Anti-Japanese War Scare Stories (1917)

The book is by Sidney L. Gulick, and it's copyright date is 1917. Basically, it examines various myths of the time about things that the Japanese were doing and it tries to debunk those myths. All of this is important in understand what helped lead to the internment of persons of Japanese ancestry during WWII from the West Coast of the United States.

'THE coming to the United States of the Japanese War Mission headed by Viscount Ishii has proved a notable event in the history of the relations of America and Japan. From the time of their landing in San Francisco (August 12, 1917) until the culmination of their work at the memorable dinner given by Mayor Mitchell in New York City, September 29th, the Mission has received a steady stream of welcome in the cities visited.'

'For more than ten years a propaganda has been carried on in this country, in Japan,and, in fact, throughout the world, for the one and sole purpose of keeping the nations of the Far East and the Far West as far apart as possible ; to break up existing treaties and understanding; to create distrust, suspicion, and unkindly feeling between neighbors in the east and in the west, and all in order that Germany might secure advantage in the confusion.'

What the Japanese Viscount is trying to do, basically, is blame Germany for the rules, holding that Germany is trying to cause trouble between the U.S. and Japan.

'...to the Japanese Government and nation anything like armed conflict with America is simply unthinkable.'

This is a rather interesting statement and not one that was totally true at the time.

'The agent of Germany in this country and in ours has had as his one purpose the feeding of our passions, our prejudices and our distrust on a specially prepared German concoction until, drugged and inflamed, we might have taken the irrevocable step over the edge, and at his leisure the vulture might have fattened upon our remains.'

Again, he blames Germany for everything that is going on.

'First of all there has been a real problem on the Pacific coast. There have been real conflicts of interest and real economic struggle. There has been real friction between American and Japanese laborers and between American employers and Japanese labor.'

The author then chimes in with his own thoughts, noting the economic aspect of the trouble. This was, without doubt, a major source if not the major source of problems between the Japanese and the Americans. The American growers were jealous that the Japanese were able to take land that no one had been able to successfully turn a profit on, and to redo the way the farming was done and make the land profitable. Jealousy and greed (along with racial prejudice, of course) were the real roots of the problems.

The press too often readily accepts sensational 'news' without trying to find out whether or not the "facts" alleged are really true.

Wow, is this statement a truth of the times. Not just back then, either, but perhaps even more so in today's world where the various media so-called news organizations treat rumors as facts and even, in many cases, just out-and-out make up “facts” of their own that have nothing at all to do with reality.

THE HEARST YELLOW-PERIL HOAX

In October, 1915, The San Francisco Examiner published in two successive Sunday editions on a double page, the alleged translation of a Japanese book. The startling headlines read: 'Japan's Plans to Invade and Conquer the United States Revealed by Its Own Bernhardi.'

Here's an example of the yellow journalism of the time. The Hearst papers were really virulently anti-Japanese, and then tended to run some really strange headlines.

Another wild title:

'The Humiliating Terms of Peace which Japan Expects to Force upon a Beaten United States.'

The article then goes on to list the alleged terms:

Among these alleged terms are the surrender to Japan of the Philippine and Hawaiian Islands; permission of free Japanese immigration; permission for free marriage of Japanese men to American women; Japanese rights in American schools; rights of naturalization after three years; full rights of land ownership ; preference for Japanese in educational positions; payment of one-half of Japan's war expenses; the use by Japan, free of charge, of all dry docks and harbors; and also specifications as to taxes and import duties.”

Gulick then goes on to point out various fallacies in the article.

Magdalena Bay Stories

“For many years, stories have been periodically circulated to the effect that the Japanese Government was negotiating with Mexico for a naval base in Lower California. The place chosen by the myth-makers for such a base was Magdalena Bay.”

The author then goes ahead and debunks this particular rumor. He then goes on to talk about yet another Magdalena Bay story, and debunks that one, too.

Japanese Troops in Mexico

There were various rumors about Japanese in Mexico, and Japanese troops in Mexico.

“On January 30, 1916, the Boston Sunday Globe stated that there were "90,000 Japanese in Hawaii and 30,000 in Mexico organized and ready to fight at a moment's notice." A few weeks later, I saw the statement on a reliable authority" that there were 150,000 veteran Japanese troops in Mexico.”

This is a pretty wild rumor, that there were 90,000 Japanese in Hawaii and 30,000 in Mexico ready to fight. The longer the rumors went on, you can see, the higher the troop numbers became. In fact, it got all the up to 250,000 Japanese in Mexico ready to fight.

The author then went on to check with sources of some rumors and check with people who knew various facts, and determined that maybe, at most, there might be 4000 Japanese total in Mexico, not 250,000.

Alleged Japanese Plans to Seize the Philippines

'THIS is the theme that delights the jingoes. They see in Japanese papers, in Japanese naval maneuvers, in Japanese diplomacy, evidences of secret plans and astute policies for the annexation of those islands.'

Of course, less than thirty years later that is exactly what the Japanese did.

The author points out one rumor he researched. The rumor was that a group of Japanese warships were headed for the Philippines. He found out that it was a group of merchant ships, not military ships.

An Anti-Japanese Hymn of Hate

'As a part of its anti-Japanese campaign, the Hearst papers published in the summer of 1916, the music and words of a song by Edith Maida Lessing, entitled "Lookout! California Beware !'' The character of the words justifies the comparison of the song to the famous or infamous German 'Hymn of Hate' against England by Ernst Lissauer.'

He then lists some of the words from the song:

Chorus

They lurk upon thy shores, California !
They watch behind thy doors, California !
They're a hundred thousand strong,
And they won't be hiding long;
There's nothing that the dastards would not dare !
They are soldiers to a man,
With the schemes of old JAPAN !
Lookout; California! Beware!
But something's going to happen
That will shake things up, perhaps,
If we don't start to clean out the JAPS !
There's a murmur that affirms
We're brothers to the worms,
That serve us in a meek and lowly manner;
But while we watch and wait,
They're inside the Golden Gate!
They've battleships, they say,
On Magdalena Bay!
Uncle Sam, won't you listen when we warn you?
And they're waiting just to steal our California !
So just keep your eye on TOGO
With his pocket full of maps,
For we've found out we can't trust the JAPS !

Insulting Cartoons