[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] live coverage of the tucson festival of books on the campus of the university of arizona and all day long we are live in gallagher theatre on the university campus. You have been listening to the authors talk about japanese internment. One of the panelists, Richard Reeves, will be here to take your calls on the issue. Lgbt q right, slavery in america, history of women in the sciences, big money and philanthropy, those are some of the topics the authors will be talking about today. If you were listening earlier, you heard somebody familiar to booktv viewers, Richard Reeves, talking about his most recent book, infamy the shocking story of the japanese internment in world war ii. If you have a question, 2027488200 in the east and central time zones, 7488201 for those of you in the mountain and pacific time zones. Richard reeves, one of the things you said at the end of the panels japanese americans, their Bank Accounts were frozen two days after pearl harbor. How did that happen . Guest the government had the power to do it. The Justice Department ordered the bank account be frozen and people could take out small amounts of money but couldnt pay their bills for years. Someone mentioned bob fletcher, one of the heroes, caucasian heroes, who paid among other things, paid his friends, japanese friends who were taken away, paid their mortgage and insurance. And many other cases their lands were stolen and stolen under state law that was considered abandoned property. Host how did they identify those Bank Accounts . Guest not sure i understand the question. They had no trouble at all. Among other things the japanese were required report to police what their Bank Accounts were. Host february 19, 1942, order 9066. How much thought was put into that . Guest i think a certain amount of thought was put into it. Obviously it was roosevelt who did it was roosevelt is a great man but he had a lot on his mind and he did not want this to become a political issue including the fact the case eventually endeded up in the Supreme Court, no one decided till after the 1944 election. He didnt want just like the shame the japanese felt, he didnt want to talk about it either. He had a lot to be ashamed of. One of the things, there is good in all of us, bad in all of us but that happened is brown versus topeka board of education, chief Justice Earl Warren became governor and chief justice of the Supreme Court, a religious man, no doubt in my mind the two things are connected, this was warrens way of trying to clean his slate before our maker and to show that, california does oral histories of their governors and other prominent people. Warrens is berkeley, university of california berkeley, lasted six days. The questioner asked question after question but stayed away from the events of 1942. After five days, governor, chief justice, i want to ask about the events of 1942 in california. He stood up, walked out and never came back. So he knew. I think he tried to make amends and later other public officials, particularly reagan who was a californian, did sign away 20,000 which was a pittance compared to what people lost to the surviving internees. Host Richard Reeves is the guest candidate christine is calling for richmond, virginia. Caller my aunt was at the camps with her mother and as a teenager she tried to smuggle toiletries into they couldnt get basic toiletries. They let her go, no longer allowed her to work there and years later my dad was embarrassed and ashamed she had done that so the mindset was there. Host you say your aunt was an aide at one of the camps . Caller yes, her mother too. Host were they willing to share their stories with you . They both passed away. One of my cousins has written a book, dont remember the title of it but when she wrote the book, was really upset because of the way it was handled, he felt she had done a terrible thing and nowadays we think she was very brave to do that. Not sure what capacity they served in. And was just a teenager at the time. There were jobs involved then went to civilians in the area. That keep the camps running, a big logistical problem. That part of the army handled very well but location of the claims of the camp were exactly the same as prisoner of war camps and whatnot but we brought german and italian prisoners to arizona, california and texas, those german prisoners can walk into towns and buy things and meet the girls and many of them are now american citizens, the japanese are on the other end of japanese americans on the other end of the machine guns and their are some killed by triggerhappy young soldiers. A soldier is 19 years old, board out of his mind. A deaf man walking along the fence, Young Private was yelling at him to get away from the fence. Couldnt respond and the soldier, the guard shot and killed him. The guard was brought up on courtmartial charges, and find one dollar for waste of government property. The bullet cost one dollar. Host next call for Richard Reeves from james in grand forks, north dakota, your booktv will go ahead. Of the 15 great honor to speak with you. I am one of the few people who believe that was necessary. I was born in 1964, long after the war. My father was at the tail end of the war in okinawa but i have a problem with people board long afterwards looking back in their airtight compartments of time and space and judging people who were going through that conflict was i will go with fdr, earl warren, the American People who were for this more than i am for people born long after that because they were there and the American People were facing an enemy they really didnt know whether they were going to land in california or not. We know now they wouldnt have but even if they had won the battle of midway outnumbered 10 to one, never would have had them land in california but were facing what we thought was our annihilation. How much is geographic . The japanese were located host lets hear from Richard Reeves. Guest we won the battle of midway because japanese americans broke the japanese code and we knew the location of all of their ships and all of their planes. There is no doubt that fear is a real driver of. People on the west coast, in my research, i think i showed that the government do the japanese did not have the capability to attack us but certainly they didnt tell people on the west coast that. The people and the press were hysterical. Host what about jamess point that at that time this was the right thing to do . Guest some smart people thought they had to do it but it is not as if they were locking up japanese. They were locking up americans. Americans on both sides of the barbed wire. And the courts and the American Civil Liberties union and other people were protecting roosevelt. Roosevelt was a friend of roger baldwin, the head of the aclu and baldwin not represent any, many of those young attorneys quit. It is heroic work in saving japaneseamerican lives. As newton said for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Host was a popular with the American Public . Totally popular. They wouldnt give them mortar, they wouldnt give them food. On occasion they marched on the camps. Yes. It was popular. The japanese were treated as an enemy. Kennedy, nixon and reagan, john in new jersey please go ahead. And espionage before december, spoke to the popular thing, the right thing. They were not put in concentration camps, they were put in attornment camps, there was no forced labor. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, wilson implemented germanamericans during world war i. Caller something that had to be done. For people to rewrite history and people to talk about this being a dark part of america is a stupid thing. Host lets hear from Richard Reeves. Guest of course it is a dark chapter in our history and many of the People Living through it thought it was the right to do but the majority of the japanese who were incarcerated felt they were doing their patriotic duty and many of their sons later in the war did join the military. There has always been a dark side to American History and irish need not apply or antisemitism. And they would not accept it if they were us. And, there was one incident Japanese Imperial pilot crashed in hawaii which a japaneseamerican Family Living in the boonies did shelter him at gun point but there was no sabotage. Host don, go ahead. Caller i was wondering, could it happen today and if so what can people do to prevent it . What role does racism play in it . Guest race was at the root of it. Everything said and done at the time, our officials were saying the japanese could not be assimilated into western society so therefore we had no way to question them, to check on them because they were mysterious orientals. So that it was largely public hysteria. Host joanna, you are making a booktv. Caller why is it that nothing is ever said about the german and italians that were in turns at this time, always japanese, japanese. My parents were interned on pearl harbor day 1941 and we had five american children, the children were taken away from the parents because they were told they were not fit parents because they were german born, children were put up for adoption. 5 american children. Host lets hear from Richard Reeves. Guest there was action against germans, germanamerican, openly pronazi organization that filled Madison Square garden and other places. On the other hand the argument was never used against the germans that we couldnt understand them. We did think they were Something Like this. I will tell you a story. The lead 10 or of the metropolitan opera later than star or South Pacific and an italian citizen, most of the italians who were hardworking never applied for citizenship including the couple the government was most worried about offending which was Joe Dimaggios parents, Joe Dimaggios parents and property were taken out of the war zone because the Yankee Clipper was not about to have his parents locked up. In scarsdale, five agents came in, going through thing, after they ransacked the house and taking them away one of the agents noted a letter in italian and he said what is that . That is a letter the agent says who is that . He then was taken to solitary confinement at ellis island. Why was he there . He was the number 110 or of the anthropology and opera. He was a friend of mussolini, never met him. He signaled to mussolini on saturday night, saturday afternoon, the metropolitan opera broadcast, same thing, most famous japanese american, the great sculptor whose work, and the gila river and found out it was a terrible mistake. This was a man of the world. And there was an awful lot of farmers and less sophisticated people, couldnt communicate with them. Let him leave for five. Host five years. Guest it is well known. I couldnt resist even though i was writing about japanese americans, i couldnt finish that story. Host were other east coast japanese americans affected . Wikipedia guest no. People in the east didnt know. They knew more about italian. Laguardia was mayor of new york, his parents were italian citizens and the governor of san francisco, his parents were italian. The italians work work work and tried to stay away from paperwork so they never became citizens. Now we are seeing people become citizens, particularly hispanics, becoming citizens because they are afraid Something Like this can happen again and it can because the Supreme Court never ruled it was unconstitutional. Robert jackson, that of the court said this is like a loaded gun on the constitution is the government, the military can round up people they want for no reason. Host lets hear from patricia in illinois, you are on with historian and author Richard Reeves. Caller hello. I wanted to ask if anybody knew about a move to improve conditions in the camps on the west coast . My Reference Point is i was obliged to babysit a case as a 9yearold for a baby named Charlotte Mary wellman whose father had been sent to replace a very bad man who was in charge of a japanese internment camp. By internment we meant to encapsulate them. The german concept of a concentration camp was with the intent to kill, to destroy. I think i really wanted to know something about tule lake, whether or not a wonderful man like abraham lincoln, to me when i was 9 years old, whether he was able to help improve conditions at the tule lake camp . Host tule lake or dewey lake . Guest it was the camp, it was the worst. What happened was the government made a very foolish mistake when it decided everybody thought it would be a short war with japan. He wasnt. We were looking for men including japaneseamerican men in camps to volunteer, the 442nd combat regiment so that it was like a little american, 1000 baseball leads at the camps. There were boy scout troops, jitterbug hops and what not and mostly most of the people accepted, rightly or wrongly it was their patriotic duty this. The ones who rebelled, and some did, there were riots, there were thugs and there was a questionnaire in which people were asked would they swear allegiance to the United States and for swear allegiance to the emperor of japan. If you answered no no, you were sent to tule lake. If you answered yes yes, they would try to get you into the army. They were they had tanks to surround the camp because it was a hostile camp out there. In the middle of no place. Host debbie in charlotte, we have one minute left, we will be listening to you. Caller hello. Hello. I want to thank you. The program i just watched, wonderful. I will be buying all three books for my daughter and the interim camp made her fall in love with the japanese language and culture which is her major and she is currently living in japan and im getting ready to see her. I wanted to thank you very much. And have a great day. Youre watching live from the university of arizona. Welcome to the 9th annual tucson festival of books. My name is joyce bollinger, here with Southern Arizona senior pride