In Defense of Internment by Michelle Malkin

On the advice of fellow conservatives, I recently read Michelle Malkin's In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror.

Malkin's book makes the case that the internment of ethnic Japanes during the World War II was an appropriate response to real national security concerns. Malkin's arguments rely heavily upon decrypts of Japanese communications that were closely guarded at the time. She contends that most recent critics of the internment did not have access to the MAGIC decrypts or chose to ignore them.

While I learned some things from Malkin's book, I do not agree with her conclusions.

Where I differ with Malkin is not so much in her facts but her conclusions. Yes, it is a fact that some Nissei (first generation Japanese-Americans)were engaged in espionage. Yes, at the time there was concern about an invason of the West Coast. Yes Canada and Mexico implemented similar policies. Yes, secret decrypts indicated infiltration of Japanese groups in the United States.

No, these facts do not add up to a valid rationale for the internment. Executive order #9066 went well beyond the prudent, reasonable and legal steps of removing suspect persons from militarily sensitive areas. Instead it made all ethnic Japanese suspect. The order allowed them to take care of their affairs and move to non-sensitive areas if they had work, school or other community connections. The net effect was that tens of thousands of loyal U.S. Citizens had nowhere to go outside of their West Coast communities. They were removed from their homes and businesses. They were often forced to sell at a loss to predatory buyers. (Malkin's point that many of the predators were also ethnic Japanese makes little difference.)

Yes there were non-Japanese who were evacuated and interned. But while the Atlantic War truly hung in the balance and every convey assembling off our East Coast was critical to the war effort — no similar evacuation of ethnic Germans or Italians occured in the port cities of the northeast.

In the attempt to paint the Japanese foe as evil and somehow subhuman, we unfortunately applied the same lens to the Nissei.

The second part of the book builds the case for racial profiling in the current War Against Terror. Malkin is not suggesting that we establish Muslim internment camps but she believes that it is prudent to use race, religion and national origin in threats assesment.

As to the War on Terror — I would point out that we are not at war. According to the Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war (Article I, Section 8). Had President Bush asked for a formal declaration of war — there would be no second guessing by those who voted for it (or against it) in Congress.

I do agree with the author that racial profiling (or rather realistic threat profiling) is appropriate. I am a business traveller and as such I subject myself to searches of my luggage and person. It is legal for the TSA to search me randomly and it is legal to search an islamic person randomly. Given that a muslim traveller and I can both be searched, I see no problem with applying criteria that subject the muslim or, if dis-oriented asians were a threat, me to more frequent searches. However, I do not believe it is reasonable to subject U.S. citizens based on profiling to other measures not applied to the general travelling public.

I am concerned about attempts, like the Patriot Act, to limit the rights of U.S. citizens in this time of non-war.

In Defense of Internment gets 1 of 5 dis-oriented smileys

Purchase In Defense of Internment from Amazon.com.