Thread by @carltakei

With all of the news about Iranian Americans being held and interrogated at the U.S.-Canada border, my thoughts keep turning to the 30-page "Alien Enemy Questionnaire" that my great-grandfather, Juro Shiga, was required to fill out after the FBI arrested him in January 1942. /1

Juro had lived in the U.S. for 37 years, and had owned a dry goods business in Seattle for the past 26 years.

Because then-existing immigration laws prohibited Japanese immigrants from becoming citizens, he never applied to naturalize as a U.S. citizen. /2

(This race-based exclusion was due to the Nationality Act of 1790, which permitted only "free white" people to naturalize. Though it was amended in 1870 to include people of "African nativity and descent," Asians continued to be excluded until 1952.) encyclopedia.densho.org/Ozawa_v._Unite… /3

By the time he filled out this form in FBI custody, Juro was a widower; his wife had died of a fever about five years earlier -- leaving him with five children ranging from 17 to 27 years old. /4

Juro was required to disclose a wide range of information about himself and his family, including naming any organization that he had been a member of for the past 5 years. These included the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Seattle and the Kumamoto Kenjin Kai of Seattle. /5

The Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Seattle was what it sounds like: a Chamber of Commerce chapter for people of Japanese ancestry living in Seattle.

The Kumamoto Kenjin Kai of Seattle was an association of people who had immigrated from the Kumamoto prefecture to Seattle. /6

Neither organization was dangerous. However, the U.S. government considered them derogatory factors because his membership signified that he had some connection to Japanese culture. /7

At the end of the form, Juro responded to the final question -- "Why did you come to the United States?" -- with a concise (if unpoetic) reference to the American Dream:

"Making Money." /8

It is so sad that Juro, who immigrated to the U.S. for the most American reason ever, who built and ran an American business for nearly 3 decades, was forced to fill out this ridiculous form with these ridiculous questions inside an FBI holding cell, for being too Japanese. /9

He spent the next eight months in Dep't of Justice custody while DOJ puzzled over whether he was too dangerous to release. Finally, on August 10, 1942, he was released on parole supervision to a white person whom the government considered trustworthy. /10

In just the second month Juro was in DOJ custody, however, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The military authorities began a mass roundup of Japanese Americans -- including those who lacked Juro's ties to Japan. /11

The roundup was carried out by Gen. John DeWitt, who famously claimed that "A Jap is a Jap" and that "[t]here isn't such a thing as a loyal Japanese and it is just impossible to determine their loyalty by investigation—it just can't be done." /12

Events moved so quickly, from targeting the "suspicious" Japanese immigrants like Juro (even though he wasn't really suspicious at all), to the race-based curfews, to the mass roundup, to the mass incarceration. /13

So I'm feeling sad, and fearful, and angry as I read news of Iranian Americans being held in custody and being asked intrusive, ridiculous questions that are so similar to the intrusive, ridiculous questions that Juro had to answer on this form almost exactly 78 years ago. /14