within the "military areas." General Dewitt also said "A Jap's a Jap. It makes no difference whether the Jap is a citizen or not". Not long after the curfew was initiated, a series of Civilian Exclusion Orders (a total of 108) were promulgated, which directed the exclusion of all persons of Japanese ancestry (even as little as one-sixteenth) from certain military areas.

he United States Supreme Court addressed controversies stemming from Executive Order 9066 only four times: Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U.S. 81 (1943), Yasui v. United States, 320 U.S. 115 (1943), Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), and Ex Parte Endo, 323 U.S. 283 (1944). In not one of these cases did the Court find Executive Order 9066 or orders promulgated under its authority to be unconstitutional. Although basic human rights, guaranteed by the First Amendment were abrogated in a horrible fashion, the law did not rescue the Japanese from internment.

n a similar way, Sunday laws have been declared constitutional already. When a national Sunday law is finally enacted, Sabbath-keepers should declare that such a law is really unfair, should be illegal, and should be unconstitutional. However, nobody should be surprised when all of these requests and petitions are unheeded. This will only be a fulfillment of prophecy. Judging a previous generation's actions can be difficult. However, the proven prejudice and stereotyping pepeptrated against the Japanese at that time should be a lesson to us! The Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution, and our entire framework of law will be tossed out in favor of persecution of Sabbath-keepers! During WWII the Japanese in the United States were simply found guilty by reason of their race. In the last persecution, people will be found guilty simply because of their religion. Will you be ready?