![]() Emmons found no evidence to support the colorful news media accounts of enemy activity in the islands either during or after the attack. ![]() Kimmel, stated on 12 December that fifth column activities caused great confusion during the attack. The commander of the sunken fleet of battleships, Rear Adm. The military quickly moved to try to verify the widespread allegations about incidents of sabotage and espionage. This critical event removed the territory of Hawaii from the control of the Interior Department and put the islands under the plenary authority of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Short as military governor of Hawaii two weeks after martial law was declared in Hawaii on the day of the Pearl Harbor attack. In the aftermath of the surprise assault, local military leaders, aided by the FBI and influential non-Japanese Hawaiians found themselves defending the rights of Japanese Americans against efforts by the nation's highest leaders to duplicate in Hawaii the concentration camps and deportation of the tiny West Coast Japanese minority. However, the treatment of Japanese Americans in Hawaii, 2,000 miles closer to the battle zone than California, shows a lesser known aspect of America's wartime racial mentality. The dismal fate of these people in California has been described in numerous studies as not only the most deplorable violation of civil liberties in American history but also a blot in the history of American race relations. In this highly emotional atmosphere, Americans began discussing the wartime disposition of the resident Japanese as well as the Japanese Americans. Short found it necessary to warn the public against "unfounded rumors and fantastic flights of your imagination." He cautioned citizens to "check carefully the authenticity and accuracy of rumors you may hear." The situation quickly got out of hand until an harassed Lt. ![]() ![]() Japanese trucks were alleged to have blocked roadways while signals were cut into the sugar cane fields pointing the way to Pearl Harbor. These individuals were alleged to have poisoned drinking water, set signal lights and fires, dispatched homing pigeons, and sent short-wave radio messages to the enemy. Along with reports about the devastation on "battleship row," newspapers and radios carried mysterious rumors impugning the loyalty of those residents of Hawaii who happened to be of Japanese ancestry. The Japanese Navy struck a crippling blow at the American Pacific fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Culley, Relocation of Japanese Americans: The Hawaiian Experience, 24 Air Force Law Review 176 (1984) (21 Footnotes) ( Full Document) ![]()
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