Why did FDR inter the Japanese?

[DevotedDemocrat]

As I've said in another thread, this is the one thing which sticks in my craw about FDR. Otherwise, he'd be my favorite President. It's really one of the few things that can be said to be unquestionably bad that he did without bringing one's ideology into it.

My question is, why did he do it? I mean we've had Presidents who've used imprisonment during wartime (Adams' Alien & Sedition Acts which imprisoned citizens; Lincoln imprisoning anti-war types, Wilson cracking down on Socialists and Anarchists) but never to such a large scale as the internment was.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Immense political pressure from racist whites (particularly on the West Coast) who hated the fact that Japanese Americans were "competing" with white business owners and workers (this was a central part of the racism against Japanese Americans, especially when you consider that, unlike Chinese immigrants, male Japanese immigrants who had come over to the U.S. had brought their wives over, started families, and intended to stay in America.) The bombing of Pearl Harbor was seized on by the nativist/xenophobic/racist parts of America as the perfect opportunity to "do something" about the Japanese, given the context of the immense war hysteria.

However, German and Italian Americans were not targeted to nearly the same extent as the Japanese were, in part because of the existing racist attitudes against the Japanese and the fact that Germans and Italians were already becoming more assimilated into American society, but also because FDR and the Democratic Party counted on German and Italian Americans for votes (as part of the New Deal coalition). So there was a political calculation there, as well.

[DevotedDemocrat]

Immense political pressure from racist whites (particularly on the West Coast) who hated the fact that Japanese Americans were "competing" with white business owners and workers (this was a central part of the racism against Japanese Americans, especially when you consider that, unlike Chinese immigrants, male Japanese immigrants who had come over to the U.S. had brought their wives over, started families, and intended to stay in America.) The bombing of Pearl Harbor was seized on by the nativist/xenophobic/racist parts of America as the perfect opportunity to "do something" about the Japanese, given the context of the immense war hysteria.

However, German and Italian Americans were not targeted to nearly the same extent as the Japanese were, in part because of the existing racist attitudes against the Japanese and the fact that Germans and Italians were already becoming more assimilated into American society, but also because FDR and the Democratic Party counted on German and Italian Americans for votes (as part of the New Deal coalition). So there was a political calculation there, as well.

But you see that explanation makes it seem as if, by acting against the Japanese by interning them, he was in essence agreeing with the nativists and xenophobes and thus perhaps was himself was one....

[minionofmidas]

Sign o'the times.

Just compare American wartime propaganda and popular folklore about the Japanese with that about the Germans, and you'll understand that anti-East Asian Racism was utterly ubiquitous.
Security concerns played a role - while not of course remotely realistic a Japanese invasion of California is just about imaginable. A German invasion wasn't.
Add the old stereotype about the inscrutable orientals, and the Ni'ihau Incident that seemed to confirm them (how odd that the Japanese in Hawai'i were not interned then... but the reason here is that FDR strictly speaking didn't ever order the internment of the Japanese - he gave area commanders the right to do so in their area. Every one of them along the West Coast did, immediately (and there were scarcely any Japanese settlers east of that). The Hawai'ian command presumably had more real problems to deal with and anyways personally knew some Japanese-American people.
Also remember that France and Britain did intern German citizens during WWII - most of whom were political or Jewish refugees. Ahem.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Just compare American wartime propaganda and popular folklore about the Japanese with that about the Germans, and you'll understand that anti-East Asian Racism was utterly ubiquitous.

Indeed, as demonstrated in posters like this one:



or this:

[All Along The Watchtower]

Immense political pressure from racist whites (particularly on the West Coast) who hated the fact that Japanese Americans were "competing" with white business owners and workers (this was a central part of the racism against Japanese Americans, especially when you consider that, unlike Chinese immigrants, male Japanese immigrants who had come over to the U.S. had brought their wives over, started families, and intended to stay in America.) The bombing of Pearl Harbor was seized on by the nativist/xenophobic/racist parts of America as the perfect opportunity to "do something" about the Japanese, given the context of the immense war hysteria.

However, German and Italian Americans were not targeted to nearly the same extent as the Japanese were, in part because of the existing racist attitudes against the Japanese and the fact that Germans and Italians were already becoming more assimilated into American society, but also because FDR and the Democratic Party counted on German and Italian Americans for votes (as part of the New Deal coalition). So there was a political calculation there, as well.

But you see that explanation makes it seem as if, by acting against the Japanese by interning them, he was in essence agreeing with the nativists and xenophobes and thus perhaps was himself was one....

Maybe he was? FDR came from a super-rich WASPy background. Wouldn't at all be surprised if he had  racist tendencies. Just look at the writings and statements of his cousin Teddy or Woodrow Wilson-both of whom influenced FDR a great deal.

[Beet]

Why didn't FDR act against lynching and segregation? If racism is going to get in the way of historical idolizing, then just throw out all the presidents before the 1960s. The ironic thing about actions such as internment is that over time, it merely tends to reinforce a separate identity among the minority group whose loyalty is supposedly in question. Hence it can become one of those self-fulling preemptions.

[TDAS04]

There is no question that FDR was at least among the 3 greatest presidents (along with Washington and Lincoln), but this why I admire the character of his wife more.  On Japanese internment, Eleanor was not afraid to call her husband's action "unconstitutional," "unnecessary," and "stupid."  Just as she pressured Franklin to do more for the civil rights of blacks.

The fact that the Japanese were not white like Germans and Italians certainly played a major role.  That's why the discrimination that Irish immigrants faced in the 1800s was minor compared to the persecution directed at Chinese immigrants.  In fact, the Irish were responsible for much of the worst discrimination directed against the Chinese in California (they wanted to prove their "whiteness").  Likewise, I'm sure that many Americans with some German ancestry weren't bothered much by the Japanese internment.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

In fact, the Irish were responsible for much of the worst discrimination directed against the Chinese in California (they wanted to prove their "whiteness"). 

Economic motives also played a part, just as it did with Irish antagonism towards Negroes.  The micks were competing with both the ns and the chinks for manual labor jobs.

[Mechaman]

In fact, the Irish were responsible for much of the worst discrimination directed against the Chinese in California (they wanted to prove their "whiteness"). 

Economic motives also played a part, just as it did with Irish antagonism towards Negroes.  The micks were competing with both the ns and the chinks for manual labor jobs.

^^^^
This.

Economic motives are probably the biggest rationale for racism.

[TDAS04]

In fact, the Irish were responsible for much of the worst discrimination directed against the Chinese in California (they wanted to prove their "whiteness"). 

Economic motives also played a part, just as it did with Irish antagonism towards Negroes.  The micks were competing with both the ns and the chinks for manual labor jobs.

^^^^
This.

Economic motives are probably the biggest rationale for racism.

True.  Economic competition causes anyone to hate anyone like nothing else.  Nevertheless, people who are treated badly often try to pick on someone even more vulnerable; they like to be bigger than someone.