War in the Pacific 3

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on this edition of the CBS video library of world war ii we will look at war along the far reaches of the pacific from the jungle campaigns of New Guinea to the frozen battlegrounds in the Aleutian Islands as well as events that took place along America's own Pacific coast in the Aleutians we will go along on the most fantastic invasion of World War two there was no other like it and any theatre bear witness some of the greatest air and sea action of the entire Pacific War as we profiled the most decorated ship in US naval history the enterprise the fighting e on the homefront the war against Japan prompted some extraordinary actions against one segment of America's population the japanese-americans the Nisei will recall their story we begin with war in the South Pacific in a chapter that explores the question how do you fight an enemy who will not surrender front insight into the Japanese soldiers who fought in World War two we go back to the Japanese of 1931 [Music] in ten years they will be deep in China in ten years they will attack Pearl Harbor take Singapore take the Dutch East Indies we cannot match the war production of the West reads a Japanese staff report we can achieve our goals only if our soldiers will fight to the death in 1931 the Japanese General Staff is training a soldier who will not surrender a soldier who will die rather than surrender [Music] 19:42 the South Pacific the Japanese military planners have succeeded the average Japanese soldier believes that if he surrenders he brings disgrace not only upon his country and himself but upon his whole family as well thus he will fight well and he will die well his mind admits no other possibilities with a ceremonial sword a bag of rice and a bandolier of ammunition the Japanese move into the rain forests of New Guinea the Japanese soldier the best jungle fighter in the world pushes back the weak Australian forces and advances toward Port Moresby the key to northern Australia [Music] at Port Moresby the Allied situation is critical if the port Falls the Japanese have a forward base from which Australia will be invaded fresh American troops are led into the jungle by the Australians we weren't trained for this kind of fighting we all thought we were going to fight in Europe and here we were crashing around the jungle worrying about water snakes mosquitoes and malaria New Guinea was the tail end of nowhere and none of our equipment was wither Hooten hell you couldn't get tanks into that terrain you could barely get the communications in everything was too heavy and too noisy and up there tied to the tops of palm trees dug in and caves moving quieter than the jungle itself were the Japs although the Japanese forward party is stopped and surrounded not one Japanese will surrender flamethrowers must be used to wipe out the enemy [Music] the Japanese died but they do not surrender before the Japanese died they kill an unexpectedly high number of Allied soldiers [Music] how shall we fight an enemy who will not surrender the American generals now know there will never be a decisive land battle in the South Pacific we must find another way to fight the Forgotten war and destroy the Japanese who were not surrendered there's only one tedious long plan that may work kill the Japanese not with bullets but with starvation here is the Allied plan of battle in the South Pacific the Japanese supply chain to New Guinea seems vulnerable we will attempt to blockade all supplies coming over water to New Guinea with sea power and air power at the same time the Japanese supply bases on New Guinea will be interdicted by American airpower the first step must be the destruction of the Japanese ground-based air power on New Guinea top-secret estimate of New Guinea based Japanese air force there is some misapprehension to the effect that the Japanese air force is a third-rate carbon copy of a Western air force the facts are the Japanese zero has better high-altitude capabilities better maneuverability than any plane the Allies own the Japanese fliers in you Guinea were combat trained in China they are as good as any group of Western pilots in the air the Japanese spirit of death before surrender is evidenced by the fact that the Japanese air men do not wear parachutes most serious the Japanese bombers can operate two to ten thousand feet above any intercepting planes thus the Japanese can bomb us at will the American air force is operating with obsolescent p39 s and p-40s spare parts must be scavenged from wrecked planes everything is in short supply shortly after this report was made a new American fighter plane arrives in the Pacific a twin tail p38 the Lightning a rugged fast plane which is supposedly designed to win superiority for the Americans at high altitude but the p38 is designed for the European war and must be adapted for South Pacific fighting they're only a handful of them not enough to win aerial supremacy unless they are used with the older and more numerous p-40s [Music] [Music] the Lightning's are flying top cover but all the Lightning's are the p-40s waiting to take on the enemy planes when the Lightning's drive them to middle altitudes 25,000 feet the Japanese air force aims at Port Moresby thirty thousand feet the Lightning's dive to the attack [Music] [Music] [Music] 20,000 feet the American people now that the Japanese planes have been forced down to the middle altitudes [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 18,000 feet stripped of their fighter protection and driven to low altitudes the Japanese bombers are vulnerable [Music] 100 feet but the air above them cleared the American b-25s can counter-attack they come in at treetop level to strafe the enemy planes on the ground [Music] we walk you know mission Salim ow why the Japanese cannot control the air even over their own air strips the first line of enemy pilots is rapidly being wiped out or exhausted the Japanese know that unless they can reinforce these bases they will have to be abandoned if the New Guinea offensive is to continue the airmen of the Emperor must be resupplied [Music] in New Guinea both sides not only fight each other they fight for life in a land where civilized man cannot live [Music] [Applause] in some parts of New Guinea you could expect 120 inches of rain a year you'd go for months without getting dry the mud gave you trench foot the stagnant water gave you mildew fungus in the inner ear mosquitoes malaria dengue fever but no matter how sick or lonely you were there was always somebody who was worse off because no disease is worse than combat and nothing hurts more than shrapnel [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] still all the Americans have food and adequate medical supplies the situation is worse for the Japanese if the enemy's New Guinea offensive is to continue the soldiers of the Emperor need help [Music] 400 miles away in the harbor of Rabaul Japanese supplies for New Guinea 400 miles away everything needed to bolster the faltering attack of the Imperial Army [Music] message from general Emma Mero Japanese army commander to admiral Kusaka japanese naval commander request resupply of New Guinea garrison at lie [Music] filled order from general de mamuro 7,000 soldiers are ordered to reinforce the Papua and Peninsula of New Guinea by March 3rd 1943 a Japanese convoy of 16 ships including 4 warships leaves New Britain a lie resupply convoy to parts kravaal New Guinea 28th February 1943 under the cover of bad weather it will move through the Bismark sea under land-based air protection the convoy will turn into the T is straight and proceed to lie only one thing can stop the Japanese from reinforcing New Guinea Allied air power [Music] [Music] these are medium bombers b-25s they were built to bomb at 12,000 feet the original idea was that the pilot would control for forward firing machine guns but in the South Pacific the rules are thrown away the Bombardier has been eliminated so the plane can be equipped with up to 14 machine guns firing forward the high altitude bomb site has been thrown away the oxygen equipment has been thrown away these planes will fight the battle right down on the deck just as low as they can get before the b-25s reached the battle area the heavy high-altitude of b-17s prepare for the attack the enemy's ships begin a turning maneuver to spoil the Bombardier Zane [Music] the high altitude attack is only moderately successful now the Royal Australian bow forts and bullfighters are brought down to the deck the American b-25 zon maneuvered into position he concentrated low-level attack begins [Music] [Music] [Music] at the critical moment 500-pound bombs are skipped into the sides of the Japanese ships [Music] [Music] the firepower of the land-based aircraft is devastating of sixteen ships 12 will be beached or something but the battle against Japanese supply is not over the Allied planes their inland searching out the remnants of the enemy's Metiria techniques that worked at masthead level will work at palm tree [Music] fragmentation bombs attached to parishes [Music] [Music] delayed [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] rotting in the holds of the Japanese ships or supplies that will never reach their troops although the campaign in the South Pacific is far from over Japanese offensive hopes live broken on the water's edge [Music] and the tides of the Bismark sea wash ashore the bodies of the men who were killed by allied airpower death has come to the soldier who ten years before burned the goal of the Japanese warrior victory or death [Music] a bomb shock survivor has taken prisoner against his will he must be tied down to prevent him from committing suicide there is no greater disgrace than surrender 10 years before he had learned Bushido the unbreakable code of the Japanese soldier victory or death never surrender [Music] thus the New Guinea rainforest closes around the starving Japanese 100,000 bypassed Japanese in New Guinea will eat their last meal and then die in the rainfall [Music] without food without medicine the blockaded Japanese parish in New Guinea [Music] in our next story the weather again played a major role in the fighting but instead of the wet steamy jungles of New Guinea the hostile terrain was now the icy Tundra of islands called Attu and Kiska part of the Aleutian island chain stretching off the coast of Alaska these frozen outposts were strategically important as stepping stones across the North Pacific the Japanese know that the Aleutians are stepping stones to Canada to the United States itself in June 1942 they strike [Music] June 7 fog-bound at you and Kiska are cited by the Japanese at 1800 men are ordered to land on at you the Japanese will find an American couple and 42 native Aleuts on Kiska nobody their only real enemy is tundra the mushy half-formed Aleutian mud men sink to their ankles calves sometimes needs what they gain a mighty toehold in the vital Aleutians the Americans occupy uninhabited Adak Anam chika in August 1942 and January 1943 now Kiska is only 15 minutes away by p40 fighter plane at you an hour stalemated the two ground forces set out a brutal winter [Music] after the snows in the spring come the rain the mud on the aleutian wind the willawaw [Music] [Music] in the spring with better weather the Americans take the offensive again an amphibious task force teams North bypasses Kiska and levels at sites on Japanese held at you Rear Admiral Francis W Rockwell has set d-day for May 7th 1943 codename for the operation land grab storms force one postponement the second comes when a pea soup pollution fog rolls in May 9th May 10th then May 11th the fog is lifting the strike begins with the 1/2 softening up punch the first from the air the second from the big guns of the offshore fleet [Music] at you here the main US force will hit at Massacre Bay a battalion will strike near Holt's bay chief enemy base planned link-up day after tomorrow it will take almost two weeks [Music] two regiments begin the move they are misplaced desert fighters trained in California to battle Rommel in Africa almost at once they get a bad break fog [Music] [Music] finally the fog begins to lift the landing boats break standby circles and form assault lines there is no enemy fire [Music] there is still no enemy fire where are the Japanese the question races up and down the invading line a few enemy guns could spotter the troops hitting the beach wading through icy water sitting ducks GI boots boots for the African desert get wet and heavy they are leather the kind no old Aleutian hand ever would wear they are a tragic mistake what leather will cost soldiers their feet [Music] they push inland toward the mountains inland into silence inland into still no Japanese [Music] again the question where are the Jets [Music] the Japanese are there in the next 18 days the GIS will know they are there [Music] [Music] may 29th don't ooh a thousand men the Japanese launched a suicidal Banzai attack the Americans suffer heavily but before the night is over the Japanese army is destroyed [Music] on d-day there were 2300 Japanese defending at you now only 22 survive among the dead are many who committed suicide the American dead 549 and leather boots exposure to the Aleutian weather have disabled more GIS than enemy bullets [Music] at you is ours now Kiska is only a 150 mile shuttle hop away the Japanese coral islands 600 miles the engineers move in with their bulldozers they're linked steel matting their skills the island about you becomes the airbase about you [Music] these are the men who took at you these are the men who will have to take Kiska big anything could be done with this country sure I think it could be ready to stop her how well you'd have to build shared cattle maybe she maybe a stick up here at the woman do it what's the whiner hello I'm single do they got a worry in the world yeah they say oh is that why you fight in the war yeah that's it you ready believe in the word engineer I can take anything dish out June 1st 1943 the Kiska campaign was on during the next 75 days 11th Air Force bombers dropped 1255 tons of bombs on that tiny island the flak was equally intense [Music] [Applause] [Music] fleet follows up Kiska gets an even heavier shelling than a Pew [Music] July 21st black from the island begins to slacken by July 28th it stops so does Kiska radio recon planes return with detailed photographs of the island some pilots report seeing Japanese others see none aerial photographs are rushed to intelligence headquarters some experts say Kiska looks deserted others suspect enemy trickery point out the island is blockaded it couldn't be deserted [Music] August 13 1943 a task force carrying 35,000 American and Canadian troops leaves a DAC for Kiska soldiers wisecrack about the date it is Friday the 13th they wisecrack - about the rumors they have heard about quiet Kiska about pilots dropping propaganda leaflets urging the Japanese to surrender the men are certain Kisco will be worse than at you [Music] a doctor Kiska is two days at you has taught much briefings are better now boots are rubber combat clothing has more pockets for food to live grenades to kill August 15 the ships reach assigned positions off Kiska Americans hope to fool the Japanese at Kiska PT boats will sweep in Geary not troops on their decks but dummy wooden figures this will come near Vega Bay the main attack with actual troops will be launched across the island big naval guns open up there is no Japanese replied [Music] [Music] [Music] some boats hit bottom short of land the Bering Sea numb soldiers lake even in August at you veterans are grateful for their rubber boots again the familiar question where are the Japs the troops push inland still no Japanese the main enemy bases are across the mountains perhaps they are there [Music] abandoned guns oil ready but no Japanese [Music] report from the front there are no Japanese is this the right island order from the rear keep looking stay alert American and Canadian troops conduct a tense five-day search during which 56 GIS are mistakenly killed or wounded by their buddies plenty of abandoned equipment booby traps mine's not a single Japanese there are no Japanese 35,000 of our men have invaded a deserted island the Japanese have vanished no one knows where how until the army finds out Rockaways evacuation order intelligence colonel bilderbeck translates and reads it military secret commanding officer the AO defense unit Akiyama katsu all regarding operation k orders to your subordinates according to recent order this unit will discontinue the defense of Kiska island and with the north sea garrison units will transfer its entire force at once 2x area for a period of a little over a years it's occupying this Kiska island in june of last year you have under a very difficult situation delayed the enemy's counter-attack with a small number of troops you have increasingly strengthened the defense maintained a none conquerable position and finally succeeded in preventing any enemy spirits and also displayed the power of the Imperial Navy the success in the duty to secure Kiska island was due to the bravery courage and endurance of all of you under the emperor in conclusion I would like to give my deepest regards to those brave men who died gloriously on the field and to the spirit of those who unfortunately died of illness and so the strangest invasion of World War two ends in a shattering anticlimax on July 28th the day Kiska radio quit 5,000 japanese under cover of fog executed a brilliant maneuver boarded transports slipped through our blockade and fled for 18 days we are bombed shelled and dropped propaganda leaflets on an uninhabited island but now japan's northern threat is over for the rest of the war Alaska and our Arctic flank will be secured the frozen war is won [Music] unlike the war in Europe the bulk of the Pacific campaign was not fought on a major landmass it was war waged mainly on islands and on the sea and in the air across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean we'll look at that war now as we focus on one of the most gallant ships in the history of the u.s. Navy the aircraft carrier enterprise we began back at the day of infamy dawn December 7th 1941 the enterprise returns to Pearl Harbor after a secret mission ferrying fighter planes to beef up the marine squadron on Wake Island we are still at peace ten days earlier starting for Wake the Admiral whose flag she flies that issued battle order number one which said the enterprise is now operating under war conditions his name is Halsey a junior officer objected Admiral you can't start a private war now 200 miles west of Pearl Halsey launches a scout plane with a special message for Admiral Kimberly he entrusts it to his operations officer Lieutenant Commander Bromfield nickel as we approach the western coast of Oahu both the pilot and I noted well up ahead in the direction of Ford Island quite a bit of smoke rising from several locations we spoke to each other over the plans in a communication system about this made note of it thought no more about it until we crossed the shoreline at Baba's point why are in the same direction could be seen much heavier smoke also anti-aircraft bastes also we could see over towards the southern shore what appeared to be shell splashing in the water as we approached the air station on Ford Island I notified brig young the pilot that there was what appeared to be an Army fighter plane some distance above us and a Stein in a very excellent position to make a run artists Gregg said he would watch out for it as I was looking at the plane nose over I saw his guns shoot excitement fragments came out of our wings and as he flashed by to decide him below us I saw the Jap in Sigma the big orange ball on the side of the plane we knew then about the six player before we're through Halsey promises the Japanese language will be spoken only in Hell December 9th the big e sails to war Samoa to cover troop landings then she races north to the Marshall now begin four years when the enterprise will strike so fast in so many places that the Japanese were reported as three different carriers six times they were claimed to have sunk her the first time at Pearl Harbor these premature obituaries inspire her sailors to nickname her the galloping ghosts of the wahoo Coast February 1st 1942 nine weeks after Pearl Harbor Halsey launches his planes 21 time starting before dawn and attacks for nine straight hours the enterprise hits wache below lap Kwajalein and pounds and pounds and pounds and her first defense eve of the war in April 42 she's at shangri-la Doolittle raids Tokyo from the Hornet with enterprise standing by back to Pearl and then Midway June 4th into a trap that is baited by Japanese Admiral Yamamoto the trap was never sprung because Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance counters with a brilliant tactic he times his attack to hit the Japanese carriers just as their planes are on the deck refueling and helpless but first he had to find the enemy lieutenant commander see wade McCluskey jr. did the trick I expected to contact the Japanese striking force about 11:20 at reaching that point about 19,000 feet altitude there was no sight of the Japanese fleet quickly I had to determine what decision I would make whether to reverse course circle remain in the area and await further information I decided that the best course would be to proceed westward for another 20 minutes after about 15 minutes below me I cited what appeared to be a I think of Japanese Cruiser later was determined to be a a high-speed destroyer proceeding on a northeast course I turned then and followed the course of this destroyer about 10 minutes later having binoculars I was able to cite the Japanese fleet our attack was made about 12:20 and fortunately we met no opposition in the air with no zeros in the air at all so we had all full rein of making our diving without any trouble at all without any opposition consequently our bombing was pretty accurately done and with the hits that we obtained we put two of the ships out of commission [Music] [Music] while McCluskey returns to the enterprise he has just two gallons of gas in his tanks Enterprise Hornet Yorktown sink four Japanese carriers we lose the Yorktown but at Midway Japan's superiority in the air is ended Enterprise goes to Fiji she covers the Marines on Guadalcanal and speech to the Santa Cruz islands to keep the Japanese from reinforcing the Solomons it has been a better son Saratoga is out of action watts is only Hornet and Enterprise remain afloat and fighting Admiral Thomas Kinkade now commands the carrier off santa cruz enterprise and Hornet meet four Japanese carriers [Music] [Music] three times bomb smash into the enterprise she keeps on fighting but Hornet is not so lucky bombs torpedoes and suicide bombers she is finished now enterprise is wounded and alone our only carrier on this wide and deadly ocean she'll remain alone until Saratoga returns in December one year after Pearl Harbor the next year 1943 is comparatively quiet for the enterprise new carriers relieve her carriers built in the time or lonely vigil had bought she goes home for refit in her many crossings of the Equator boys who had never looked at a hand and anger or left their inland valleys and city blocks become Brian soaked and hardened sons of old Neptune and of war [Music] in November she's back Tarawa in the Gilberts followed by truck the ocean fortress followed by ilithyia among others Hollandia and Guam deep in the Marianas the heart of the entire Japanese ocean stronghold when they are one the Marianas will provide long runways for the new b-29 Superfortress bombers which will strike with deadly regularity at Tokyo [Music] to increase her cruising range the big Erie fuels at sea her planes cover her but these are tense moments June of 1944 finds her stilled on the marianas supporting the Marines assault on Saipan the Japanese desperate to deny us the runways to Tokyo bring up nine carriers Admiral Marc Mitscher now has 15 carriers light and heavy including enterprise this time we are ready history will call these two days the Battle of the Philippine Sea but to the men of the enterprise it will always be the great Marianas turkey shoot [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the Japanese lose more than 300 planes the enemy fleet air arm is virtually destroyed most of our planes return safely but not all there is always a price for victim [Music] [Applause] in August biggie strikes the Bonin's in October she is in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and then Okinawa by this time the Japanese Navy is finished the door to Japan hangs a joke one more base however must still be half that base is Okinawa enterprise fights under rain of deadly chemicals ease the Japanese suicide bomber [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] May 14th 1948 the enterprise has hit for the last time our war is open a 22 major sea battles she has been in 2015 times and all she has been hit but here is what it costs the enemy more than 900 planes and 71 enemy ships destroyed 192 ships damaged after the war she returns to New York here she had been christened with a quotation from Shakespeare may she also say with just pride I have done the state some service who could deny her claim she is the most decorated ship in US naval history she'll remain afloat until 1958 then go to the scrap heap the memory of the fighting II lives on in 1961 the Navy launched a giant new ship it was the first nuclear-powered carrier and was then the world's largest warship and they named it enterprise the name Nisei has largely dimmed in memory now but once it provoked passion and hatred against all things Japanese then he say were Japanese Americans most of them US citizens like so many other lives there's changed dramatically on that awful Sunday in December 1941 December 7th 1941 three Japanese Americans remember that day it was Sunday we were at home having breakfast preparing to go to church then suddenly an announcer came over the morning hour and announced that the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor I was then a member of the aid station a civil defense unit and soon thereafter we were in action in fact I had the unfortunate duty of picking up the first civilian dead on December 7th on Pearl Harbor Day December 7 1941 I happened to be in North Platte Nebraska talking to a group of japanese-americans regarding of the necessity for organizing to stress our citizenship and our loyalty to the United States none of us knew that Harbor had happened and the first inkling that I had that something was amiss was when I was thrown into jail in North Platte Nebraska I turned on the radio and we heard Pearl Harbor bombed by the Japanese my brother looked at me and I looked at him and I said oh we are in trouble the FBI rounds up all Japanese aliens who could for any reason be considered dangerous such as fishermen leaders of Japanese societies veterans of the russo-japanese war of 1950 a boy writes in school I am proud to say everyone treated us as the Americans we are on the west coast there are 41 thousand Japanese aliens who arrived before 1924 when Congress stopped all immigration from Asia by February 1942 twelve hundred and sixty-six are in custody the Justice Department is convinced the rest are harmless and should remain free they all must register as enemy aliens however these immigrants mostly elderly barred from citizenship because they are Orientals are the parents of the Nisei the Nisei are citizens by birth there are more than 71 thousand of them most under 28 years of age as cameras are inspected shortwave bands removed from radios these frightened people are attacked by rumor nothing helpful to the enemy is found but Japan is making frightening strides southwestward in the Pacific reports all thoughts come from Pearl Harbor of aid to the enemy during the bombing enemy planes and scare headlines on December 8th are purely imaginary but on February 23rd 1942 a submarine does shell a refinery near Santa Barbara the highest military authorities are certain the enemy does not plan an invasion but behind the defenses fear is screaming hate columnist Westbrook Pegler wants all Japanese under guard and to hell with habeas corpus columnist Henry McLemore whites I hate Japanese all of them a spokesman for farmers charged with wanting to get rid of Japanese competitors for selfish reasons says we do and we don't want them back after the war either a general tells Washington of pressure from the best people in California to move all Japanese the general who asked the president the United States for the power to evacuate was General John L DeWitt commanding general the Western Defense Command and before a congressional committee he said very emphatically that from his experience over the years as an Army officer he knew that a Japs a Jap and a scrap of paper attesting to his citizenship doesn't alter that fact earl warren as the Attorney General California was a chief law enforcement officer for that state before the Tholian committee in San Francisco in April of 1942 Earl Warren declared that the american-born Japanese was more dangerous to the security of the United States that even the alien Japanese and this was because we spoke the English language we understood the American ways and since we were bound to help the Japanese invader this made us more dangerous than even the enemy alien who happen to be our parents walter Lippmann a very distinguished columnist then as now noted in his editorial rather noted in his columns that one reason why the Japanese Americans and the Japanese on the west coast were so dangerous was because there had been not a single act of espionage or sabotage on our part because the Japanese many years before had organized us so carefully that we had deliberately refrained from taking part in any of these activities to call attention on ourselves and that when the Japanese invaded the west coast then we would rise up and aid them against the United States abruptly in late winter into wet quarters evacuation all Japanese from the coast stores farms homes are hurriedly sold lives are up looted the nation has three major enemies Germany Italy and Japan but only the Japanese are so treated where did do it get the authority summon west coast congressman of asked President Roosevelt to move all Japanese immigrants and american-born Nisei alike the president vigorously approves move any one citizen or alien as military necessity requires only a curfew is imposed on 80,000 German and Italian aliens on the west coast but the Nisei and their parents are moved and mass and the United States now has one hundred and twelve thousand prisoners of war [Music] many Japanese Americans to prove their loyalty willingly moved to inland areas voluntary evacuation they are met with violence and threats now to protect them he says the whip orders all into assembly centers racetracks and fairgrounds and he say who wrote and illustrated a book about the evacuation the heads of the family and single persons were ordered to report and register and we were given our family number and tags we were told what to bring and what not to bring and told what to wear for pioneer life in Jap we had three days and three nights to pack and get ready some of the things we left some of the things we gave way and some of the things we stored was the government baggages were heaped high on the sidewalks for blocks buses were lined up in the street for blocks we lined up single-file paraded in front of everybody and entered the bus the gods were still standing and the friends were waving goodbye to us and the public was coughing we crossed the Bay Bridge in silence traveled several miles south and arrived at Tanforan assembly center as it entered we saw heaps of baggages with family names dumped here and there the bus drove in front of the grandstand and we got out and we were searched for her contraband straightedge razor and knives and liquor and then we went to the registration table and were assigned ours is table 16 and star 50 the guide then took us across the center field to our stable and star we worked inside to the dark dimly lit back part and saw two army cots against the wall my brother opened one and I opened other and we sat in the dark looking at each other by then it was 10 o'clock and we decided we all hit the hay but it turned out so cold that we finally had to open everything in the bags and the suitcases and spread it on top of us we could hear every noise but we were so tired that finally about 12 o'clock fell asleep that was our first night in camp in Hawaii 3,000 miles closer to the enemy with one third of its population of Japanese descent nothing like this occurs what had the mainland japanese-americans done the Dean of Yale Law School Eugene V Rostow the basic idea behind the orders and the statute and the decisions made by the political and military authorities of the United States was that people of Japanese descent American citizens of Japanese descent were presumed by reason of their descent their blood their ethnic background to possess certain political ideas which were hostile to the United States they were presumed to be disloyal simply because of their descent now the basic rule of civilized society and of the legal system of civilized society is that men can be punished by the criminal law only for acts not for thoughts not for intentions not for hopes or fears or dreams only acts there was no evidence whatever presented by the military or by the Department of Justice none to support the hypothesis that there was danger to be expected at reasonable acts committed by the people who were involved in the people who were punished these men and women and children were removed from their homes taken into physical custody by by a military or paramilitary forces of the United States confined against their will in camps maintained by the United States even though they had no trials even though they had no rights of confrontation of witnesses against them even though there were no juries no courts no lawyers none of the usual familiar protections of due process of law June 1942 Santa Anita racetrack the now president of the japanese-american Citizens League at the Santa Anita assembly center nineteen thousand people were crowded into this one plant since the stay was supposedly too temporary many of us did not give much thought to anything organized however when the state went beyond two weeks into a month into two months things were quite chaotic and we felt that unless some thought was given to some order that people were becoming quite disgruntled people were becoming rebellious so some of us got together and decided to organize what we called a self-government and we divided into various districts had the individuals residing in those areas vote for their own representatives this is how we were able to survive the seven months we set up libraries we set up various activity groups we had 88 softball games going on at one time people were dying people were being born so this was quite a community of 19,000 individuals in one small area the evacuation goes on even though the great American naval victory in the Battle of Midway on June 6th closes out the last remote possibility of invasion of the west coast 10 tarpaper cities rise in deserts and backwoods from Northern California to Arkansas the internees are transported hundreds of miles to barracks designed for young unmarried soldiers infants born in captivity whole families are now hemmed in by mud barbed wire and guns in this chaotic chow line environment the immigrant domination of the family is weakened then he say English their native language come to the fore negotiate with the authorities get status their elders cannot food clothing become institutional concerns no longer family matters some people get a chance to do war work like experimenting with synthetic rubber some make camouflage nets objections from private industry prevent other projects when labor shortages pressed the country the Nisei are permitted to help save the sugar beet crop schools go up prewar Nisei are proportionately the best educated minority in the country but on the west coast college degrees have often led only to jobs and fruit stands nice say doctors and nurses and the camps draw inmate wages sixteen to nineteen dollars a month the urge toward harmony and beauty still lives a one angry me say says if any nice say thinks he is an American I dare him to walk out of this prison early in 1943 the government wants to reopen the draft to the Nisei resettle the internees all in the camps get a loyalty questionnaire which is clumsily handled many citizens reject the questionnaire to protest imprisonment for a few this eventually leads to giving up citizenship but the great majority of internees want to be what they are at heart Americans [Music] out of this turmoil comes the volunteer 442nd Regimental Combat Team many Nisei feel that japanese-americans can never have peace unless they write a record of loyalty in blood and he say who won the Distinguished Service Cross and lost an arm in Italy United States Senator Inouye during our training we were advised by our commanding officer that according to the official ruling of some of the officials in Mississippi that while we were there in Mississippi training we would be considered as white people therefore we were told not to enter through doors that said colored not to go to colored restaurants to go through the wide entrance to go to theaters or sit in the front of the bus it was a rather comical situation here we were colored because we weren't white but yet in Mississippi all of a sudden we became white folks I had with my fifth army in Italy many nationalities 16 I believe and I took in with me 5,000 japanese-american referred to as the neecy's John Marshall had given me instructions that as soon as I put them into combat to give him an immediate report on their capacity for fighting their loyalty and all about it their first battle soon took place after we landed at Salerno and I was utterly amazed at their fighting capacity they were valorous willing to give their lives readily and I gave a glowing report to general Marshall and said if you've got any more send them to me the Nisei are dying for their country but their families are behind barbed wire at home when the nice AGI is returned their USO is in an internment camp and it is little known even here the 3,000 japanese-americans lycée and immigrant alts are in the Pacific and dine there with the four hundred and forty seconds Fame helping pave the way by 1944 36,000 internees take the gamble on resettlement for many it is the first step outside the little Tokyo's of the coast Chicago and the Midwest received them warmly many never returned to old homes making new lives where they find them now in France in October 1944 the 442nd is rapidly becoming the most decorated unit in the US Army it includes two battalions of infantry from the mainland the hundredth battalion from Hawaii field artillery and combat engineers their motto is go for broke a battalion of the 36th Texas division is surrounded in the Vosges mountains near Briere and will be the Nisei is most terrible fight [Music] the Nisei save 287 men of the lost battalion of these young men with oriental faces who want to be known not as japanese-americans but simply as Americans 1,800 are wounded 140 more are dead [Music] New York the war over in Europe the Nisei start coming home thousands including women have been in the army but on the west coast their returning families are being met with bullets and arson California will cease immigrants land but Caucasian friends come forward Congress will repay in part evacuation losses the immigrants will gain citizenship the change however will take time senator a new way I was finally determined by the retirement board that I was ready to go back to Hawaii so I was shipped to California to wait for transport ship to carry me back to Honolulu while in California I decided that I should do something to myself to prepare myself for reunion with my folks so I went to a barber shop to get myself a haircut but as I walked in I was stopped by one of the barbers there he looked at me and he said are you a Chinaman and I says no I'm an American it's just know where your folks come from I say they're from Hawaii and they're Americans also well where did your grandparents come from they're from Japan we don't serve Japs here I was in my uniform on that day I was a captain in the United States Army I had three rows of ribbons to show that I had fought in the war that I had been wounded several times that I had been decorated by the President and by the Congress but yet to this man this barber a man a fellow American an American that I had tried my best to defend during the war had decided that I was not qualified nor was I fit to sit in his barber's chair to just get a simple haircut on July 15th 1946 President Harry Truman pins a seventh Presidential Citation streamer to the four hundred and forty seconds flying citizenship in this great Republic of ours means much more than race or creed or religion you fought for the liberties in the world along with the rest of us I congratulate you on that and I can't tell you how very much I appreciate the privilege of being able to show you just how much the United States of America thinks of what you've done the Nisei have written their record of loyalty in blood but while winning their case on the battlefield they have lost a case in court in 1944 the Supreme Court refused to question the military judgment that a real necessity existed for the evacuation and the Exile it established for the first time the military right to imprison civilian citizens arbitrarily even when civil courts are open and functioning one dissenting justice said this principle is a loaded weapon for any Authority making a claim of urgent need this loaded weapon is still a part of American law [Music] the story of the Nisei has not yet ended more than four decades after the controversy began there still is debate about the legality of us actions a National Commission recently recommend that a government apology to the NYSE say there's talk of reparations to the remaining survivors their lawsuits pending Congress and the courts have yet to write the close to this chapter the treatment of the Nisei remains one of the enduring legacies of that jelmo Jewess time in history for the CBS video library of world war ii i'm water cronkite [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music]

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Channel: JORDAN KLEINER

Views: 98,349

Rating: 4.47541 out of 5

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Id: GmrqWR0e98M

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Length: 85min 13sec (5113 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 29 2017

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