OCR Text |
Show MULLIN) AL} LL BUR env a WASATCH COUNTY COURIER LOOKS AT MAGIC: Impassioned But — Ultimately Unconvincing BOOKS REVIEW BY KENT POWELL SPECIAL TO THE Editors note: Congressional Committee on Wartime ania D. book, “MAGIC,” was and Lines published by oe MAGIC: The its 467-page lustice report, Personal Denied published in 1983. the South Pacific during World War II and later had a distinguished career with the National Security Agency, completed the manuscript in 1989 under the working title, “Broken Codes, Broken Homes.” Lowman died Sam Allen. Untold Story of U. 2 history troversial : engage the mind. book report, Personal Justice Denied. secured permission from the Hoover Institution to publish the book. offers secret agents, several chapters including reports from the West Coast, Hawaii, the Philippines, documents which were the basis for Roosevelt's February 19, 1942 and Panama. The seventeen reports from the West Coast cities of Seattle, — San Francisco, and Los Angeles note routine American, English, and Russian — siderations combined with war hysteria. A misinformed media, along with the Congress and the public, accepted these findings without question as the whole truth.”(3) In this unjust circum- — | stance, Lowman’s purpose is seen as “,..upholding the honor and reputations enemy aliens, of those high-ranking tage, arrests, incarceration, questions government officials who relied and acted on this intelligence in of patriotism, the denial of: crucial eVIdence, harassed a manner which they witnesses, political perceived a billion dollars, the reader is in for a Lowman, real adventure. Such are the elements to be found in David D. Lowman’s new and the Evacuation of From the West Nearly sixty years after 112,000 United States residents of Japanese ancestry were interred in relocation — will take on its load of war materials as _ soon as repairs are completed and pro- ceed to Vladisvostok when orders are received. For this purpose, it is equipped with a 500 watt radio for the reception of orders and war news from ) Moscow.”(170)Other messages related ‘ the SGuib. lishment of an information gathering or espionage network. The most significant of the messages sent from Tokyo to the Japanese Embassy in Washington _ D.C. on 30 January 1941 is quoted in three separate chapters. It outlines aneight-part program for intelligence activities in the United States. These includ. ed: the establishment of an intelligence organ in the Embassy; determining the political, economic, and military — States leaders: did strength of the United States; cooperat- ing with the German and Italian intelli- _ justifiably = given gence on the Coast — was organs in the United States; | tification for the action remains one of the most debated topics regarding the : MAGIC was ‘Semitism, communism, movements uti of ; the Negroes, and labor movements lization of non-Japanese communists, - Negroes, labor union members, and - operatea antiSemites; and “Utilization of our wartime envi- ‘Second Generations’ and our resident (In view of the fact that if ronment... uti- _ nationals. lizing _— large there is any slip in this phase, our people numbers of in the U.S. will be subjected to considerlocal Japanese residents.” (1) able persecution, and the utmost caution In contrast, the authors of Personal must be exercised).” (129, 136, 146). “:..designed camps in response to Japan’s attack on . American forces at Pearl Harbor, the jus-- United States and World War I. Officially, the question was put to rest with the passage of the Civil Liberties: Act of 1988 which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on August 10 ,1988. The act acknowledged the injustice of the evacuation, relocation, and internment of United States citizens and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry living in Arizona, California, in the Los Angeles area. For example a October 12, 1941 report from Los Angeles noted, “The — Russian ship, Kiev, now in port here, -act honorably and ment West which Coast During World War Il. : United ship arrivals and departures and airplane production the elaborate and ~ preparations to ‘move the intelligence _ dangerous espiset-up to Mexico in the event of war; a onage network set survey of all persons or organizations up by the openly or secretly opposed to participaJapanese governtion in the war; investigations of all anti-” book, MAGIC: The Untold Story of U.S. Residents that interests of our. nation at war.” (4) According _ to unwarranted expenditure of more than Japanese at time to be in the best. expediency, official apologies, and the — Intelligence 7,1941. The messages are divided into failure to consider and understand the - espionage, broken secret codes, sabo- . - One hundred MAGIC messages are reproduced covering the time period from December 17, 1940 to December — This based solely on political and racial con- to the debate on the merits of relocation during World War II and When that book the — Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford Publisher Lee Allen saw ibution the work as an important contr Japanese ~ to and by Congressional Committee and its staff during the 1980s in the preparation of its University. here is mating like a good con aiatainnsies : overlooked by the manuscript, were acquired paper, $29.95) were Executive Order leads to a misguided revisionist interpretation of history that _ finds “. ..President Roosevelt’s motives, and those of his key wartime advisers, in authorizing the evacuation were in 1999 and his papers, including the Tuten WWIL By David D. Lowman. ( Athena Press, Inc., viii + 391 pp. 2000, messages, reports Lowman, who served with the Army in Wasatch resident Lee Allen. and edited- by “ These Relocation and Internment of Civilians COURIER APRIL 18, 2001 to the code name for decrypted diplomat- lustice Denied ic codes and ciphers which the United States Army and Navy radio intelligence units obtained after the Japanese sion that while Japan had some intelli- stand by their conclu- In these mundane reports of ship — movements and generic plans for uti- gence agents and potential saboteurs on lizing resources for information gaththe West Coast in 1942, “not a single 3 ering, there is no smoking gun to be foreign ministry codes were broken in found. Contrary to Lowman’s claims, _ documented act of espionage, sabotage the fall of 1940. Information about or fifth column activity was committed the one hundred reproduced MAGIC by an American citizen of Japanese MAGICdid not become generally messages do not prove that large numknown until the publication of Roberta - _ ancestry or by a resident Japanese alien | bers of Japanese-Americans were Wohlstetter’s book, Pearl Harbor on the West Coast.” (362) | engaged in espionage or that any sabOregon, and Washington in-early 1942. Warning and Decision in 1962; and two Readers can assess the validity of otage activities were in the works at It also provided a one-time tax-free payeach position by answering three basic _ other books published in 1967, Ladislas the time of the Japanese attack on ment of $20,000 to those who had been Farago, The Broken Seal, and David questions: First, do the intercepted Pearl Harbor or were committed after interred i in the camps. By. ‘the end of the Kahn, The Codebreakers. | MAGIC messages and other intelli-. the declaration of war. No great milirepayment program in August 1998, U.S. military and naval intelligence gence reports demonstrate that large tary secrets are disclosed in the 82,219 individuals had been paid. intercepted some 126,869 numbers of local Japanese residents reports, no organized Fifth Column units | Some consider the apology and _ MAGIC messages all of which are now — force marches. forth from the mes‘were involved in espionage activities repayment to be unwarranted, unnecin the National Archives. Japanese and were prepared to undertake sabosages, and no compelling evidence essary, and a misguided, if not frauduintelligence officials could not believe tage measures against America’s war emerges that Japanese-Americans lent, attempt to rewrite history. that the United States had broken their effort? Second, if so, did the war time were likely to turn their backs on the Congressional committee hearings © diplomatic codes and were convinced ‘situation justify the denial of personal ‘United States in time of war. were allegedly one-sided, politicallyrights and freedoms to civilians in order that someone with access to the codes But what about other information motivated, and dissenting witnesses had betrayed their country. to provide, as Roosevelt stated in gathering efforts of the Army Military were harassed and abused. Relevant Lowman argues that President Executive Order No. 9066, “...every -. Intelligence Division, The Office of documents were ignored or misinterFranklin Roosevelt based his decision to — possible protection against espionage Naval Intelligence, and the Federal preted by the committee staff. and against sabotage to nationalissue Executive Order No. 9066, which Bureau of Investigation? Lowman Furthermore, the 1988 Act seemed to gave authority to evacuate all residents defense material, national-defense devotes over a hundred pages to reprocall into question the motives, intelliof Japanese descent from the West premises, and national-defense utiliducing 21 letters, memos, assessgence, and character of American leadCoast, on the intercepted MAGIC mesThird, did the United dies 27335)? : ments, and reports from the three ers during World War II who were sages and “ ..alarming assessments States Congress and President Ronald agencies. Much of the information is responsible for the internment of from the U. S intelligence community Reagan commit a historical travesty and _ repetitive from one agency to another Japanese-American citizens. | which reported large-scale disloyalty, trample the honor of our World. ‘War ae and constitutes a rehashing of the In MAGIC David Lowman makes espionage, and potential sabotage by — leaders in their apology and compensapoints contained in the intercepted an impassioned, though ultimately unconvincing, attack a PERO ELS Lt. S. residents of J apuEere Pees ” @ : tion to those who were interned? be BEd message of January 30, 1941 from | — ~ |