Little-known aspect of the WW2 interment:
1. It also effected a number of Germans and Italians. The current site of the NSA at Fort Meade was originally an internment site for German-Americans.
2. American cryptographers had broken JN-25 & The Purple Code. After Pearl Harbor US teams continued to process compromised Japanese cables and discovered something ominous —some of the very last instructions to Japanese Embassies in the US prior to the attack focused on details concerning sabotage attacks on US defense companies. Such attacks almost surely would have used Japanese-Americans sympathetic to The Cause. US authorities could not disclose their sources and methods, else Japan would revamp their commo, with disastrous effects for the US war effort. So when internment orders went around, they couldn’t explain WHY there was reasonable fear. For decades it would simply be chalked up to plain xenophobia and petty revenge.
. American cryptographers had broken JN-25 & The Purple Code. After Pearl Harbor US teams continued to process compromised Japanese cables and discovered something ominous —some of the very last instructions to Japanese Embassies in the US prior to the attack focused on details concerning sabotage attacks on US defense companies
Interesting you should post this. Yesterday while working down in the barn, I was listening to actual radio broadcasts made during that fateful day of December 7th. Got it all off of archive.org. Anyway, several times in the afternoon early evening of the 7th were announcements that companies involved in defense work need to immediately secure their infrastructure against sabotage.
Could you send along a link (if there is one) to your information? I would like to read more about it. Thanks in advance! If it is a book then you can pm me the title.