Japanese Internees from Peru

Author(s): Edward N. Barnhart

Source: Pacific Historical Review , May, 1962, Vol. 31, No. 2 (May, 1962), pp. 169-178
Published by: University of California Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3636574

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 Japanese Internees from Peru
EDWARD N. BARNHART

[Edward N. Barnhart is a member of the departmen

California, Berkeley.]

IN THE NAME of internal security, one th

men were deported from Peru in 1943 and
There they were interned for the duration
wives and children who voluntarily accom
of 1945 an international conference of American states called for the

removal from the Western Hemisphere at the war's end of all per
deported for security reasons. The war over, the Peruvian governm
refused to allow the return of the Japanese, and the United S
government took steps to carry out the resolution. Despairing of
being permitted to return to Peru or to remain in the United Sta
the majority of the two thousand men, women, and children acce
transportation to Japan. But several hundred fought the second de
tation and after many years gained the right to residence in the S
and naturalization as American citizens.

Before World War II the Japanese in Peru were an unpopular

ority. Japanese immigration was stopped in 1936 largely as a res
popular resentment against the economic success of Japanese far
and businessmen. Foreign Minister Alberto Ulloa stated that "th
crease of Japanese immigration and the activity developed by t
immigrants have created social unrest . .. because their condition
methods of working have produced pernicious competiton fo
Peruvian workers and businessmen."' There were extensive anti-
nese riots in Lima and Callao in May, 1940, and a wide range of
Japanese measures were put into effect immediately after Pearl Harb
Furthermore, the Peruvian government by executive decre
prived many individuals of Japanese ancestry of their Peruvian
zenship. Despite a constitutional provision that "Those born i
territory of the Republic are Peruvians,"2 a decree of April 20, 1
* Based on a paper read at the Stanford Conference on Latin America, Stanford
versity, October 9, 1959, and assisted by a research grant from the Institute o
Science of the University of California.
I United States, House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, 82 C
sess., "Hearings before the President's Commission on Immigration and Natural
(Washington, 1952), 1926.
2Article 14, Constitution of March 28, 1933. Quoted in A. M. Lazcano y Maz6n
stituciones politicas de Amrerica (Havana, 1942), II, 333. For other such measures
[169]

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170 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW

directed local officials to annul registrations of ali

in Peru which occurred before June 26, 1936, and
registrations if they had not been made.3 This prev
uvian birth and hence of Peruvian nationality.
In 1940 a second decree provided that native-bor
parents came from countries which recognized the
ple for the determination of nationality and who h
parent's state for education or other reasons, wou
having acquired another nationality and hence a
Peruvian.4

Both measures were directed against the Japanese. The Peruv

government declared that the 1940 measure was "designed to count
act a maneuver of Japanese subjects who although born in Peru w
sent to Japan when 12 or 14 years old, in order to be exposed to t
Japanese national spirit, serve in the army and complete the format
of the Japanese character; once having fulfilled these goals and clai
ing their birth in Peru they tried to return or to utilize their natio
ality of birth for espionage or fifth columnist activities.""
When war broke out in Europe in September, 1939, many of th
American republics looked to their external and internal defenses.
United States government was active in urging the Latin America
states to keep close watch over the activities of nationals of Axis st
and of citizens sympathetic to the Axis. In June, 1940, the Federa
Bureau of Investigation was authorized to undertake nonmilitary
telligence operations throughout the Western Hemisphere. In 1
agents were posted at United States embassies throughout Latin Am
ica under the designation of "legal attach6", or were attached to l
or national police forces as liaison officers.6 One of their major acti
ties was compiling information about suspected Axis nationals
pro-Axis sympathizers.
When the attack on Pearl Harbor brought war to the hemispher
period, see Edward N. Barnhart, "Citizenship and Political Tests in Latin Amer
Republics in World War II," in a forthcoming issue of the Hispanic American Hist
cal Review.

3 Law 8526 of April 20, 1937 (Compilaci6n de legislacidn peruano, III, 1092-
4 Resolution of Minister of Foreign Relations of July 13, 1940 (El Peruano
1940, p. 1086). Article 7 (2) of the Constitution provided for loss of Peruvian n
if another nationality was acquired.
5 "Memorandum Prepared by the Chief of the Section of Congresses and Int
Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Culture of Peru for th
gency Advisory Committee," as quoted in Advisory Committee publication, Le
para la defensa politica en las Repidblicas Americas (2 vols., Montevideo, 194
Italics added.
'Don Whitehead, The FBI Story (New York, 1956), 210-230.

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 JAPANESE INTERNEES FROM PERU 171

the United States pressed the Latin American republics to

nationals and others who were suspected of being likely
pro-Axis acts.
In addition to the concern about security a second motiv
this recommendation: internees might be exchanged f
citizens captured in the advances of Axis arms, especially t
the Japanese in the Far East. General George C. Marsh
staff, wired the Caribbean defense command in late 1942,
cussing arrangements for deporting alien enemies from Ce
can states to the United States, that "the State Departmen
mediate deportation from Peru of nine Japanese tailo
okehed for deportation by the Peruvian Government
open the way for subsequent deportation to the States f
Axis nationals comprising 1,000 Japanese and 250 Germa
terned nationals are to be used in exchange for American
tionals now interned."'
Further impetus toward internment came from the em
visory committee for political defense. Brought into exist
a resolution of the third meeting of the ministers of for
held at Rio de Janeiro in January, 1942, the advisory co
composed of representatives of seven American states. Est
permanent headquarters at Montevideo in April, 1942, in i
of activity it laid down general policy, which called for "disc
measures" to be taken by the American republics jointly
nationals, and submitted twenty-one programs of action
recommendations for the control of "potentially dang
and the prevention of espionage, sabotage, and "the disse
subversive propaganda." Resolution XX recommended a c
sive and vigorous program of detention of Axis nationals a
criteria of dangerousness. Resolution XV called for vigilan
ing naturalization papers to aliens from enemy states and
lation" of the nationality "of any national of an Americ
whether native-born or naturalized" who supported the A
or deed.8 Many of the American republics acted on the ad
mittee's recommendations through legislative or adm
measures.9

7 Marshall to CG Caribbean Defense Command, Dec. 11, 1942. National Archives, Rec
ords of World War II, Army file AG014.311.
s Emergency Advisory Committee for Political Defense, First Annual Report Subm
to the Governments of the American Republics (Montevideo, 1942), 73; Eng. e
(Washington, 1944), 133.
9Emergency Advisory Committee, Second Annual Report Submitted . . .(Montev
1944); Eng. edit. (Washington, 1945).

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172 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW

Internment of Axis nationals, as well as of native

ized citizens in some republics, was a common mea
Hemisphere. Sixteen Latin American republics, act
initiative, stimulated by pressure from the United
response to the advisory committee's recommendati
8,500 persons.1' In the United States, 5,705 alien e
Italian, and Japanese nationality were interned un
pervised by the department of justice," and, of c
persons of Japanese ancestry, the majority of who
American citizens, were incarcerated by the authority
On the invitation of the United States, twelve Latin American
states, among which was Peru, deported some or all of their interne
to the United States for custody.'3 Under an agreement between th
departments of state and justice, they were held in camps operated b
the immigration and naturalization service (INS) though legally
the State Department's custody. A total of 2,118 Japanese were broug
to the States from Latin America. Of these 80 per cent were from
Peru: 1,024 were men labelled as dangerous aliens by the deporting
state; 1,094 were "voluntary internees," family members who were
allowed to join them after their deportation. Over 600 German na-
tionals and a few men of Italian and other nationality, residents in
various Latin American states, were also brought in for internment.
The hope of using South American internees in exchange for Amer
can citizens interned in Axis countries did not materialize and all of
them remained in the States till the end of the war.
While many of the Peruvian Japanese sent to the United States w
Japanese nationals who immigrated to Peru and did not become n
uralized there, many were constitutionally Peruvian citizens by vir
of birth. Some of these had been denationalized by the measures m
tioned above, but others had not been. About half of the men were
so Ibid., 51.
11 J. Edgar Hoover, "Alien Enemy Control," Iowa Law Review, XXIX (March, 1944),
396-403.

12 ten Broek, Matson and Barnhart, Prejudice, War and the Constitution (Berkeley,
1954), 134.
13 Bolivia, Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guate-
mala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru. Department of State Bulletin,
XIV (Jan. 6, 13, 1946), 13.
1 "Alfred Steinberg, "Blunder Maroons Peruvian Japanese in the U. S.," Washington
Post, Sept. 26, 1948. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), "Annual Report for
Fiscal Year ended June 30, 1945," p. 26, gives 1,333 Japanese deported from Latin
America for internment.

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 JAPANESE INTERNEES FROM PERU 173
married. Many had Peruvian wives, many had large families of Per-
uvian-born and hence Peruvian-citizen children.'5
On entering the United States, each adult was given a hearing by
the INS to establish the fact that he was entering "illegally." They
were held as alien enemies under the provisions of the alien enemy
act of 1798.:6
In mid-1944 a brake was applied to the entire program: the depart-
ment of justice asked the department of state to hold up the intern-
ment of Latin American deportees. On examination of the Peruvian
Japanese held in its camps it had discovered that many of the arrested
men were Peruvian citizens and it had found no evidence whatever
that any of the internees were dangerous. Questions were raised also
about internees from other states. In an agreement with the depart-
ment of state, Raymond W. Ickes, head of the Central and South
American division of the alien enemy control unit of the department
of justice, visited Latin American states to screen all internees sched-
uled for deportation to the States. As a consequence of this review, no
other Japanese were sent from Peru and the deportations from other
states largely ceased. Shortly thereafter, the American government an-
nounced that voluntary internees would no longer be admitted.
A second deportation of the Latin American internees was initiated
as the war drew to a close. In the spring of 1945 the inter-American
conference on the problems of war and peace held at Mexico City,
February 21 to March 8, 1945, adopted a resolution (VII) which "rec-
ommended the adoption of measures to prevent any person whose de-
portation was necessary for reasons of security of the continent from
further residing in this hemisphere, if such residence would be preju-
dicial to the future security or welfare of the Americas."'7
The United States acted to implement this resolution with regard
to the Latin American internees. Presidential Proclamation No. 2662,
issued September 12, 1945, authorized the secretary of state "to re-
move to destinations outside the limits of the Western Hemisphere
in territory of the enemy governments to which or to the principles
of which they have adhered" all of the alien enemies who had been
brought here from other American republics and "who are within
15Files of Mr. Wayne M. Collins, San Francisco, to whom the author is greatly in-
debted for interviews and access to his records bearing on the episode.
16 50 U.S.C., Sec. 21 et seq.
17 Final Act of Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace (Washing-
ton, 1945), 38-40.

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174 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW

the territory of the United States without admi

gration laws."'s
The department of state, taking the position t
resting and deporting the aliens (and others
thority over them, planned to repatriate the ent
Italy, or Japan, and many were in fact repatria
pan, under allied military occupation, could not
they been so minded.
However, in the winter of 1945-1946, protest
the program by some of the internees, the Am
Union, and a few of the American republics wh
sire to have some or all of their internees retur
the department of state announced that it was a
dicate whether it wished all of the deported per
whether it wished the United States to decide w
as to make deportation from the hemisphere ne
tion VII. It was instituting reviews and hearings
to determine if he was dangerous under th
resolution.'9

Peru then informed the department of state that it would not allow
any Japanese nationals to return to Peru; only Peruvian citizens were
eligible for re-entry. This Peruvian policy was announced by the de-
partment of state in April, 1946.20 Before that policy declaration, over
700 Japanese, the majority of the Peruvian Japanese male internees,
had elected transportation to Japan (with their families, the group
totalled some 1,700) in the belief that Peru would not permit their
return and that, as ineligible for citizenship under prevailing Ameri-
can law, they would not be permitted to remain in the United States.21
In the immediate postwar years Peru permitted 79 Japanese to re-
turn to Peru; two-thirds of this group were wives and children.22
(Many interned aliens of other nationalities were returned to their
Latin American states of residence. In the fiscal year, 1945-1946, 569
persons, mostly German nationals, were returned to Latin America.23)
On April 6, 1946, the chief of the alien enemy control section of the
18 10 Fed. Reg. 11635. Modified by Pres. Proclamation 2685, April 13, 1946 (II Fed.
Reg. 4075), to give the alien thirty days to prepare for his departure.
" Department of State Bulletin, XILV (Jan. 6, 13, 1946), 33.
20Steinberg, Washington Post, p. 4B.
21 Ibid.
2 Ibid. INS annual reports give a total of 66 returned in 1946 and 1947.
23 INS, "Annual Report for Fiscal Year ended June 30, 1946," 31.

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 JAPANESE INTERNEES FROM PERU 175

department of state24 announced that after reviews of records an

ings, the 300 Peruvian Japanese remaining in the United Stat
not considered to be dangerous alien enemies. As a consequ
this departmental ruling, they were removed from their classi
of "alien enemy" and were hence not subject to deportation t
under the provisions of Resolution VII and the presidential
mation.

However, they were subject to deportation to Japan under other

laws, for they were placed under the jurisdiction of the INS which
classified them as "non-resident aliens subject to deportation proceed
ings." The INS issued warrants for their arrest-a technicality for the
were all interned in guarded camps at this time-and each male w
given a hearing. In all cases, the hearing officers found that the in
dividual was in the United States unlawfully in that at the time of h
entry he did not possess a valid immigration visa, or an unexpir
passport, and that, as of Japanese ancestry, he was ineligible to Amer
can citizenship. A warrant would be issued following a hearing which
ordered the individual's deportation to Japan in approximately thirt
days.
But the deportation of the 300 was never carried out: a lawsuit in
the Peruvians' behalf prevented it for several years, government agen-
cies delayed action in the hope that Peru would change its policy, and
changes in American law finally allowed the Japanese to become
American citizens.

Wayne M. Collins, a San Francisco attorney, was approached b

spokesmen for the Peruvian Japanese when he was visiting some c
ents held at the Crystal City, Texas, INS camp in the spring of 194
On June 25, 1946, to stop the threatened deportations, he filed
habeas corpus action as a test case in the Federal district court in S
Francisco.25 A hearing in this suit was postponed by consent in th
hope that Peru would allow the Japanese to return. On March 4, 194
it was dismissed to allow the plaintiff, and the others, to apply for sus-
pension of deportation under public law 863.26
This law, effective on July 1, 1948, amended the immigration act
1917 to broaden the class of aliens, who, though ineligible for citize
2 Established in the fall of 1945 by Department Order 24 "to handle cases of alie
enemies brought to this country from other American republics during the war a
remaining in the custody of this government." Department of State Bulletin, XIII (No
4, 1945), 737-738.
5 In re Yamasaki (U.S.D.C., N.D. of Calif., No. 26, 139).
2662 U. S. Stat. 1206, 80 Cong., 2 sess., Amended (c) of Sec. 19 of Immigration Act of
1917, as amended (54 U. S. Stat. 671; 56 U. S. Stat. 1044).

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176 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW

ship, might be granted suspension of deportatio

eral found that deportation would result in seri
to citizen-spouse or children and if the alien had
in the United States for seven or more years. (
virtually a concentration camp could count!)
gress to give affirmative approval through a co
the recommendation of the attorney general; if
deportation was required. Congress did in f
resolutions.27

In 1950 the INS ordered hearings reopened in other cases to deter-

mine eligibility for suspension of deportation. The hearing officers
and the board of immigration appeals refused to suspend deportation
for the Peruvian Japanese "in the absence of evidence that [the]
alien's re-admission to Peru has definitely and finally been rejected by
that country" and pointed to INS general policy that aliens without
family ties in the United States and brought here for reasons solely
connected with the war were to be deported. But the acting attorney
general ruled on May 6, 1952, that suspension of deportation could
be authorized for such an alien, even if he had no family ties in this
country, if deportation would result in undue hardship, if he had been
here for ten years or more, if he was unable to return to the country
of his lawful residence, and if he had been absent for a prolonged
period from the country of his origin and citizenship.
In 1952 public law 414 amended the immigration and naturaliza-
tion act to allow Japanese nationals to become naturalized American
citizens.28 In 1954 public law 751 amended the refugee relief act of
1953 so that an alien brought to the United States from South Amer-
ica might apply to the attorney general for adjustment of his immigra-
tion status to that of a person lawfully admitted for permanent resi-
dent.29 Such persons would be given "special non-quota immigration
visas"; with this visa granted and a record of authorized entry into
the United States (granted to the Peruvian Japanese by INS) the in-
ternee was then eligible to apply for naturalization papers.
After their release from alien enemy status in 1946 the Peruvian
Japanese had been eligible for parole under INS regulations and in
the years following many of them accepted employment throughout
27 INS, "Annual Report for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 1949," 18. Seven resolutions
containing 900 cases, many of them Peruvian Japanese, were passed at this time.
28 Passed June 27, 1952. 66 U. S. Stat. 163, 83 Cong., 2 sess.
" Passed Aug. 31, 1954. 68 U. S. Stat. 1044, 83 Cong., 2 sess., amended Refugee Relief
Act of 1953 (67 U. S. Stat. 403).

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 JAPANESE INTERNEES FROM PERU 177
the States, some in west coast cities and many at Seabrook Farm
Bridgeton, New Jersey, a large fruit and vegetable canning concer
During the immediate postwar years many of the group expressed t
desire to return to Peru. However, after securing jobs and establishi
homes in the States their views on this point altered. Many becam
naturalized citizens under the laws of 1952 and 1954, many of the youn
men served in the United States Army, and many married America
of Japanese ancestry. In 1948 the group at Seabrook Farms had be
almost unanimous in wishing to return to Peru. In the mid-1950's
when Peru finally indicated that it would allow them to return, on
a few chose to go.
The actions and motives of the American states involved in this
episode raise grave constitutional and policy issues.30
Citizens of a democratic constitutional state, Peru, were denational-
ized by executive decree in flagrant violation of its constitution.
Before Peru declared war, it summarily apprehended and deported,
without charges or trials, a large group of its inhabitants: some were
Japanese nationals, some were denationalized Peruvians, and some re-
tained the Peruvian citizenship they had gained by birth. These acts,
at least with respect to the citizens, were also in flagrant violation of
the Peruvian constitution.

The program of arrests and deportations by Peru and internm

in the United States as alien enemies has never been substantiated as
a reasonable or necessary wartime security measure. When Peru
requested by the United States to provide evidence of the "poten
dangerousness" of its deportees, the deportations ceased. Two Un
States governmental agencies, the departments of state and justi
conducted investigations of the internees and concluded that
were dangerous. The initial participation of the American governm
in the program as a security measure can be criticized on the sam
ground. However, when investigation revealed the flimsy charact
the claim of dangerousness, the program was halted. The conclus
that on the part of Peru the program was largely animated by a
Japanese prejudice and an opportunity for the seizure of prop
seems inescapable.
One purpose of the collaboration of the United States in the af
was to secure persons of Japanese ancestry to be used as exchange
30 Some criticism of the affair was voiced during the postwar years, notably by
tary of Interior Harold J. Ickes. See Town Meeting of the Air Broadcast of D
1947, in The Town Hall, XIII, No. 32 (Dec. 12, 1947).

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178 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW

Americans captured by the Japanese forces. Tha

fering in Japanese prison camps was unfortun
their release was highly laudable. But to effect
cost of tearing families from their residence i
policy that only the stress of war could generat
expedient: it has no ethical sanction.
Finally, the resolution of the twenty-one Am
ing for the removal of the deportees from the
their residence here was deemed to be "prejudicial
or welfare of the Americas" when applied to cit
was a categorical invasion of citizenship rights.
it could hardly lay claim to standards of fair d
of law. By this resolution almost 2,000 Peruvian
ported a second time and to a country linked to
and distant origin, and a country which most o
ilies had never seen.

The drastic treatment meted out by an American state, Peru

group of its citizens with the encouragement and assistance of a
democracy, the United States, and eventually with the sanction
the republics of the Western Hemisphere reveals the sad level to
the status of citizenship in these democratic nations declined u
the pressures of prejudice and war.

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