Mary Kim

Short Essay #3

Walter Lippmans argument in the Washington Post op-ed that Japanese Americans

should be interned demonstrates the fear that the United States in relation to World War II. I will

first unpack how Lippman portrays the risk in relation to space as the threat is seen to be

dominantly present along the Pacific coast. Then I will discuss how he justifies his argument to

put Japanese Americans into internment by presenting the Pacific Coast as an area that is already

in war.

On February 12, 1942, the Washington Post published an op-ed written by Walter

Lippman arguing the need to intern Japanese-Americans because they are a group that would aid

an attacking force by weakening the country from within, and in this case, the aid for the enemy

is predominantly from the West coast of the US. The op-ed explains the urgency and danger of

the situation by stating that the Pacific Coast is in imminent danger of a combined attack from

within and from without.The peculiar danger of the Pacific Coast is in a Japanese raid

accompanied by enemy action inside American territory (Lippman, 1942). Due to the

geographic location of Western US, Lippman is presenting an image of danger that will be

inevitable because the danger is coming from both inside and outside the US. This breaks away

from the idea of threat and war happening somewhere else away from home. It seems that

Lippman is making a point that the threat is happening inside our country. The notion of having a

threat from within is further elaborated as Lippman explains that [i]t is a fact that the Japanese

navy has been reconnoitering the Pacific Coast more or less continually and for a considerable

period of time, testing and feeling out of the American defenses. It is a fact that communication

takes place between the enemy at sea and enemy agents on land (Lippman, 1942). The enemy
agents on land that Lippman is referring to are the Japanese Americans and the enemy at sea

is the Japanese force in the Pacific Ocean. Lippman paints an image of the Japanese force

gathering from Japan gathering along the coast of the Pacific Ocean and it is waiting to attack.

The notion of being attacked form within seems to be a shared discourse during this period.

We see this same geopolitical narrative in Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf as he describes the threat

that the Jewish population presents. He states that [o]ne never knows who stands behind these

fellows. But one thing is certain, that the confusion they can create is desirable and convenient to

our national enemies. By such an attitude they help to weaken and destroy from within our

people's will for the only correct way of defending their vital needs. (Hitler, 1942) Hitler sees

the Jewish population as a threat to the Germans because they are attacking from within and the

question of national identity and ethnicity can be distracting and a concern when it comes to

national security. We can see this narrative applicable to Lippmans Fifth Column as the enemy

is seen as an ethnic group, the Japanese Americans. The confusion in this case could be the

assumption that all Japanese Americans are allied with the United States because of the distant

lineage to the Japanese. Lippman seems to see this threat as a possibility in the United States as

he states that the United States official approach to the danger is through a series of unrealities.

There is the assumption that it is a problem of enemy aliens. As a matter of fact it is certainly

also a problem of native-born American citizens (Lippman, 1942). Lippman states that threat

can come within their nation state and that it does not always have to be from the other side.

Lippman justifies his idea to put the Japanese Americans into internment by presenting

the US West coast as a zone that is already under attack, and that policing and containing these

individuals is a logical step to take in a military zone for the interest of national security. For

instance, Lippman states that internment is a system of policing which necessarily prevails in a
war zone. By this system the constitutional and international questions about aliens and citizens

do not arise at the very place where they confuse the issues and present the taking of thorough

measure of security. (Lippman, 1942). It seems that the explanation for this method of policing

is to break away from the confusion that might arise from having to figure out where the threat is

coming from. It is interesting that Lippman then specifies that [u]nder this system all persons

are in principle treated alike. As a matter of national policy there is no discrimination. But at the

same the authorities on the spot in the threatened region are able to act decisively, and let the

explanations and the reparations come later (Lippman, 1942). The system of policing people is

similar to what Germany did with the Jewish population. However, Lippman tries to distinguish

this method from Germanys method by explicitly stating that this is not done to attack a certain

group of people. This might possibly demonstrate a conflict of interest in regards to the

American geopolitical ideology of nationality in relation to who is considered to be citizen and

the interest of protecting its borders.

It is reasonable that Lippman would find it urgent to take action and minimize the threat

within the US based on the imperialistic geopolitical narrative that is taking place during this

time. When looking at the what is happening between the US and Japan, it would be helpful to

know Japans relation to Germany during the World War II period. In one of the readings, O

Tuathail, et. al. states that one of Adolf Hitlers generals, Haushofer argued, Germany should

align itself with Japan and strive to create a continental-maritime block stretching from Germany

through Russia to Japan against the global maritime empires of France and Great Britain,

empires Haushofer believed were weak and in decay (O Tuathail, et. al., 20). This is an example

of the imperial geopolitical narrative of zero-sum thinking where in this case, if the United States

and its allies did not grow, then Germany and its allies will and win. This thinking can be seen
as Germany aligns itself with certain countries, such as Japan, for geographical convenience.

When tying this back to the USs situation, it is possible that the Pearl Harbor attack means that

Nazi Germany is attacking the US as well. The article then goes into describing the urgency to

police people by stating that The Pacific Coast is officially a combat zone. Some part of it may

at any moment be a battlefield so [i]n the vital and vulnerable areas it should be the rule that

residence, employment, communication by telephone, telegraph, automobile and railroad are

confined to licensed persons who are fully identified and who activities are fully known to the

authorities and to their neighbors (Lippman, 1942). Lippman describes the West Coast of the

United States as already being a combat zone where the enemy has already permeated the

countrys borders. This exacerbates the urgency and the reality that the safety of Americans is

being threatened and is at risk at this very moment.

Therefore, Lippmans argument for the internment of Japanese Americans in the op-ed

reflects the USs response to the Japanese Americans, who the US sees as a form of threat. It can

been that the urgency of this issue comes from the fact that the threat is seen to be waiting along

the west coast to attack the US. Lippmans justification for his argument demonstrates the

imperial geopolitical narrative of competing powers in regards to the USs role in the world

during World War II and Japans alignment with Germany, and the urgency to make sure that the

US borders are not protected from the threat.

Works cited
Hitler, Adolf. Eastern Orientation or Eastern Policy? Ed.O Tuathail, Gearoid, et. Al
London and New York: Routledge, p. 43-46.

Lippman, Walter. The Fifth Column On The Coast. The Washington Post, 12 February 1942.

O Tuathail, Gearoid, et. al. Part I: Introduction. The Geopolitics Reader, by OTuathial, Gearoid.
London and New York: Routledge, 2006, p. 15 -25.