CONCLUSION

This book fills a historical void related to Japanese espionage in the United States before Pearl Harbor. It refutes the mythical notion that the evacuation of Japanese residents from the West Coast during the war was solely based on "racism, war hysteria and lack of political will." While sensitive to the innocence of the vast majority of those involved and to the trials that they were forced to face, Lowman makes the case that there was a serious threat and that this threat was eliminated by evacuation.

He also tells the story of how politics were used to rewrite the history of the period and how contemporary intelligence reports were ignored, denied or distorted by those seeking monetary redress and historical revision.

Readers of this book, for the first time, will have the opportunity to evaluate for themselves the situation faced by our country in the early days of World War II and to judge the actions of our wartime leaders in light of the information they possessed.

To the extent that the successful Japanese American monetary redress movement is being used as a model by others seeking reparations, this book makes a strong case for full disclosure of information before political decisions are made. The purposeful denigration of our country’s history to bestow the mantle of victimhood on a minority group to obtain money reflects poorly on us all.

Intelligence reports, excerpt 2 of 2