However, Japanese Americans in Hawaii were not interned for multiple reasons. While the Japanese on the mainland were socially isolated and more prone to racist pressures, the size of the Japanese population on Hawaii discredited any thought of removal -- it would be harder to get away with and too much to fund.
But that didn't mean the Japanese Americans in Hawaii were off the hook. Instead, Hawaii was immediately placed under martial law. Military police arrested around 2000 "suspicious persons" who were suspected of being Japanese spies. The army implemented a strict curfew, suspended habeas corpus, took control of labor, and temporarily abolished trial by jury.
Martial law was strictest on non-citizens born in Japan. They were labeled "enemy aliens", weren't allowed to own radios, couldn't meet in groups larger than ten, and had to request official permission to move.
But since the Army was not allowed to specifically target Japanese, martial law applied to all Hawaiin civilians. Media was censored and English was the only language allowed to be spoken. The Japanese ban was enforced not only by the military, but by Japenese groups who had expressed their loyalty to the United States.
Hawaii remained under martial law for almost three years.
A subgroup of Japanese Americans called the Kibei were citizens born in the United States who went to Japan for a period of time for educational or other reasons then returned to live in Hawaii. A small portion of Kibei expressed their loyalty to Japan, and were immediately and formally interned. However, there is no explanation for the internment of those who expressed their loyalty to the United States.
Finally, in 1946, the US Supreme Court declared it illegal for the Army to take over the civilian government, as it had done in Hawaii for much of World War II. The decision prevented the Justice Department from deporting many Kibei and other Japanese Americans to Japan.
Sources:
Freedom From Fear "Cauldron of the Home Front"
This blog was very informative! Up until reading your blog, I thought the Japanese Americans in Hawaii were largely left alone while Japanese Americans in the mainland of United States were being interned. I can see how while the government claimed that this was not based on race and rather the war, race was still a factor as no Italian-Americans or German-Americans were interned. Clearly, both the war and their race were factors. You mentioned how Japanese Americans in Hawaii were not interned because there were too many and it would be too difficult to get away with and fund. Another reason for not interning them was because by taking away this huge population of Hawaii, the economy of Hawaii would tank.
ReplyDeleteI found your article very interesting. I failed to realize that before Hawaii received statehood, the Territory of Hawaii still possessed a large amount of Americans, especially those of Japanese heritage. Following Pearl Harbor, the US was quick to institute internment camps, promptly shutting down most of the industries on the islands. Under the rules of Martial Law, Hawaii was changed drastically. Each of the internment camps was divided with barbed wire, separating prisoners by gender, nationality as well as their civil or military status. In the aftermath of the war, citizens stood together, united, to reconstruct nearly the entirety of the island of Oahu, allowing the economy to recover.
ReplyDeletehttps://maalaea.com/impact-of-world-war-ii-on-hawaii/
https://www.britannica.com/place/Hawaii-state
It was quite surprising to read how even Japanese Americans who declared their loyalty to the United States were still interned. This makes it evident that Japanese internment was driven largely by American opposition to the Japanese race and its descendants rather than whether or not they were loyal to America, but this was technically not allowed since the Army could not target a specific race. After Pearl Harbor and under Martial Law, civilians living in Hawaii also were banned from taking photographs at any location on the coast and the strong surveillance on them by Americans was strictly maintained, which instilled fear throughout the whole region because Japanese-Americans did not know when they would be able to practice their customs or participate in their own culture again.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.history.com/news/hawaii-wwii-martial-law