Stubborn Twig – Excerpt
There was no judge, no specific statutes to guide the proceedings and no legal counsel permitted for the alien “suspect.” Everything about the hearings was casual except the outcome: after questioning the detainee and discussing the case, the board had the power to decide the man’s future–unconditional freedom, parole or internment. Fewer than half of the Italians and Germans were ordered interned; more than two thirds of the Japanese spent some or all of the war years in detention camps.
Min, back in Portland, wrote to the superintendent of alien detention requesting permission to attend his father’s hearing. Cautioning him that he could not act as legal counsel and could not meet with any other issei at Fort Missoula, officials allowed Min to sit in. He found the hearing a “complete farce” and “a kangaroo court.” The proceedings began with a recitation of seemingly innocuous facts: Masuo Yasui was “an influential leader in the Japanese community” who had “extensive property interests.” He had visited Japan once in 1926 for three months. But it quickly became clear that the government official running the hearing saw nefarious connections between Masuo and his homeland. The official made much of a wooden cup Masuo had received from the Japanese government, as if it were proof of his disloyalty rather than a symbol of his efforts to foster good relations between the two nations. And the official made a case that Masuo had strong, recent ties to Japan through the Japanese consulate in Chicago. It was true that his son Min had secured a job there after law school, thinking that a diplomatic career might be in his future.