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The 1942 WRA Memo
A confidential memo penned by Mike Masaoka, to the War Relocation Authority
Masaoka and the JACL advocated an “assimilationist” policy within the ten internment camps that stressed American values and traditions while attempting to reduce or eliminate Japanese cultural influences.
Masaoka believed strongly that it was the Americanization of internees that ultimately would lead to their acceptance within U.S. society. These recommendations were summarized in this memo to the War Relocation Authority in April of 1942, a few months before most internees arrived at camp. Nearly all of his policies were implemented by the WRA within the camps.
The original document can also be found on the website for the PBS documentary Conscience and the Constitution, telling the story of the Heart Mountain resisters.
No figure in Japanese American history stirs as much debate—indeed, as much heated controversy, even to this day—as Mike “Moses” Masaoka, the National Secretary of the Japanese American Citizens League during World War II.Masaoka was only 26 years old when he assumed de facto leadership of the JACL, filling a void left after the U.S.government rounded up thousands of first generation “Issei” leaders and detained them, often for years without charge or trial, following the bombing