THE COLONEL AND THE PACIFIST:

Karl Bendetsen, Perry Saito, and the Incarceration of Japanese Americans

During World War II

 

Questions for Reading and Discussion

  

1.         By 1920 approximately 111,000 Japanese lived in the continental United States. Who were the Japanese emigrants and why did they initially come to the US?

 

2.         There were many regulations regarding emigrants from Japan.  What were some of these stipulations?   What was the sentiment of the United States over the years regarding these emigrants compared to others?  What was the sentiment before World War II?

 

3.         Many people contributed to the decision to evacuate the Japanese population after the United States declared war in 1942.  Who were they and who was most responsible ?

What was the role of Colonel Karl Bendetsen?   General John L. DeWitt?

 

4.         Karl Bendetsen was the Colonel involved;  Perry Saito was the Pacifist.  What were the parallels and differences in their lives and actions before, during, and after World War II?

Why do you think the Colonel tried to deny his role in the evacuation?

How did Perry Saito get out of Tule Lake?

 

5.         Consider each of the following terms and determine which are expressions of bias, prejudice, or ones that were politically correct in 1942

•           Evacuees

•           Enemy aliens 

•           Non-aliens

•           Persons of Japanese descent

•           Relocation

•           Americans of Japanese ancestry

•           Detainees

•           Concentration camps

•           Possible spies being incarcerated

•           Loyals ( or disloyals)

•           Japs

•           Japanese American

 

6.         What were the deciding events that led up to the redress of the affected Japanese Americans in the 1980s? Why and how did the President apologize to the Japanese Americans?

 

7.         How did the American Civil Rights Movement inspire the third (sansei) generation of Japanese Americans to seek redress for the incarceration?

 

8.         How is the US treatment of the Japanese Americans during World War II the same (or different) than those accused of terrorism today?

 

9.        What events in today’s “security checks” remind you of the suspicions toward the Japanese American (especially Mrs. Saito)?