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.
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