Military Racism



Military Racism

Introduction

There was a lot of controversy over Racism in the military but the reason is fairly simple. If the military was to intern all alien Italians and Germans they would have had to intern Joe DiMaggios father. Now Joe DiMaggio was one of the biggest most popular sports figures at the tine and to intern his father would have created a back lash that was not felt after the internment of the Japanese. Quite simply, the military could get away with interning the Japanese in America, not the Italians. As for the Germans, the military thought that with Germans you can tell who is bad or disloyal just by observing them; something that seems ambiguous since there are no black and white differences between loyal and disloyal.

Analysis

Also, The evil deeds of Hitlers Germany were the deeds of bad men; the evil deeds of Tojo and Hirohitos Japan were the deeds of bad race (Davey, Brian, 1999) Because Germans are white, there are some good ones, but because the Japanese are not white there are no good ones. Isnt this what the above passage is saying. There was no difference between the imperial strength of Germany and the imperial strength of Japan at the time except the color of the people.

We will see that none of these theories hold true under scrutiny. The military necessity theory is probably the most widely know and most often preferred to be true. This theory is self-explanatory. Its the theory that the Japanese were interned because they were a threat to national security. This just isnt true. Numerous reports made by military and F.B.I. officials state that the Japanese did not have the military capability to invade the west coast and there was absolutely no proof of sabotage going on anywhere (Wyatt-Brown, Bertram, 2004).

On the very day the president signed order 9066 a report made by a general staff officer stated that mass evacuation was unnecessary(Daniels 47). Numerous other reports were submitted before the day order 9066 was signed but none of them were heeded. Why? Because the people that made the decision to intern the Japanese let their racist fears control them. The second most widely held theory is the Pressure Group theory. This theory holds that influential civilian groups such as the American Legion and many labor organizations lobbied for the Japanese internment because of economic motives (Davey, Brian, 1999).

It is true that pressure groups lobbied for the internment because of economic motives but in actuality, it was too little too late. The groups were not large enough and did not have consensus with their other chapters to be big and widespread enough to influence the military. Also, many groups didnt start to lobby for internment until after the decision to intern the Japanese had already been made. This theory puts forth that there was an organized effort to lobby for internment but, there was no organized effort. It was splotchy and spread out at best (Nash, Gary ...