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The report is submitted two months before Pearl Harbor, according to the book Asian America |
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{{Short description|1941 intelligence report on Japanese Americans}}
The '''''Report on Japanese on the West Coast of the United States''''', often called the '''Munson Report''', was a 25-page report written in 1941 by Curtis B. Munson, a [[Chicago]] businessman commissioned as a special representative of the [[United States Department of State|State Department]], on the sympathies and loyalties of [[Japanese Americans]] living in [[Hawaii]] and the [[West Coast of the United States]], particularly [[California]]. Munson's report was submitted to the White House on October 7, 1941, exactly two months before the [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] [[attack on Pearl Harbor]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/959871081 |title=Asian America: a primary source reader |date=2017 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-19544-6 |editor-last=Schlund-Vials |editor-first=Cathy J. |location=New Haven |oclc=959871081 |editor-last2=Wong |editor-first2=Kevin Scott |editor-last3=Chang |editor-first3=Jason Oliver}}</ref>
By fall 1941, it was increasingly apparent that Japan and the [[United States]] would become enveloped in conflict. [[World War II]] had broken out with the [[Second Sino-Japanese War|Japanese invasion of China]] in 1937 and the [[Invasion of Poland|German invasion of Poland]] in 1939. In July 1941, the United States, along with [[United Kingdom|Britain]] and the [[Dutch East Indies]], had imposed a total [[embargo]] on exports to Japan, including critical [[Petroleum|oil]] supplies. American [[military intelligence]] had broken [[top secret]] Japanese military codes, and a September 24, 1941 message indicated that Pearl Harbor was a possible target of a Japanese attack. President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] immediately designated Munson as a special representative and gave him the task of gauging the loyalty of Japanese Americans, many of whom lived near military bases and important [[manufacturing]] facilities.<ref>Leslie T. Hatamiya, ''Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and the Passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988'' (1994). Stanford, p. 10.</ref>
Munson toured Hawaii and the [[Pacific Coast of the United States|Pacific Coast]] and interviewed [[United States Army|Army]] and [[United States Navy|Navy]] [[intelligence officer]]s, military commanders, city officials, and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]. Munson found that "There is no Japanese problem on the West Coast,"<ref name=weglyn45>{{cite book |title=Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps |publisher=William Morrow & Company |location=New York |last=Weglyn |first=Michi Nishiura |authorlink=Michi Weglyn|year=1976 |page=45|isbn=978-0688079963}}</ref> concluding that there was "a remarkable, even extraordinary degree of loyalty among this generally suspect [[ethnic group]]."<ref name=weglyn34>{{cite book |title=Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps |publisher=William Morrow & Company |location=New York |last=Weglyn |first=Michi Nishiura |authorlink=Michi Weglyn|year=1976 |page=34|isbn=978-0688079963}}</ref> The Munson Report was circulated to several [[United States Cabinet|Cabinet]] officials, including [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] [[Henry L. Stimson]], [[United States Secretary of the Navy|Secretary of the Navy]] [[Frank Knox]], [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[Francis Biddle]], and [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[Cordell Hull]].
On February 5, 1942, Stimson sent a copy of the Munson Report to President Roosevelt, along with a memo stating that [[United States Department of War|War Department]] officials had carefully studied the document. However [[Executive Order 9066]], ordering the [[Japanese American internment|internment of Japanese Americans]], was signed on February 19. It is possible that Roosevelt only read the memo, and not the report itself.<ref>Nancy R. Bartlit and Everett M. Rogers, ''Silent Voices of World War II: When Sons of the Land of Enchantment Met Sons of the Land of the Rising Son'' (2005), p. 143-133.</ref>
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==See also==
* C. B. Munson, "Japanese on the West Coast," published as chapter 6 in ''Asian American Studies: A Reader'' (editors Jean Yu-wen Shen Wu and Min Song), Rutgers University Press, 2000.
* "C.B. Munson's "[https://encyclopedia.densho.org/sources/en-denshopd-i67-00005-1/ Report and Suggestions Regarding Handling the Japanese Question on the Coast]," Dec. 20, 1941.." ''Densho Encyclopedia''. 17 Jul 2015. <https://encyclopedia.densho.org/sources/en-denshopd-i67-00005-1/>.
[[Category:Internment of Japanese Americans]]
[[Category:United States Department of State]]
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