Dear Editor,

The contents of the poster you published are deeply disturbing. The restrictions on citizens of Japanese

descent are highly unconstitutional, with or without the tensions of war to “justify” it. Japanese citizens,

as any other citizens, are protected from discrimination by the Equal Protection Clause. It is blatantly

unconstitutional to separate and oppress Japanese Americans due to their race and heritage. The

importance of the United States Constitution does not disappear in times of war. As the Supreme Court

concluded in The Korematsu Supreme Court Ruling, “compulsory exclusion of large groups of citizens

from their home… is inconsistent with our basic governmental institutions”. Despite the misguided

verdict the Court reached on this topic, this remains fact. Furthermore, the threat that Japanese Americans

pose to national security has been greatly exaggerated; as is expressed in the Ringle Report on Japanese

internment, the “Japanese problem” has been “magnified out of its true proportion” and the Japanese are

being targeted based on their race, as is proven by the indifference of the US government towards German

Americans and Communists in comparison to Japanese Americans. It is fact that “the war brought

suffering to many Japanese Americans”, as is declared in Japanese Internment Textbook Evolution, and

this suffering was disproportionate to that faced by other American citizens during the war. In a timeline

of Japanese Internment, Executive Order 9066 is described as having “authoriz(ed) military authorities to

exclude civilians from any area without trial or hearing”. This statement speaks to the injustice of said

executive order. The internment of Japanese Americans was by no means necessary for national security,

and violates the very foundation on which our nation is built. I urge you to reconsider the message sent by

this poster.

Signed,

A Concerned Citizen