Reader Maureen Mullarkey sent me the following:
It wasn't imaginary, John Fay.
According to a 1948 government report on internment, nearly one third
[5,620 out of a total 16,848] of Japanese-Americans interned renounced
their American citizenship after Pearl Harbor so they could be
repatriated to Japan. Additional thousands of Japanese-Americans in
Japan at the start of the war joined the Japanese war effort and
hundreds even signed up with the Japanese army. [The most infamous was
Tomoya Kawakita, an American citizen who participated in the torture of
American POW's, including survivors of the Bataan Death March.
The groundswell to renounce was so strong that Congress was pressured to
enact a special law [Public Law 405, effective July 1, 1944] allowing
American citizens to renounce citizenship in wartime. Until that date,
it was illegal.
I had thought the number of Japanese-Americans interned was much greater. I may try and find out more on this topic, but for now I wanted to share with you an alternative to what is the "politically correct", acceptable version of this time in our history.
