Segregation was, again, a plan.
Actually, I must make a long story short because
it started out with a senator who was asked
to make an investigation of all the camps.
Chandler, remember?
Happy Chandler.
He did a quick, like a two-day stint at every
camp.
He rode around the camp, and he became an
authority as to what was going on at every
camp just because he happened to make a stop
there.
He had to make a report.
His report was that, "I think this, the trouble
which has erupted in these various camps is
a result of the disloyals becoming disenchanted.
I think that if we were to separate the bad
eggs from the good eggs, that everything would
settle down."
And consequently this "loyalty questionnaire"
was imposed.
When the "loyalty questionnaire" was imposed
it was not explained to them right off the
bat that the purpose of it was, is that, "We
are planning to separate the loyal from the
disloyal."
That was never uttered.
Only the social scientists were... you know,
one social scientist was assigned to every
camp.
And they couldn't understand this crazy questionnaire.
They said, "It doesn't make sense.
You cannot ever fathom one's loyalty on the
basis of a set of questions.
That is an impossible feat.
And to crucify these people with these questions
in order to... are you going to try to brand
these people disloyals on the basis of these
stupid questions?"
And there was in Manzanar a bunch of administrators
also who said, "This is like witchcraft.
This is... this questionnaire really needs
to be thrown into the trash heap.
It is, it just doesn't make sense."
And so, of course, the Japanese Americans
weren't that sophisticated at that point.
They took it all so literally and they wanted
to cooperate with the government, when the
government knew very well that their aim was
to be able to separate those that they can
send back to Japan, and they would love to
have as many as possible renounce their citizenship.
Which was another thing that happened during
the registration drive.
