Judging the 1940s -- judge gardner

* EDITOR’S NOTE: As part of our Countdown to 2000, Robert Gardner will

write special Saturday columns recalling the decade we have just covered.

This week he looks back at the 1940s.

The 1940s started out as though they were going to be a continuation of

the ‘30s -- just more of that dreary Depression. Well, that came to an

end in a hurry. On Dec. 7, 1941, “a day that will live in infamy,” the

Depression came to a crashing halt, and we leaped into a wartime economy.

Jobs were to be had at Douglas Aircraft and the Kaiser shipyards. The

only trouble was that those jobs had to be essential, or the draft board

wanted your services.

Pearl Harbor was a brilliant military feat but a stupid practical

decision on the part of the Japanese. It awakened the most powerful

nation on earth and started a war that could only have one ending.

Of course, quite a few of us found ourselves in situations in which the

Great Depression looked rosy by comparison.

At home, the wives left behind struggled with food stamps and gas

rationing, which must have been the worst example of government

interference with normal economic practices imaginable. Our wives were

told that there were no steaks in the meat market because the steaks were

sent overseas to our fighting men. I was overseas for two years and never

saw a steak. They all went to high-priced restaurants. But enough of the

nuts and bolts of wartime life, and on to one of the great injustices of

our time.

Historians have been in some accord that the three great injustices

attributable to the American people are the near extermination of the

Native American Indian, slavery of blacks and the Mexican War. However,

that handy little lineup must now be changed with the elimination of the

Mexican War and the substitution of our treatment of Americans of

Japanese ancestry during our war with Japan.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Naval Intelligence

had joint jurisdiction of any disloyalty on the part of Japanese. As of

Dec. 8, 1941, those two were in agreement that all Japanese suspects were

in custody. The rest of the Japanese colony in the United States,

particularly in California, was composed of loyal American citizens who

offered not the slightest danger to this country. However, our government

ignored the recommendations of the FBI and ONI, and an order went out to

put all Japanese into concentration camps -- Japan born or American born.

There had always been a strong anti-Japanese feeling in California,

partly because of plain old racial bias and partly because of jealousy of

the Japanese as farmers simply because they worked harder than white

American farmers. But now the drums of anti-Japanese hatred beat even

louder because of Pearl Harbor. The result was that the government gave

in and ordered that all persons of Japanese ancestry be placed in

concentration camps for the duration of the war.

To me, this action takes the place of the Mexican War and is entitled to

third place, after the eradication of the Native American Indians and

slavery as the third great injustice on the part of our nation.

And it all took place during the ‘40s.

* JUDGE GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and former judge. His

regular column runs Tuesdays.