Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The British Commonwealth, Eastern Europe, the Far East, Volume III

740.00115 Pacific War/1206

The Department of State to the Spanish Embassy

Memorandum

The Department of State refers to memorandum no. 473, dated October 27, 1942, from the Spanish Embassy in charge of Japanese interests in the continental United States, transmitting a copy of a telegram received from the Japanese Government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Madrid, concerning the reported mistreatment of Japanese nationals in the United States.

It was pointed out in the Department’s preliminary reply dated December 12, 1942, to the memorandum under reference, that the American Government was making a thorough investigation of every complaint reported by the Japanese Government with a view to removing the causes of legitimate complaints and taking appropriate disciplinary action with regard to them. This investigation has now been completed and the facts which have been established and the disciplinary action which has been taken is set forth below:

The Japanese Government’s telegram states that the average age of Japanese subjects held in many internment camps in the United States is fifty-four or fifty-five, that a few Japanese subjects over eighty years of age have been interned, and that no consideration is given to internees because of their advanced age. A careful study made by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which is charged with the internment of dangerous or potentially dangerous enemy civilians in the continental United States, shows that only two Japanese aged eighty or over have been in the custody of that Service and that but one Japanese of eighty years of age is held at the present time. The same study shows that the average age of internees of Japanese nationality is now forty-five. The treatment of all the persons held is so uniformly considerate that it has not been necessary to make special provisions for the aged unless they are also sick or infirm. In that case they are hospitalized and given proper medical treatment and special diets. It has been the experience of the detaining authorities that older Japanese have often been anxious to join their friends and relatives in the general quarters rather than remain in hospitals as the detaining authorities would have preferred.

Jurisdiction over the investigation, apprehension, and internment of Japanese nationals in the Hawaiian Islands, Alaska, and the Panama Canal Zone is vested in the War Department. In the internment camps under the jurisdiction of the War Department special consideration is accorded elderly and infirm internees. In addition, special medical care by competent physicians is provided for even the most minor ailments. Hospitalization when necessary is provided in Army hospitals or in hospitals established solely for the internees where the standard of equipment and professional service is equal to that in the hospitals of the United States Army.

The Japanese Government refers specifically to the cases of Messrs. Seiichiro Itoh, Kamaki Kinoshita, and Shigekazu Hazama. It is said that these persons were invalids before being taken into custody and that no consideration was given to them because of their ill health.

The records show that Mr. Seiichiro Itoh arrived at 4he detention station at Fort Missoula, Montana, on December 19, 1941, after being in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service from December 10 until that time. During those nine days Mr. Itoh did not complain of any physical ailment or request any treatment, nor did he make any request for special consideration because of his age. On January 20, 1942, the medical officer at Fort Missoula reported that Mr. Itoh was in a state of advanced senile decay and the medical officer extended all the help that he could to Mr. Itoh. During the period of his illness Mr. Itoh was visited professionally by three Japanese physicians who indicated their satisfaction with the treatment he was receiving. The only recommendation that these physicians made concerning Mr. Itoh’s treatment was that the cardiac stimulation being administered to him should be increased and this was done. Mr. Itoh died on February 3, 1942, of hypostatic pneumonia. His daughter has expressed her thanks to the authorities at Fort Missoula for their kindness throughout the period of her father’s illness.

Mr. Kamaki Kinoshita was taken into custody on March 16, 1942, at Seattle, Washington. It is the practice of the attending surgeon of the United States Public Health Service to examine all detainees within thirty-six hours of their admission to the Detention Station at Seattle. There is no record to show that Mr. Kinoshita reported having a cold or that the fact was known to the officers at the Station. Mr. Kinoshita was transferred to Fort Missoula on March 20, 1942, where the medical officer in charge found that he had contracted bronchial pneumonia. The medical officer noted at the time that the patient had had a cold and mild respiratory infection of three days’ duration and that he was previously in fair health. Mr. Kinoshita died on April 1, 1942, of heart failure due to pneumonia and senility.

Mr. Shigekazu Hazama was taken into custody on December 8, 1941. The records fail to show that either he or his friends reported his illness to the detaining authorities. However, upon his arrival at Fort Missoula, the officers in charge discovered his illness and Mr. Hazama was removed from the detention station to St. Patrick’s Hospital at Missoula where he received competent professional care until his death on March 1, 1942. Mr. Hazama’s death was due to carcinoma of the colon. During the entire time that Mr. Hazama was at Missoula officers of the Immigration and Naturalization Service extended courtesies for which they were thanked by the Hazama family and by the Japanese spokesman at Fort Missoula.

It is probably true that the windows of the train in which Mr. Hazama traveled from Los Angeles to Missoula were shut and that the blinds were lowered as this precaution has often been taken to protect Japanese from possible injury and from being exposed to public curiosity.

Mr. Fusaichi Katoh, to whose case the Japanese Government refers, was apprehended on February 21, 1942. Three days previously he had visited his personal physician, under whose treatment he had been for a growth on his right eye following an old traumatic injury. The physician has stated that when Mr. Katoh visited him on February 18, 1942, he found that the acute attack for which he had been treating Mr. Katoh had cleared up and that Mr. Katoh was not suffering any pain. This information from the physician is set forth in a letter dated February 22, 1942, addressed to the inspector in charge of the Tuna Canyon Camp where Mr. Katoh was then held. Dr. Ernest King, who was then Acting Assistant Surgeon at the Tuna Canyon Camp, remembers Mr. Katoh’s case. He states that Mr. Katoh’s condition did not become acute while he was at the camp. As Dr. King was not an eye specialist, however, he referred Mr. Katoh’s case to the Los Angeles General Hospital for an eye operation if such was necessary. The records of the hospital show that Mr. Katoh was received there from Tuna Canyon at 11:30 a.m., March 10, 1942, and that he was discharged at 1:20 p.m. on March 12, 1942. The attending physician’s notes contain the recommendation that the “patient may be discharged so far as his eye is concerned …⁹⁷ his eye is no longer painful”. Later the same day Mr. Katoh started his journey to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he was interned. Mr. Katoh remained at Santa Fe until July 17, 1942, when he was transferred to the Pomona Assembly Center, Pomona, California. He was subsequently moved to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center. It is clear that Mr. Katoh was given all the treatment that was considered advisable by the doctors who attended him.

The Japanese Government complains that a great number of the Japanese subjects who were arrested near the Pacific Coast of the United States were sent to places of detention in handcuffs and sometimes despite their old age were even chained to motor cars. The American authorities in investigating this report have found one case where a Japanese subject was actually handcuffed. In that case the use of handcuffs was necessary to prevent the man from destroying himself until a doctor could administer a hypodermic.

It is said that the Japanese subjects who were arrested in San Francisco and detained on December 7, 1941, were allowed to have a walk out of doors only for an hour once in ten days. The records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service show that during the period between December 7, 1941, and March 30, 1942, there were received at the detention station of the Service at 801 Silver Avenue, San Francisco, California, 448 Japanese aliens who were taken into custody under presidential warrants of arrest. During the period of custody the detainees were afforded a choice of two outside recreation facilities daily. The first choice was a large enclosed yard to the rear of the gymnasium. The second choice was a driveway running parallel to the entire rear length of the Station. When the weather was clear and the enclosed recreation yard properly drained, they were allowed to go into the recreation yard for one and one-half hours in the morning and one and one-half hours in the afternoon. When the weather was inclement, the detainees were allowed two outdoor periods of thirty minutes daily on the cement driveway. According to the statistics of the United States Weather Bureau, there was an unusually long period of inclement weather during the months of December 1941 and January 1942.

The Japanese Government complains also concerning the treatment given to Japanese subjects at Terminal Island, California. It was found that more than one hundred Japanese subjects entered the Terminal Island Institution during the afternoon of December 8, 1942, and were quartered in a section of the institution separate from that occupied by the other inmates. They had ample room and their beds were furnished with mattress, pillows, clean linen, and blankets. At all times they were treated with courtesy and they were subjected to no humiliation. The formalities connected with their entrance into the institution took several hours, but while they were waiting for their admission hot coffee and sandwiches were served to them at intervals.

The Japanese Government asked for a detailed report of the circumstances surrounding the suicide of Dr. Rikita Honda. Dr. Honda was apprehended on December 7, 1941, and was quartered with a Japanese and two other detainees in a room in the Immigration Station at Terminal Island, San Pedro, California. The room was large, measuring sixteen feet by twenty-eight feet, had three large windows and an adjoining private bath. Dr. Honda went into the bathroom during the early hours of the morning of December 14, 1941, and there committed suicide by cutting his veins. After slashing his wrists and one arm, Dr. Honda returned to the bedroom. One of his roommates, having heard Dr. Honda groan, turned on the light and discovered that Dr. Honda was bleeding. The roommate summoned a guard who immediately called a physician. Dr. Honda was still living when the physician arrived but the latter was unsuccessful in his efforts to save him.

The officers of the Immigration and Naturalization Service who were serving at Terminal Island at the time of Dr. Honda’s death and the men who were sharing the room with him have been questioned carefully. The testimony of Dr. Honda’s roommates indicates that he never expressed his suicidal intentions to them although he was obviously worried about his plight and that of his interned friends. The doctor’s roommates also said that to their knowledge he had engaged in no altercations with either officers or fellow detainees. The officers of the Immigration and Naturalization Service have testified that, aside from requiring Dr. Honda to execute the alien enemy questionnaire required of all enemy aliens, they made no attempt to solicit information of any sort from him. From the testimony given both by Dr. Honda’s roommates and by the guards, there is no reason to think that anyone entered the bathroom or bedroom during the night of December 13–14 who might have attacked Dr. Honda. On the other hand it has been ascertained from the notes prepared by Dr. Honda prior to his death that he considered suicide his duty as a Japanese officer.

The Japanese Government reports that a member of the staff of the Japanese Consulate in Los Angeles was transferred from Fort Missoula to White Sulphur Springs while he was ill and that he was handcuffed and chained to a bed en route. The person to whom the Japanese Government refers is believed to be Mr. Ken Nakezawa. Mr. Nakezawa received medical attention at Fort Missoula from April 13, 1942, to April 17, 1942, because he was suffering from influenza. The attending physician was Dr. Nakaya, a Japanese internee who discharged Mr. Nakezawa as cured on April 17. On April 20, 1942, Mr. Nakezawa departed by train from Fort Missoula in the custody of an officer of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. During the journey to White Sulphur Springs, Mr. Nakezawa and the Immigration Officer occupied the same section in the sleeping car, one having the upper berth and the other having the lower berth. During the night each man wore a shackle around one wrist. The two shackles were attached to the ends of a lightweight chain five feet in length. Mr. Nakezawa expressed his amusement at the procedure rather than his displeasure and at no time was he chained to his berth. The connecting chain hung loosely and away from public view behind the curtains of the upper and lower berth. Except for the fact that Mr. Nakezawa became train sick during the first night of the journey the trip was uneventful and conducted under pleasant circumstances.

In its complaint the Japanese Government has again referred to the misconduct of certain employees of the American Government at Fort Lincoln and Fort Missoula toward Japanese nationals. As the Department of State informed the Embassy in the Department’s memorandum of August 6, 1942,⁹⁸ the two Korean interpreters involved in the incident at Fort Lincoln were dismissed. Moreover, Inspector Bliss and Special Inspector Herstrom, who were also mentioned in the Department’s memorandum of August 6, have been expelled from the Service and the commander of Fort Missoula was removed. In addition to the strong disciplinary action which has been taken in these instances, measures were adopted to review all of the cases which had been heard by the officers involved and to insure that these occurrences would not be repeated.

The Japanese Government has stated that when interned civilians were transferred from one internment camp to another in the United States, they were treated as if they were convicts, soldiers improperly displayed their weapons and the internees were the objects of public curiosity.

It has been the policy of the American authorities when transfers are necessary to effect them with the least possible publicity and embarrassment to the internees. No information concerning a prospective transfer is made public. The only persons who witness the transfer therefore are those who happen to be in the immediate vicinity at the time that it takes place. During transfers made by the Immigration and Naturalization Service the internees are guarded by officers of that Service who carry firearms only in the safe position and safe manner in which they carry such weapons in the regular course of duty. Soldiers entrusted with the guarding of personnel have weapons which are carried inconspicuously, yet available for instant use. In no way is there intended to be a display of armed strength to embarrass or intimidate the internees.

In investigating the facts surrounding the transfer of Japanese internees, the Government of the United States has found but one occasion concerning which it might be said that the display of arms exceeded that necessary for proper protection. This occurred at Santa Fe, New Mexico, on March 14, 1942. The investigation establishes, however, that sentiment at the time ran extremely high in New Mexico against the Japanese since many of the New Mexico National Guardsmen had been at Bataan, and the display of firearms on this occasion was advisable for the protection of the internees.

The Japanese Government states that the Government of the United States has not honored its obligation with regard to the employment of civilian internees and states that American officials forced Japanese internees to perform labor other than that permitted by the terms of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention when it is adapted to the treatment of civilian internees. On the contrary, the American Government has been mindful of its obligation in this respect and issued an order providing that all work which did not relate to the upkeep or maintenance of the internment camp should be on a voluntary basis.

The stables at Fort Missoula mentioned in the Japanese complaint are located inside the compound. The Japanese internees were at first required to maintain them in a sanitary and orderly manner as the buildings were used for recreation and storage purposes by the Japanese in addition to quartering Government-owned horses. Eventually work of this kind was assigned to other personnel.

The work on the gardens at Fort Missoula was performed voluntarily and the work performed by the Japanese in connection with the swimming pool project was limited to cutting away bushes along the bank of the near-by river so that they could go swimming, boating, and fishing. The Japanese spokesman at Fort Missoula has testified that the work was performed voluntarily and that everyone was anxious to assist in the project.

It is also said in the Japanese telegram that the authorities at the internment camp at Santa Fe attempted to compel the Japanese to build barracks for internees. The investigation which has been conducted reveals that on the occasion referred to Japanese internees were requested to assist in the construction of barracks for their own use. When they were asked to aid in this work they declined because of possible difficulty with a labor union and the request of the American authorities was not pressed.

It is also said that Japanese internees have been required to clean offices and perform cooking and table service for camp officials. The reference is apparently to Tuna Canyon Camp where five Japanese were permitted at their own request to clean the administrative offices, serve at the officer’s table in the messhall in the event of emergency meals and assist in preparing bunks and changing linen and towels. They were compensated by the officers for this work, such compensation being paid to the spokesman of the camp to be distributed among destitute internees. The investigation reveals no other instances of this kind.

The Government of the United States takes this opportunity to repeat that it has instructed all of its officers concerned with the handling of Japanese nationals to exercise the most scrupulous care that their actions with relation to the Japanese under their control shall be governed by the humanitarian principles of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention and generally accepted rules of international law. The American Government has not hesitated to investigate all complaints made to it by the Spanish Embassy or by individual Japanese subjects concerning alleged mistreatment or concerning differences of opinion between Japanese nationals and officers of the American Government with regard to the interpretation of the Geneva Convention. The American Government expresses the hope that the Japanese Government will thoroughly investigate all of the incidents which were set forth in the communication from the Government of the United States⁹⁹ delivered by the Swiss Legation in Tokyo to the Japanese Foreign Office on December 23, 1942, with a view to the correction of all abuses, the disciplining of the employees of the Japanese Government involved and the submission of a full report in the premises to the American Government.

Washington , October 16, 1943.

97. Points appear in the original.
98. See footnote 86, p. 1057.
99. Telegram No. 2814, December 12, 1942, to the Minister in Switzerland, Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. i, p. 832.