Fallout from Pearl Harbor still shapes Americans’ rights

Friday, Dec. 7, 2001 | 9:35 a.m.

Whatever civil liberties are given up in the name of security in the war on terrorism, Americans should be ready to live with the consequences for a long time.

That, says Richard Siegel, a professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Reno, is one lesson that American government and its people should have learned well from the attack on Pearl Harbor, which occurred 60 years ago today.

"The actions we took during and after World War II laid the framework for McCarthyism in the 1950s, and the residue was felt well beyond that," said Siegel, president of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The fallout also helped lay the foundation of efforts in the following decade to reduce the rights of those charged with domestic crimes, he said.

Perhaps no one understands the loss of civil rights in the wake of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor more than Japanese-Americans such as Kenichi Muranaga, the brother of an American hero, the son of an American-born woman and a veteran of World War II who spent part of his teenage years in a Japanese-American internment camp.

"I feel we are doing the right thing today and we are concerned about Arab people in this country, so we do not make the same mistakes as we did before," said the 77-year-old Las Vegan.

He went with his mother to an internment camp while his older brother Kiyoshi Muranaga fought in Europe with the 100th Infantry Battalion's 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Kiyoshi was killed in combat and years later received the Medal of Honor, said his company commander, Young Oak Kim, 83, also of Las Vegas.

When Kenichi became of age, he was allowed to join the Army and fight for the segregated 442nd.

"I am comfortable that the U.S. will do what we have to do to avoid the mistakes made against Japanese-Americans," he said.

But while some people are urging tolerance many others want swift justice.

Several polls taken since Sept. 11 heavily favor military tribunals for terrorist suspects at home and abroad and the temporary suspension of some civil liberties.

But Ed Gobel, president of the Council of Nevada Veterans Organizations, said, "It is important for all Americans to remember the significance of Pearl Harbor, but it is also important that we recognize the significance of Dec. 15 -- the anniversary of our Bill of Rights,"

Gobel said it is ironic that so many people know the date of what President Franklin Roosevelt called the "day which will live in infamy," but many are not aware of the birthdate of one of America's most important documents.

"We are seeing the Fourth and Fifth amendments being tested today with secret searches," Gobel said. "And there are many of us who believe the searches and delays at airports are becoming real intrusive. We cannot allow our freedoms to be held hostage."

Still, Gobel, a disabled Vietnam War veteran, argues that the country's criminal court system "is so horrible and slow" that military tribunals may be the only way to efficiently achieve swift justice.

Gary Peck, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union in Nevada, disagrees, noted that the Justice Department has told law enforcement agencies nationwide to detain about 5,000 people, most of them Arab and Muslim.

"There are 20 million residents of the United States who are not citizens who are potentially subject to lose their rights of a fair trial by jury in a civil court," Peck said.

The Bill of Rights, Peck said, was designed to protect the minority against the wishes of the majority.

More important than those rights, say some military veteran survivors of Pearl Harbor in Las Vegas, is the safety of the nation.

"We are fighting a war -- some people are losing sight of that fact," said H. Lee Gerson, state president of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. "We are trying too hard to be politically correct. We bomb this one, but we feed that one. We bomb military installations, but we try not to bomb another area because it might hurt someone and that will make his family mad at us.

"Let's just get the job done, win the war and get out of there."

Andy Hoover, head of the local Pearl Harbor Survivors Association chapter, says that while he thought it was wrong to put Japanese-Americans in internment camps during World War II, other measures that involved a temporary loss of civil liberties, such as military tribunals, worked well at keeping order.

"I was a representative on military tribunals in Hawaii, and I thought suspects were treated fairly and justice was quickly served," Hoover, 79, said. "As for being tolerant today, I'll be tolerant of others, but I'm also watching my back regarding those I'm being tolerant of."