For The Benefit of Nisei Readers in America: Newspapers as a Form of Behavioral Control during Japanese American Internment
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2014
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Haverford College. Department of History
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Abstract
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of over 110,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast. In late March, the military began the process of transferring Japanese Americans to internment camps operated by the War Relocation Authority. The internees can be divided into three separate categories. The left opposition criticized the government's evacuation and internment policy as unjust and unconstitutional. Their internment prompted members of the right opposition to swear allegiance to Japan over the United States. Meanwhile, the accomodationists chose to forego criticism of internment and focused on developing an alliance with WRA authorities, improving living conditions within the camp, leaving the camps as soon as possible and serving in the military to demonstrate their loyalty to the United States. During Japanese American evacuation and internment, the number of print media sources catering specifically towards the Japanese American community was relatively limited. Shortly after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, all of the West Coast Japanese-language newspapers were forced to shut down. Only a few inland Japanese-English newspapers were able to continue operating throughout World War II. All ten internment camps also produced newspapers, albeit under considerable WRA supervision. The last major print media source directed towards Japanese Americans was the Pacific Citizen, official publication of the Japanese American Citizens League, a pro-American organization that swore cooperation with the government's evacuation and internment program. Through an analysis of the Pacific Citizen; the Manzanar Free Press and Denson Tribune, newspapers created within the internment camps; and the Rocky Shimpo, a Japanese-English paper produced in Denver, Colorado; I will argue that these major print news sources encouraged their Japanese American readers to adopt specific WRA and accomodationist-endorsed behaviors. I will also show how the newspapers fulfilled some of the major roles of the ethnic press while simultaneously functioning as a form of behavioral control.