Scapegoat Cities

A Lonely Old Man Goes Missing

  In 1948, Congress passed the Japanese Evacuation Claims Act.  It allowed Japanese Americans to file for claims for compensation from the federal government for the losses they had suffered as a consequence of being forced from their homes.Sounds good.  But don't get your hopes up.As you listen to this episode, keep this fact in mind: in order for a person to count as Jewish under the Nazi Nuremberg Laws of 1935, at least two of her grandparents had to have been Jewish.  And in some circumstances even two didn't suffice and a person had to have three.This may seem kind of random, but it's not.  Listen and you'll understand why. A pomeranian.  (Not Tiz.) This is the photo that the Downs submitted to document that they'd owned the car they were claiming for.  It's the car on the left, behind Eunice Down's little brother.   If you haven’t already, please review us on iTunes! It’s an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/ScapegoatCitiesSay hello on Twitter or Facebook. Music in this episode: "Frame of Mind" by Erik Haddad; "Trust," "Foreigner," "The Wrong Way," "Trap," and "Books" by Jazzhar, "Don't Fence Me In" performed by Roy Rogers. 

  Perhaps you've heard the Yiddish word chutspah, which means something along the lines of "nerve" or "temerity" or "audacity." The classic definition of chutspah is the child who murders both of his parents and then asks for the court's mercy because he's an orphan.The government provided a definition of chutspah in 1944 when, two years after locking up all of the Nisei as suspected spies and traitors, it turned around and began drafting them into the U.S. Army.This episode of Scapegoat Cities tells the story of one Nisei who refused induction in order to create a legal test case for the courts.In all, over three hundred Nisei resisted the draft during the war.  Nearly two hundred of these came from just two camps -- Poston and Heart Mountain.  The balance came from seven of the other eight camps, including Minidoka in Idaho, which is the site of this episode. Only Manzanar in California produced no draft resisters.All but 27 of these hundreds were convicted of federal crimes. The 27 who beat the charges were from the Tule Lake Segregation Center in northern California. In their case, a federal judge concluded that it was "shocking to the conscience" to confine someone on the basis of suspected disloyalty, draft him into the military, and then prosecute him for resisting.If you're interested in knowing more about the Nisei draft resisters, check out my book "Free to Die for their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II," and Frank Abe's excellent filmThis episode is a true story in every key detail.  This is a photograph of many of the 63 Nisei draft resisters from the Heart Mountain Relocation Center on the first day of their mass trial for draft resistance in a federal courtroom in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1944.   If you haven’t already, please review us on iTunes! It’s an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/ScapegoatCitiesSay hello on Twitter and Facebook. Music in this episode: "Frame of Mind" by Erik Haddad; "Room with a View," "No-End Ave," "The Wrong Way," and "Ulysses" by Jazzhar, and "Don't Fence Me In" performed by Roy Rogers.

Colorado River (Poston) Relocation Center, Parker, Arizona. A work crew assembles a barrack that will house six families.     The dubious construction achievement described in this episode really happened -- at the Poston Relocation Center in Arizona -- on May 19, 1942. I shifted the location of the event from Poston in Arizona to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming because I wanted to be able to tell the story of the impact on surrounding communities of the construction of the camps, and that was an easier story for me to tell in Wyoming than in Arizona.The towns of Cody and Powell really did benefit economically from the camp in the ways described, and in other ways. Regrettably this did not keep their town councils from issuing a joint resolution in May of 1943 asking that Japanese Americans not be allowed to leave camp to enter the towns (except to work the fields).  The Irma Hotel is still welcoming guests today.  You can still get a drink at the cherrywood bar that Queen Victoria gave to Buffalo Bill.I created the character of Ned Anderson and the terms of the competition. We don't actually know the incentive that led the workers to their "accomplishment." If you haven’t already, please review us on iTunes! It’s an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/ScapegoatCitiesSay hello on Twitter or Facebook. Music in this episode: "Frame of Mind" by Erik Haddad; "Countryboy" - www.bensound.com; "Rooftop" and "Chunk of Lawn" by Jahzzar; "Sad Day" – www.bensound.com; construction sounds built from clips found on FreeSfx -- http://www.freesfx.co.uk; "Don't Fence Me In" performed by Roy Rogers (public domain) .Photos courtesy of the National Archives Catalog. 

  Each of the ten concentration camps run by the War Relocation Authority had a newspaper that was edited by the prisoners, naturally under government supervision.  These papers give us a glimpse -- although just a partial one -- of life in the camps.  This episode of Scapegoat Cities relies on the newspapers for Saturday, August 21, 1943 -- a day I chose at random -- to present a sketch of daily camp life.Pour yourself a bowl of Post Toasties and give a listen. Tule Lake Relocation Center, Newell, California, November 2, 1942.  Writers and editors work at the city desk of the Tulean Dispatch, the camp's newspaper.       If you haven’t already, please review us on iTunes! It’s an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/ScapegoatCitiesSay hello on Twitter and Facebook. Music in this episode: "Frame of Mind" by Erik Haddad, Jazzhar, "Where It Goes,"  "Don't Fence Me In" performed by Roy Rogers.Photos courtesy of the National Archives Catalog.