14 November 1944

Honorable John J. McCloy,
Assistant Secretary of War,
War Department,
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. McCloy:

Anticipated changes in the exclusion and evacuation program of the Commanding General, Western Defense Command, under authority of Executive Order 9066 emphasize the already existing problem concerning the detention of citizens and aliens of Japanese ancestry.

Detention at Tule Lake in the case of citizens is practically internment. It is anticipated that action in the near future will terminate mass exclusion. This termination will bring to the forefront the residual problem concerning the detention of individuals considered to be potentially dangerous.

A substantial number of American citizens of Japanese ancestry, amounting to four or five thousand, are potentially dangerous to the war effort not only in the Western Defense Command, but in every industrial or sensitive area in the United States. These persons have indicated their firm belief in the success of Japan and have in many cases been most outspoken in their loyalty to Japan and their complete willingness to fight for Japan. While there are without question a certain number who have hidden their real feelings there are a surprisingly large number who have been very outspoken. They have shown their position by one of the following acts:

(1) They have asked expatriation to Japan;
(2) They have sought revocation of their American citizenship;
(3) They have answered "no" to the loyalty question;
(4) They have otherwise definitely indicated by their own acts

or considered of each that they are completely loyal to Japan and are ready, if opportunity is afforded, to take action to prevent the successful prosecution of the war against Japan.

Such persons are potentially dangerous anywhere in the United States. They are being detained now and their detention should be continued as an exercise of the war power, for the prevention of espionage and sabotage and the maintenance of the security of the nation as a whole. If the security of a particular sensitive area alone were involved then exclusion from that area would be indicated rather than continued detention. It is thus clear that this problem is not peculiar to the Western Defense Command, nor is it properly incidental to the exclusion and evacuation of the Japanese from the west coast area.

As stated above a large number of this potentially dangerous type is now being detained at the Tule Lake War Relocation Project Area. Such authority as is now being used for their detention stems from Executive Order 9066. However, there is serious doubt whether the necessary authority is granted by that order. It does not mention detention and there is nothing in the history of the order nor in the background of Public Law 503 to indicate that detention such as is here discussed was contemplated by the President or the Congress. There is substantial ground for the view that the Executive Order and the statute authorize exclusion and evacuation as necessary military measures and also by implication authorize such temporary detention as might be reasonably necessary and appropriate as an incident of the exercise of the powers expressly granted; but, this interpretation of the order can hardly be extended to include authority for the continued detention of individuals because they come within one or more of the categories mentioned above and therefore are deemed potentially dangerous to the national security. Certainly such drastic interference with the normal civil rights of American citizens should not be made to depend for its validity on an authorization which can be found, if at all, only by implication and interpretation.

Since continued detention as here contemplated is not essentially a part of the exclusion and evacuation program of the Western Defense Command and since authority for such detention has not been expressly granted but rests on a doubtful interpretation of Executive Order 9066, it is recommended that an Executive Order be issued by the President providing in substance that, whenever during the present war, the Secretary of War or the Attorney General finds that any citizen has given definite evidence of the fact that, although a citizen of the United States, he denies allegiance to the United States or declares allegiance to an enemy nation or shows that his loyalty lies with an enemy nation by requesting expatriation to that nation and has thereby shown himself to be dangerous to the public safety of the

United States and that the detention of such person is necessary for protection against espionage or sabotage of national defense materials, national defense premises and national defense utilities, as defined in Section 4, Act of April 20, 1918, 40 Stat. 553, as amended by the Act of November 30, 1940, 54 Stat. 1220, and the Act of August 21, 1941, 55 Stat. 655 (U.S.C. Title 50, Sec. 104) or would otherwise hinder the war effort. The Secretary of War may, in his discretion and under regulations prescribed by him, apprehend and detain such person in the continental United States at places selected by him and for such period as he finds, in his direction, is required for the purposes above set forth.

For the Commanding General:

W.H. WILBUR
Brigadier General, GSC,
Chief of Staff