Newspapers, columnists

“I am for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast to a point deep in the interior. Let ’em be pinched, hurt, hungry, and dead up against it. Let us have no patience with anyone whose veins carry his blood. Personally, I hate the Japanese and that goes for all of them.”
— Columnist Henry McLemore, Sacramento Union, Jan. 30, 1942.

“We are so considerate of the minute constitutional rights and even of the political feelings and influence of people whom we have every reason to anticipate with preventive action!... The Japanese in California should be under armed guard to the last man and woman and to hell with habeas corpus until the danger is over...”
— Westbrook Pegler, February 15, 1942.

Government officials

“There is no possible way of separating the loyal from the disloyal... when we are dealing with the Caucasian race we have methods that will test the loyalty of them... but when we deal with the Japanese we are in an entirely different field and we cannot form any opinion that we believe to be sound.”
— Earl Warren, Attorney General of California, 1942.

“Their racial characteristics are such that we cannot understand or trust even Citizen Japanese.”
— Henry L. Stinson, Secretary of War, l942.

“You may think that the Constitution is your security — it is nothing but a piece of paper. You may think that the statutes are your security — they are nothing but words in a book. You may think that elaborate mechanism of government are your security — it is nothing at all, unless you have sound and uncorrupted public opinion to give life to your Constitution, to give vitality to your statutes, to make efficient your government machinery.”
— Charles Evans Hughes, Chief Justice, 1930 - 1942.

Others

“We were told these relocation camps were not for internment but for refuge. Had the W.R.A. really power to intern American citizens? Is it reasonable for Japanese Americans to be interned and Germans and Italians, not? Is not the very essence of our democracy that we are made up of all races and colors? We are all tied together by the idea of democracy. That is what all our boys are fighting and suffering for. If we cannot all stand before the law in equal liberty and freedom to live our lives regardless of race, creed, or color — then WHAT PRICE DEMOCRACY?”
— Marion Weddell to Pres. Roosevelt, Dec. 23, l942.

“It is my hope that residents of the U.S. of Japanese extraction will not be made victim of pogroms directed by self-proclaimed patriots and by hysterical self-anointed heroes... Let us not make a mockery of our Bill of Rights by mistreating these folks. Let us regard them with understanding, remembering they are victims of a Japanese war machine, with the making of international policies of which they had nothing to do.”
— Congressman John Coffee, December 8, 1941.

“The Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second and third generation Japanese born on United States soil possessed of U.S. citizenship have become “Americanized” the racial strains are undiluted. It then follows that along the vital Pacific Coast over 112,000 potential enemies, of Japanese extraction, are at large today. There are indications that these were organized and ready for concerted action at a favorable opportunity. The very fact that no sabotage has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken...”
— DeWitt’s Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942, and the government’s brief to the Supreme Court defending Ex. Order 9066.

Newspapers

SACRAMENTO BEE, excerpts
January 4, 1942

“...President made a strong appeal for fair treatment of non-citizens... A majority of the foreign born in America comes from nations which are allies in this war... There can be no questions as to what their feelings are. Even those whose ancestors came from the Axis nations are, in the vast majority of cases, antifascist and anti-Nazi. They are eager to do their share... As for the other kind, the agents for the FBI will take care of them. The persecution mania — the race hatred theme — is a jarring note of discord. It is, as President Roosevelt says, the direct antithesis of liberty, justice, and decency...”

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
February 21, 1942
“Facts Force America to Stop Pussyfooting”

“The President’s order which is just one step short of martial law in such strategic areas as the Army may designate, means the removal of Japanese from coastal and other military contacts. ...Among thousands of Japanese who knew about the plot [to bomb Pearl Harbor] not one came forward to warn the U.S... From these circumstances has been forced that whatever the personal exceptions, Japanese loyalty is primarily to Japan... It is a principle that persons of Japanese blood who are loyal to Japan... It is a principle that persons of Japanese blood who are loyal to the U.S. and its ideals can show that loyalty by recognizing necessity. This is a fight for survival. In this fighting we cannot pussyfoot. We have to be tough, even if civil rights do take a beating for a time.”