Mailvox: Now I see!

AJW explains patiently:


As I understand it, the Japanese-Americans weren’t rounded up till Midway. It wasn’t a kneejerk reaction, it took time. Things that take time usually have a plan or logical reason. What happened behind the scenes that lead to the Battle of Midway? We broke the Japanes Naval Code.

Hmmm? I wonder, does breaking the code, learning the enemies secrets, have any thing to do with this. Would our counterintelligence agencie(s?) have used this information to identify Japanes agents operating in California? You bet they would have. Now we have a delimma. How do you isolate the enemy agents operating on American soil without giving away the fact that you can read the enemies code? You round them all up.

I see, it was necessary to put aside the Constitution and the rights of the American citizens involved because this was in the military interests of the government. Now I understand. And since warfare and communication codes are modern inventions, it’s pretty easy to see why the Founding Fathers never considered that it might be necessary to fight a war or deal with spies, otherwise they surely would have made sure that the government had this ability to suspend habeas corpus and whatnot in time of military conflict.