Item No: #308169 Majority and Minority Report of the Subcommittee Investigating War Relocation Authority. Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States. John M. Costello, Karl E. Mundt.

The Gangs of Manzanar and Other Conspiracy Theories

Majority and Minority Report of the Subcommittee Investigating War Relocation Authority. Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States

Notes: The House Un-American Activities extends its fear-mongering, innuendo, and racism to the parole program of the War Relocation Authority (WRA), which cleared interned Japanese Americans for work outside of the camps. The subcommittee on the WRA had three members and voted 2–1 to release this report. In favor were Reps. John Costello (D, Los Angeles) and Karl Mundt (R, South Dakota); Herman Eberharter (D, Pennsylvania) wrote a dissenting opinion, also included here.

The report establishes in its first sentence that racism and not just military concerns drove the internment of the Japanese during the Second World War, as the main reason given for the program was the "considerable fear" that "was rife among [White] residents on the west coast" ("White" added for accuracy). The most absurd section deals with the supposed gang activity at the Manzanar camp, allegations the minority report says are without factual basis. It also discussed disloyalty among draft-age Nisei, and suggests that membership in martial arts organizations that were partially funded by the Japanese government before the war may be evidence of widespread Japanese disloyalty.

In short, this pamphlet neatly encapsulates the anti-Japanese American sentiment at the highest levels of the US government.

Subcommittee of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Seventy-eighth Congress, First Session on H. Res. 282. 28 pages. Seemingly uncommon.

Edition + Condition: Two-inch open tear to the front cover at the spine fold, thus only good.

Publication: Washington, D.C. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943.

Item No: #308169

Sold