John Lesesne DeWitt (9 January 1880 – 20 June 1962) was a four-star general in the United States Army. He was best known for overseeing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Empire on 7 December 1941, DeWitt believed that Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans in the West Coast of the United States were conspiring to sabotage the American war effort, and he recommended they be removed from coastal areas. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, giving authority to restrict military sensitive locations. DeWitt used the authority granted to him to issue military proclamations to place most of the West Coast off limits to Japanese Americans, incarcerating 110,000 Japanese men, women, and children in concentration camps, most of whom were American citizens.
Early life DeWitt was born at Fort Sidney, Nebraska, on 9 January 1880. His father, Brigadier General Calvin DeWitt (1840–1908), served with the United States Army and was an 1863 graduate of Princeton University. His mother, Josephine (Lesesne) DeWitt, was a native of Charleston, South Carolina, and he was named for his maternal grandfather, John F. Lesesne. He had an older brother, Wallace, a younger sister, Mary Wallace, and a younger brother, Calvin Jr. DeWitt was of Dutch descent.
Military career DeWitt enrolled at Princeton University in 1896, but left at the start of the Spanish–American War to enlist in the United States Army. On 10 October 1898, he was appointed as a second lieutenant of the infantry. DeWitt also served in the Philippine–American War, during which he witnessed the U.S. Army's use of concentration camps on Filipino civilians.
World War I In 1918, DeWitt shipped out with the 42nd Division to the battlefields of France as a quartermaster in the division headquarters. Other noteworthy members of the division included Douglas MacArthur and William J. Donovan. In July 1918, DeWitt was promoted to full colonel, and continued quartermaster duties for the First Army. He received the Distinguished Service Medal at the end of World War I.
Interwar years
After the war, DeWitt graduated from the Army War College in 1920. Between 1919 and 1930, he served in various quartermaster positions, including assistant commandant of the General Staff College, Chief of the Storage and Issue Branch, and the Supply Division. In 1930, DeWitt was promoted to major general and assigned as Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army. He also assumed control of the Gold Star Mothers' Pilgrimage to visit the graves of their sons who died in France during the First World War. General DeWitt was responsible for all logistics involving this Congressionally approved event. He was awarded an honorary A.M. degree by Princeton University in 1932.
After returning to the infantry, DeWitt assumed control of the Philippine Division. In July 1937, he became commandant of the Army War College. Two years later, in December 1939, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, and then assumed command of the Fourth Army as well as the Western Defense Command of the United States Army, with responsibilities for the protection of the West Coast area of the United States from invasion by the Japanese.
World War II At age 62, DeWitt would produce the "Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942", which argued for the removal and internment of American-born citizens of ancestry tie to a past or present immigrant of Japan. Online reprints by the Internet Archive, the Densho Encyclopedia , and the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco .
At the end of the internment of more than 100,000 Japanese-American citizens, not a single case of espionage was uncovered.
From 5 December 1939, to 15 June 1943, DeWitt was assigned command of the Ninth Corps Area and its 1942 successor, the Western Defense Command, both headquartered at the Presidio of San Francisco.
DeWitt was in San Francisco on the evening of 8 December 1941, one day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, when air raid sirens were sounded. An estimated 35 Japanese warplanes were supposedly sighted above San Francisco Bay on a reconnaissance mission. DeWitt was furious at the lack of blackout precautions during the air raids. He blasted city leaders at a Civil Defense Council meeting the next day, saying, "Death and destruction are likely to come to this city at any moment. … The people of San Francisco do not seem to appreciate that we are at war in every sense. I have come here because we want action and we want action now. Unless definite and stern action is taken to correct last night's deficiencies, a great deal of destruction will come. Those planes were over our community. They were over our community for a definite period. They were enemy planes. I mean Japanese planes. They were tracked out to sea."
At the Civil Defense Council meeting, DeWitt suggested that it might have been a good thing if the planes had dropped bombs to "awaken this city." He said, "If I can't knock these facts into your heads with words, I will have to turn you over to the police and let them knock them into you with clubs." DeWitt acknowledged that some people had asked why he failed to give orders to fire on the planes. "I say it's none of their damn business," he responded. "San Francisco woke up this morning without a single death from bombs. Isn't that enough?""San Francisco Has New Alarm: Jap Planes Positively Over City, General Says ", The Pittsburgh Press. 10 December 1941.
DeWitt recommended for the 1942 Rose Bowl football game, normally played in Pasadena, California, to be moved."ROSE BOWL GAME CALLED OFF", San Antonio Light, 14 December 1941, pB-1 DeWitt feared that the large crowd of spectators would be too tempting a target for Japanese warplanes. For the first and only time in its history, the 1942 Rose Bowl game was moved to North Carolina.
On 19 December 1941, General DeWitt had recommended to the Army's GHQ "that action be initiated at the earliest practicable date to collect all alien subjects fourteen years of age and over, of enemy nations and remove them to the Zone of the Interior." He initially felt very differently about the necessity and practicality of locking up citizens as well, in a telephone conversation with Major General Allen W. Gullion on 26 December. Regardless of this, following the Roberts Commission report of 25 January 1942 accusing persons of Japanese ancestry of widespread espionage in Hawaii prior to Pearl Harbor, along with his perception of public opinion as anti-Japanese, he became a proponent of internment of Japanese and initially German- and Italian-descended persons. He felt that the lack of sabotage efforts only meant that it was being readied for a large-scale effort. "The fact that nothing has happened so far is more or less . . . ominous, in that I feel that in view of the fact that we have had no sporadic attempts at sabotage that there is a control being exercised and when we have it it will be on a mass basis."
Internment of Japanese Americans In February 1942, DeWitt reported to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that no sabotage by Japanese Americans had yet been confirmed, but he commented that it only proved "a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken." He recommended the evacuation of all Japanese from the coastal areas of California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska (then incorporated U.S. territory at the time). Using Executive Order 9066, DeWitt then began implementing a plan for classifying, rounding up, and removal of "undesirables."
On 2 March 1942, DeWitt issued "Military Proclamation No. 1," which designated the western parts of California, Oregon and Washington as "military area no. 1," further divided into "prohibited zone A-1" and "restricted zone B." In the first phase of the order, a provision was included directing that "any person of Japanese ancestry, now resident in Military Area No. 1, who changes his place of habitual residence must file a 'change of residence notice' at his local post office not more than five days nor less than one day prior to moving.""Army To Ban Aliens From Coast," Oakland Tribune, 3 March 1942, pp. 1, 5 Days later, DeWitt announced that the army had acquired of land near Manzanar, California, for construction of a "reception center" which he said was "to be used principally as a clearing house for the more permanent resettlement elsewhere for persons excluded from military areas.""Army Takes Over Jap Center Site," Oakland Tribune, 8 March 1942, pp. 1 On 6 March, Executive Order 9066 was later extended to all Japanese persons and Americans of Japanese ancestry living in Alaska.
Removal began on 23 March 1942, with the resettlement of citizens living in Los Angeles. On that date, General DeWitt issued new orders applying to Japanese-Americans, setting an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and banning ownership of firearms, radios, cameras, and other contraband. DeWitt stated, "Let me warn the affected aliens and Japanese-Americans that anything but strict compliance with this proclamation's provisions will bring immediate punishment.""New Curfew for Japanese Starts Friday," Oakland Tribune, 24 March 1942, pp. 1 Northern California followed in April,"12,800 Japs Face Quick Coast Ouster," Oakland Tribune, 21 April 1942, pp. 1 as DeWitt declared, "We plan to increase the tempo of the evacuation as fast as possible." Citizens in specific areas were required to report to their designated "Civil Control Station," where they would then be taken to an Assembly Center for relocation.
All told, DeWitt ordered the removal and internment of 110,000 ethnic Japanese persons from their homes in the West Coast to internment camps inland. According to DeWitt, "a Jap is a Jap,""Behind Barbed Wire", The New York Times, 11 September 1988 whether a U.S. citizen or not.
A federal judge, James Alger Fee of Portland, Oregon, ruled in November, 1943 that American citizens could not be detained without a proclamation of martial law. DeWitt's response was "All military orders and proclamations of this headquarters remain in full force and effect.""Judge's Edict Ignored by Gen. DeWitt", Oakland Tribune, 17 November 1942, p1
After the relocation of Japanese Americans was complete, DeWitt lifted curfew restrictions on Italian-Americans on 19 October and on German-Americans on 24 December. Technically, the curfew was "inapplicable to the Japanese since all members of this group were removed from the affected zones.""German Alien Curfew Lifted", Oakland Tribune, 24 December 1942, pp. 1 DeWitt had a personal vendetta against one Italian in particular, Remo Bosia, which is detailed in Bosia's autobiography, The General and I.
DeWitt was opposed to War Relocation Authority efforts to distinguish loyal from disloyal Japanese Americans/and to the creation of an all-Japanese combat unit. He testified before Congress, in 1943, that he would "use every proper means" at his disposal to stop the resettlement of Japanese Americans outside camp and their eventual return to the West Coast after the war. His and Colonel Karl Bendetsen's "Final Report" (circulated and then hastily redacted in 1943 and 1944) also laid out his position that their race made it impossible to determine their loyalty, thus necessitating internment. The original version was so offensive, even in the atmosphere of the wartime 1940s that Bendetsen ordered all copies to be destroyed.Niiya, Brian. "John DeWitt ," Densho Encyclopedia. Retrieved 25 August 2014.