Definition of Relocation Camps Unclear; Their Purpose Is Not

Though letter writer Ken Hirsch (Saturday Letters, June 2) is offended by the term “concentration camp” when applied to this country’s World War II internment of its Japanese American citizens, Webster’s nonetheless defines such a facility as “a camp where persons (as prisoners of war, political prisoners or refugees) are detained or confined.”

To be sure, Hitler turned them into death camps as well; we did not. However, a day trip to Manzanar--with the remains of its barbed-wire fences and watchtowers (where Army personnel stood guard 24/7 with their rifles pointed in)--is sufficient to prove that 59-year-old euphemisms such as “relocation centers” and “internment camps” cannot whitewash their true purpose.

And if today’s Japanese Americans are required to face down Pearl Harbor as an unavoidable fact of life, then the rest of us must be equally prepared to shoulder the legacy of a nation that called itself “The Arsenal of Democracy” at the same time it was stripping 120,000 blameless Americans of their homes, their property and every one of their civil rights.

STEVE KLUGER

Santa Monica

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Hirsch repeats what is a rather widespread opinion that the term “concentration camp” should be reserved for the Nazi death camps. While this is emotionally appealing, it is not true to history, and historical accuracy should trump emotional peace.

The term dates back at least to the Boer War; in respect to the Japanese camps, the term predates Pearl Harbor itself.

To cite just a few examples: In October and November 1941, Curtis B. Munson, under instructions from President Roosevelt, gathered information on the loyalty of Japanese Americans and in his final report said that the first-generation Issei were “quite fearful of being put in a concentration camp.”

On Dec. 30, 1943, Atty. Gen. Biddle told Roosevelt that “the present procedure of keeping loyal American citizens in concentration camps on the basis of race for longer than is absolutely necessary is dangerous and repugnant to the principles of our Government. It is also necessary to act now so that the agitation against these citizens does not continue after the war.”

On Nov. 21, 1944, Roosevelt said in a press conference soon after his reelection that “. . . it is felt by a great many lawyers that under the Constitution they can’t be kept locked up in concentration camps.”

It is important to distinguish the nature of the Japanese American camps from that of the Nazi death camps, but it is even more important to accept what our wartime leaders actually said and did and to learn from it.

DON KIRKMAN

Cerritos

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To reader Gail Frahm Perkins: We’re not trying to “rewrite history,” just get it more accurately portrayed. Instead of generating more hatred toward anyone of Japanese ancestry, perhaps some mention of the fact that during the time covered in the last third of “Pearl Harbor,” not one act of sabotage or espionage was ever committed by Japanese Americans who were removed from the West Coast and had plenty of opportunity months after the attack, and that Japanese Americans in Hawaii were never detained because they were too essential and too busy rebuilding the American Navy, making possible Doolittle’s raid.

PERRY MIYAKE

Los Angeles

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I am so tired of all the negative press about “Pearl Harbor.” When I went to this movie, I didn’t really expect to be wowed, but wowed I was. This was a wonderful movie.

I say thank you to Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer for their vision, immense effort and talents. They have given us all the opportunity to look back and remember those who were lost for the sake of our freedom over many wars, and hopefully look forward in hopes that we don’t have to live anything like it again.

LEE ANN PAYNTER

Santa Monica

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With “Pearl Harbor” and all its publicity, and the attendant TV specials on the historic event riding its coattails, I think it’s fitting to note that this year marks the 60th anniversary of the biggest surprise attack in military history. The date of that anniversary? If you guessed Dec. 7, you’re wrong.

The correct date is June 22, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Whereas the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor with perhaps 600 men and inflicted 2,300 casualties, the Germans attacked the Soviet Union with 3 million men, and Russian casualties ran into the tens of thousands within days.

While it’s true we as a nation suffered defeat at Pearl Harbor, then rose up united and won the war, the simple fact is that we had a lot of help, and if it had not been for the heroism and sacrifice of other nations, the blood they shed would have been our own.

PAUL GULINO

Irvine