| Despite
the fact that the large majority of those who had immigrated form Japan
had mainly settled in Hawaii, very few were actually interned form
there. One of the main reasons for this , which highlights the racism,
rather than a real security risk, behind the internment program, was
that Hawaiian Japanese formed such a large section of the population
therefore it was not economically viable to intern them. There had been
pressure from the mainland to intern the Hawaiian Japanese. In fact
Commanding General Emmons, (who was in charge of imposing martial law in
Hawaii) although technically not opposing the plan for evacuation,
he felt that it was an impractical scheme to be carried out in Hawaii,
and only a very few were ever interned to the mainland. Considering that
Hawaii is closer to Japan than the mainland of the US, in theory
Hawaiian Japanese would have been the obvious choice for internment. In
addition to this because the Hawaiian Japanese American formed
such a large section of the population it was not as easy to target them
as a minority group. |