Protests to the United States and Canada Cencering [sic] Treatment of Prisoners of War; Statement of the Foreign Office, November 6, 1942
The fact that the Japanese Government have been extending a very fair and humane treatment to prisoners of war, civilian internees and other enemy nationals in general since the outbreak of the war of greater East
Asia is clear in the light of the various reports of the representatives of the International Red Cross Committee, as well as in the radio broadcasts and communications of the enemy nationals themselves. Moreover, this fact is recognized by the Governments of the enemy countries.
Notwithstanding this fact, the treatment of Japanese nationals by the authorities of the enemy countries and the countries of inimical character has frequently been unreasonable and unwarranted, in consideration of which the Japanese Government have on various occasions in the past taken the necessary steps to remedy the situation. The compulsory removal of the Japanese residing in the Pacific coast to the interior is an act which the Japanese Government regard particularly with the most serious concern, with respect wherewith the Japanese Government in the latter part of July lodged a most vigorous protest with the Government of the United States and the developments concerning which they have since watched closely and carefully.
According to the detailed and comprehensive study made by the Japanese Government of the reports submitted by the Japanese nationals who recently returned from the United States and Canada on the first exchange vessels, it is clear that the American and Canadian authorities applied severe and inhuman measures in the treatment of our nationals, and even now are continuing them as has been clearly established.
The Japanese Government, therefore, made in the latter part of October further protests to the Governments of these two countries through their protecting Power vigorously demanding that they reconsider their treatment and take necessary steps to remedy it.
In view of the fact that the treatment of our nationals in British India has been extremely inhuman, and therefore cannot be left unrectified, the Japanese Government also lodged a vigorous protest in the middle of September last.
(1) Protest to the United States
The text of the Japanese Government's protest to the United States Government follows :
The Japanese Government having received reports from Japanese subjects repatriated from the United States by the exchange vessels, are astonished at the most inhuman cruelty and insult inflicted upon them by the United States authorities in the course of their arrest, examination, internment and transport. The United States Government have thereby violated their solemn declaration to apply, as far as possible, to interned non-combatants the provisions of the Convention relating to the Treatment of Prisoners of War signed at Geneva in July, 1929. The Japanese Government, therefore, do hereby lodge a most emphatic protest and demand the United States Government's serious consideration of the matter.
Arrest and Internment
1. (a) Many Japanese subjects aged over sixty have been interned, and not a few of them being over eighty, the average age of the Japanese
subjects interned is fifty-four or fifty-five at many an internment camp. These aged internees are treated equally with those who are in the prime of life in respect of housing, food and discipline, and no special consideration for their age is accorded them.
(b) The three Japanese subjects who died at Fort Missoula, Montana, viz., Messrs. Sei-ichiro Itoh, Kaméki Kinoshita and Shighékazu Hazama, had been invalids from before their arrest but no allowance was given them on account of ill-health. Hazama, especially was operated upon at Los Angeles to remove a cancer of the rectum, and had been progressing very unfavorably when he was arrested. He was carried away from his sick-bed, and in his railway journey to Missoula he was for three days and three nights forced to sit in a compartment the windows of which were shut and blinds lowered. Consequently, his illness was rapidly aggravated and he succumbed on the 1st of March.
(c) Mr. Sasaichi Katoh, a resident of Los Angeles, who was wounded in the right eye by a motor-car accident, was not allowed to see a doctor before he was arrested and carried to the internment camp at Tajanga. He was later allowed to go out to consult an oculist, but the Los Angeles authorities, instead of allowing him to receive medical treatment, imprisoned him and took him to Santa Fe. Thus it became too late for any treatment to be efficacious, and Mr. Katoh lost the sight of his injured eye.
2. From these facts it cannot but be concluded that in the internment of Japanese civilians the United States Government are paying not the slightest regard to their age or condition of health. In the internment of United States citizens, the Japanese Government are giving generous consideration to their age and health, and only a very few who are aged over sixty have been interned and that only for special reasons. The Japanese Government call the serious attention of the United States Government to the fact that they have committed an act of inhumanity by interning a large number of Japanese civilians of advanced age or suffering from serious illness on no justifiable ground and by placing them in such a condition as to cause them unbearable pain and expose their life to danger. The Japanese Government demand that the United States Government immediately release those aged and invalid internees.
Treatment Accorded in the Course of Arrest and Transport
1. The Japanese civilians interned in the United States have in the course of their arrest and transport been treated by the United States authorities in the following manner :
(i) The greater number of those who were arrested in the region along the Pacific coast were sent to the place of detention in handcuffs, and some of them, despite their old age over sixty, were even chained to the motor-car. They were put in narrow and filthy detention rooms of the Immigration Office or local police stations. They were subjected unnecessarily to insulting maltreatment. In the course of their arrest, transport, and examination
they were frequently beaten and kicked. The following are only a few out of the many instances of such brutal treatments.
(a) Those who were arrested in San Francisco and detained at the Immigration Office on the 7th of December, 1941, were allowed to have a walk outdoors for an hour only once in ten days.
(b) Thirteen Japanese subjects who were arrested at Los Angeles on the same day were jammed into a narrow stifling prison cell with a capacity for two persons, consequently experiencing great difficulty even in performing their natural functions. The next day they were sent to the Federal Penitentiary at Terminal Island, without breakfast or lunch till six o'clock in the afternoon. On their arrival at the prison, they were kept standing in the open air for nearly three hours, and their persons were rigorously searched in an insulting manner for several hours in a cold, fireless room, and they were forced to undergo a humiliating disinfecting process. Then they were clothed in convict uniforms and were forbidden to wear their own overcoats even when they were outside in the rain. When some of them carried food to their ailing friends through the prison yard, they were not allowed to cover the food-trays to protect them from the rain.
(c) The Japanese subjects who were interned at the Lincoln Heights Jail, Los Angeles, were put in dark cells together with convicts, and for two weeks were not allowed either to see the sunlight or to go into the open air. Food was given only twice a day, and it consisted mostly of boiled beans. Consequenty, those who were of old age or delicate constitution became ill on account of the lack of nourishment and the contaminated air of the cells.
(d) Special mention must be made of Mr. Rikita Honda, a physician, who was arrested at Los Angeles at the outbreak of the war and committed suicide in a solitary cell of the Immigration Office on the 14th December. It appears that he was under special suspicion owing to the fact that he was the President of the Los Angeles Naval Association (Kaigunkyokai). But this association is a mere social club. He had nothing to conceal from the examining official. He advised his compatriots detained at the Immigration Office to answer honestly and uprightly the questions put to them by the examining official. These facts admit of a most grave suspicion as to the circumstances leading to his suicide.
(ii) (a) A member of the staff of the Japanese Consulate in Los Angeles, who was in a very feeble condition convalescing from illness, was, when sent from Fort Missoula to White Sulphur Springs, handcuffed and chained to bed as if he were a hard criminal. As he witnessed that the immigration officer received the handcuffs from his superior when departing from Fort Missoula, there is no doubt that this maltreatment was ordered by the internment camp authorities.
(b) When interned civilians were transferred from one internment camp to another, they were treated as if they were convicts. Soldiers loaded their guns with ball-cartridges in their presence, and they were forced to walk to the station while the soldiers levelled the guns at them and crowds of people looked on.
2. In interning United States civilians, the Japanese Government have been careful not to take any other measures than are necessary for restraining their personal liberty; they have never been handcuffed, nor have they ever been examined or treated like criminals. The Japanese Government are unable to see on what ground the United States Government felt ustified [sic] in treating Japanese civilians in such a cruel, inhuman manner as hereinabove stated.
The Japanese Government lodge a most emphatic protest against the insulting and inhuman treatment accorded to Japanese civilians by the United States authorities, and demand the United States Government to furnish a detailed report concerning the circumstances which led to the death of Mr. Rikita Honda.
Torture at Internment Camps
1. In examining interned Japanese civilians, the United States authorities took such illegal actions as follows :
(a) At Fort Missoula, some Japanese civilians, who entered the United States prior to 1924 without passports, were beaten, kicked, forced to keep standing for hours running, and given no food, in order to extort from them a false confession that they entered the country after 1924. Owing to this brutal maltreatment, they fell unconscious, and they were forced to sign documents, which were described as their depositions but the contents of which they knew nothing about. There are also reported numerous cases of insulting treatment at the same camp.
(b) At Fort Lincoln the examining official knocked down and kicked a Japanese civilian and broke his two upper front teeth.
2. The Japanese Government desire to notify the United States Government that they are most gravely concerned about the above-mentioned inhuman acts of violence on the part of the United States authorities, and demand the United States Government's reply in explanation of these outrages. The Japanese Government further demand the United States Government to take adequate and effective measures in order to prevent the recurrence of such events.
Compulsory Labour at Internment Camps
1. (a) The authorities of the internment camp at Fort Missoula, Montana, alleged that the application of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention to the internees entails obligation on the part of those interned to offer gratuitous labor for the "upkeep and maintenance" of the internment camp, and that the internment camp does not only mean the enclosed compound, but include all the constructions and equipment belonging to the camp. Thus they ordered the Japanese internees to clean the stable in which horses owned by the camp officials were kept, and to help build a Japanese garden and a swimming pool which were under construction outside the camp ground. They threatened the Japanese internees that unless they voluntarily went to work there would ensue unpleasant consequences.
Nothing was said about the compensation for their work.
(b) At the internment camp at Santa Fe, New Mexico, where labour was wanting owing to a strike of the local trade union, the authorities tried to compel the Japanese to build barracks for internees in spite of their opposition.
(c) There are also instances of the internees having been put to such labour not directly related to their maintenance as the cleaning of the offices of the camp officials or the cooking and table service for these officials.
2. The above-mentioned stable in which horses of the camp officials are kept are not an integral part of an internment camp for civilians. The above-mentioned garden and swimming pool, being situated in a place to which the internees have no access, can in no respect form part of the camp. The Geneva Convention contains provisions stipulating labour for the purpose of the administration, management, and maintenance of internment camps, but there are no provisions concerning the supply of labour for building new camps. Moreover, it is needless to say that labour supplied by the internees should be such as is directly related to their subsistence and comfort. Therefore, the above-said reasons given by the internment camp authorities have no foundation. In putting Japanese civilian internees to unjustifiable labour, the United States Government have contradicted their statement made in the note addressed to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs by the Swiss Minister in Tokyo under the date of the 24th March, 1942, to the effect that the United States Government have never imposed compulsory labour on interned civilians and that they have no intention to do so in the future.
The Japanese Government, therefore, enter a protest against the above-mentioned measures taken by the United States Government, and demand that the United States Government immediately cease the enforcement of the above-mentioned labour imposed on the Japanese civilian internees and pay adequate compensations to those who have hitherto been put to such labour. The Japanese Government further demand the guarantee of the United States Government that they will not resort to such measures again.
Treatment at the Departure of the Exchange Ship
1. In the Agreement concluded between Japan and the United States regarding the exchange of diplomatic and consular officials, etc., it is stipulated that the examination of the luggage of non-official evacuees shall be "lenient," and that their persons shall not be searched (vide paragraph 20 of the United States Government's reply received by the Japanese Government on the 11th February). There are instances in which the United States Government have clearly violated their pledge on these two points :
(a) At the Pennsylvania Hotel, New York City, on the 10th June, and at the internment camp at Ellis Island from the 7th till 9th June, Customs officials and members of the F.B.I. relentlessly and recklessly examined the possessions of the Japanese evacuees, and they made no scruple to break or damage them in the course of examination. They went to such extremes as breaking open watches, cutting open the lapels of coats, and ripping up
belts. They spent four or five hours in the examination of two or three packages of articles. They seized a large quantity of articles of various descriptions including watches, cameras, fountain pens, cigarette lighters, clothing, etc. They seized not only every written or printed scrap of paper including note-books, address-books, etc., but also blank sheets of paper, not excepting even wrappers of soap. They also seized all chemicals including aspirin tablets. No receipts were given for these seized articles.
(b) On the 11h [sic] June at the above-said hotel and internment camp the luggage was throughly [sic] examined when the persons of all the evacuees were also searched in an insulting manner. They were made stark naked, and even a plaster applied to a wound was stripped off. Some of the evacuees had their hair searched. Woman [sic] were also made naked by women examiners and many of them were subjected to the most humiliating search.
2. The Japanese Government most emphatically protest against such deliberate and flagrant violations of the stipulations of the Exchange Agreement, especially against the unlawful seizure of the evacuees' belongings without giving them receipts therefor and the most insulting and inhuman search of the persons of the evacuees. The Japanese Government demand the United States Government to offer an explanation for these outrages and to return the unlawfully seized articles to their owners.
(2) Protest to Canada
The text of the Japanese Government's protest to the Canadian Government dated november [sic] 6, 1942, follows :
The Japanese Government have received the following report concerning the compulsory removal of the Japanese residents from the Pacific coast region ordered by the Canadian Government following upon the establishment of protected areas in the same region :
The Canadian Government, by the order of the Governor-General dated the 14th January, 1942, declared certain areas on the Pacific coast of the depth of 100 miles to be protected areas, and early in February ordered all the enemy aliens of conscription age (males aged from 18 to 45) residing in the same areas to evacuate by the 1st April. It was decided that the male Japanese subjects among those evacuees should be employed in road construction in the Rocky Mountains around Jasper, Alberta. The Canadian Government pretended to invite volunteers for work, but the fact was that each evacuee was forced to sign a contract purporting to be made that he was offering labour of his free will, and from some evacuees, who refused for reasons of health, etc., consent was extorted at the point of revolver. Those who were engaged in the road building were provided with no housing accommodation, but were put in shabby railway vans and given insufficient [f]ood. In short, they were forced to live like a herd of cattle. Later on the scope of evacuation was enlarged, and all the Japanese residents were ordered to evacuate, and even aged people as well as women and children were compulsorily removed to barren, waste lands in the interior.
The Japanese Government cannot, but infer from the above report that
the intention of the Canadian Government is to deprive all the Japanese residents in Canada of their means of subsistence on the pretext of the establishment of protected areas, and send them to the interior, severing men from their wives and children, and put them to hard compulsory labour, and force aged people and women and children to live in wild, desolate places apart from the heads of their families. This is an unprecedented outrage.
It is an established international usage generally observed among civilized nations that enemy civilians should not be put to any compulsory labour of any kind in any circumstances. Moreover, the Canadian Government declared at the outbreak of the war that they would apply, as far as possible, to the interned civilians the provisions of the Geneva Convention relating to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. The above-mentioned measures taken by the Canadian Government are contrary to both the general principles of international usage and the declaration of the Canadian Government. The Japanese Government made a similar declaration to that of the Canandian [sic] Government, that they will, on condition of reciprocity, adhere to the provisions of the Geneva Convention. It is to be mentioned that the Japanese Government have not imposed on any Canadians, whether interned or not, any compulsory labour of any kind.
The Japanese Government, therefore, lodge a most emphatic protest against the inhuman measures taken by the Canadian Government in regard to the Japanese residents in Canada, and demand the Canadian Government immediately to cease the enforcement of compulsory labour imposed on the Japanese evacuees. The Japanese Government also demand from the Canadian Government a report on the measures of protection accorded by the Canadian Government to the Japanese evacuees, such as to protect the property left behind by them, allow them to make use of it, supply them with adequate housing accommodations and proper means of subsistence at the places where they have been conveyed, relieve the aged and the poor who have been separated from the heads of their families and furnish them with the means of medical treatment and education.