Civil Liberties in America - Emma Meersman

When international warfare enters the United States, the government will stop at nothing to accomplish their own ends. Fear is a tool that is commonly used to manipulate the American people into allowing the violations of civil liberties in the name of national security. Three major examples of this occurrence in history include the Japanese Internment of World War II, the McCarthy Era during the Cold War, and the 9/11 World Trade Center Attacks.

Interview 1 - Gaylin Gardette is my neighbor, a woman in her mid-forties, who is part Japanese, part Native American, and part Hawaiian. Her grandfather was a full Japanese man living in America in World War II when Pearl Harbor occurred. She will speak about his experiences as well as her own knowledge of the Cold War and 9/11.

What was your experience with the Japanese internment of World War II?
My grandmother was named Rhione Honore. She was half Native American and half Hawaiian. As the only girl in a very traditional family, a marriage was arranged for her when she reached her late teens. This was several years before the tragic bombing of Pearl Harbor. My Japanese grandfather, Harry Suehiro, lived in a community in Los Angeles. The two met there, in East Los Angeles. That was the Asian area of the city. My grandparents got married and had just had their first child when World War II entered the United States.

What happened to them then?
Well, once the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, a whole culture of fear took over the country. To the American people, the Japanese became the enemy, period. It did not matter if it was the Japanese abroad or in the United States. All Japanese were seen as violent and cruel monsters for attacking America. The internment was concentrated especially on California and Los Angeles in particular, known for its enormous Japanese population.

Can you tell me more?
Well, here is a small bit of Japanese history to put things in perspective. First, their government built up a huge army in order to become a superpower and take control of the world. Their culture was centered on the brutal military and government. This all took place during the Second World War. In America, propaganda was based on the ruthless Japanese monsters, which furthered the opposition to all Japanese. Frankly, there was some truth behind the propaganda back then.

What happened to your grandparents after Pearl Harbor?
The pair faced an incredible surge of discrimination, for my grandmother had the skin color of an African-American, and my grandfather was obviously Japanese. They also had to deal with distrust, especially on my grandfather’s part. Luckily, their marriage had granted my grandfather his citizenship, so he was able to avoid deportation. He made a good living, so my great-grandparents were satisfied with their choice for my grandmother. Once America became involved in the war, my grandfather, like many other Japanese, grew deathly afraid of internment. Actually, he was one of the few Japanese Americans who was able to escape. After the beginning of the war, all Japanese were made to register with the government so that they could be watched. Everyone had to register, and everyone had to go to the camps. It is so hard to believe that it happened in this country.

So how did your grandfather escape internment?
As I said before, he was fairly well off, and he had many connections within the community. Somehow, he was able to convince the government officials to stamp his papers when he registered saying that he was Hawaiian. I have no doubt that bribery was somehow involved. Unfortunately, his avoidance earned him a mandatory trip to Hawaii in 1942. He was forced to leave his wife and my newly born mother behind in America. Eventually, their marriage was annulled. My grandfather was able to escape internment, but he interned himself. While he was afraid to return to America, those consequences resulted from his self-internment. He had no idea what would happen to him if he were found out, and because of his fear, my grandparents never really had a chance to get to know one another. My mother grew up without a father.

What part did fear play in all of this?
The Japanese Americans had heard horrible stories of German death camps, and they believed that they were about to be massacred. They feared the camps of the Holocaust with a passion. Once all of the Japanese had finally been interned, my grandmother who remained behind compared her community to a wasteland. Hardly anyone was present, and all her friends had been taken. She was afraid for all the people in her life, for she did not know their fates. When the Japanese finally returned, things were never the same. Fear and discrimination still existed, and the community was forever impacted.

When did the propaganda against Japanese first appear?
I’m not sure, but I believe that it began once the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The fact that there were Japanese within America greatly alarmed many United States citizens. People could clearly see that fact that the Pacific Rim was quickly being taken over by the Japanese. Many people from Japan were already in California.

What happened once the war ended?
After the atomic bombings, Japan became peaceful. In turn, the Japanese Americans were seen as weak, and became frequently bullied targets. The government had encouraged this discrimination through internment. Once they planted the seed that Japanese Americans were different and needed to be locked away, discrimination and racism naturally progressed. All Japanese living in the United States at that time were incredibly angry, for their lives were taken away through internment. It was a horrible contradiction in history that all of this occurred in a country that encouraged freedom.

On another note, what do you know about McCarthyism?
McCarthy and the Red Scare in general were based on the fear of an enemy on home turf and the need to control this. Everyone needed to know who was a communist and how they were spying on us. The realization of espionage in the war was just coming into being and encouraged civilian paranoia. As long as the government was doing something to control the communists, people were pacified. It did not matter whether there was misinformation or wrongly accused communists. This follows a principle that I call ‘group think’. The idea behind this is, ‘if I can convince this many people that others are bad, we can go after them.’

How does this relate to the Red Scare?
McCarthy was able to use his version of ‘group think’ to convince enough people that creative people were bad and susceptible to communism. They were able to get their own ideas out through a combination of liberal views, power, and money. The government supported McCarthy’s attack, for they liked the idea of creating a panic and getting rid of the communists. The process of Russian expulsion was promoted, for the government needed a new enemy to focus on because the Japanese had been defeated. This involves the government’s need to have an enemy in order to create fear. If the government has an enemy, they can go to war, which sometimes makes money for the country.

What was your experience with 9/11?
I believe that Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were both similar in that they were acts of terrorism which opened the gates to pursue enemies. Honestly, after 9/11 I was really hoping that the government was not going to intern the Muslims. I think that the media did a good job of stepping up and trying to stop the discrimination, though there definitely still is racism.

What changes have you noticed since 9/11?
Obviously, there have been airport screenings after the attack. Once, when I was travelling on a business trip, the airport officials were randomly pulling people out of line for extra security checks. I was pulled out for an extra check, and when I got into the new line, I noticed that every single person selected had brown skin. This was blatant discrimination of American citizens. I believe that today, the government is using ‘group think’ and ignorance to keep people feeling safe. This helps to turn mass attention away from noticing scenes such as the one in the airport that day.

What are your opinions on the 9/11 conspiracy theories?
Honestly, my first thought upon hearing the theories was, “Oh my god, what has Bush done now?” I believe that the government needed an enemy show that Bush was a good leader, regardless of the fact that the economy was doing well and there was no war. This was a situation of greed, and Bush needed to prove to his father that he could be a good leader. I am not sure what to make of the theories themselves, though they are probable.

What happened after 9/11?
There was an upsurge in American pride following the attacks, though it was against the Bush and Cheney administration. In fact, there was a republican military commander that left his post after 9/11 and found common ground with the democrats. He was that opposed to what Bush and Cheney were doing.



Interview 2 - Thomas Meersman lived through most of the Cold War and the 9/11 attacks and is also my uncle. Today, he is a newspaper reporter in his late fifties living in Minneapolis with his family. He experienced the Cold War as a child in Spokane, and will speak about his memories from that time as well as his perceptions of 9/11.

What was your general experience with the Red Scare and McCarthyism?
Around that time, I was just a kid, and unaware of politics. The Cold War was talked about in school, especially in history class. We were given information about how communism had taken over many countries, and unless we were watchful, it could take over the world. I remember that we had drills for air raids in which we had to duck and cover so that we resembled turtles. These drills were similar to earthquake drills, but these occurred when the civil defense siren rang out. This was for the practice that there might be a bomb. There were even jingles for the duck and cover positions, those that advertised that you wouldn’t be hurt if you were a turtle. I was aware that the Soviets were bad and communism was all-consuming, for that was what I had been taught. We were told that the United States needed to stand up and have a strong defense in order to avoid being like the Soviet Union.

Were these advertisements propaganda?
The people that put out these advertisements believed that it was propaganda, but they knew what they were in for after World War II. The government knew that it had to play up the enemy to avoid another serious war. It was necessary for us to match the Soviets in military strength. In the case of war, the population needed to know how to defend itself, despite the fact that being like a turtle wouldn’t matter much against an atomic bomb. The enemy stood for the very opposite morals than us, and the government needed to broadcast that as much as possible.

What was your perception of communism?
I realized that communism was happening elsewhere and that we needed to be fearful of it. We could not let Vietnam fall, for if the progress of communism was not stopped, soon the United States would be the only free country left. McCarthy was running around trying to find anyone in the country who was associated with communism at all. His actions further validated the lesson that communism was wrong and bad.

Was this especially so with blacklisting?
Many good careers were ruined by McCarthy and his communist lists. Amazing writers all over the country were accused of opposing capitalism, and after this they were virtually unable to be published. This was especially horrible because these were sometimes false charges that ruined successful careers.

Why do you think the people were wrongly accused?
It is all part of a power thing. The government and McCarthy knew that Americans feared communism, and they were able to garner attention and popularity through their actions. Many people agreed with McCarthy. Some people felt relieved by his initiative, though others were unsure of whether the trials would make a difference. These people were more concerned about what was occurring in other parts of the world and were not scared until the legitimate threat of communism was brought to the United States.

How did the government respond to McCarthy?
McCarthy was basically in charge of the hunt for communists. Edward Murrow, a television and radio reporter of the time did a documentary on McCarthy at one point. It included evidence of how McCarthy had taken his hunt too far and it berated him for his harsh actions. Many people closely followed Murrow’s opinion, so he was too powerful to be ruined by McCarthy for his opinions. Following this documentary, the public began to doubt McCarthy, and many people realized that he was ruining the lives of fellow Americans. The press and the public opinion were able to turn things around rather than the government’s will in this case.



What do you remember about the day of 9/11? How did it feel to you?
The televisions in the newsroom are always on to multiple channels in order to follow other stories. When I came into work on that morning, I saw my coworkers gathered around a television screen on which the World Trade Centers were collapsing. Over the course of the morning, I constantly watched the televisions to see what was happening and what else would happen. The reaction that many people had was pure shock. No one could believe what had come to pass, including myself. There were immediate repercussions of the attacks, including the facts that all plane in the air at the time landed at the nearest airports. All airports in the country were closed for days, and I remember writing an article about the travel issues in the nation.
George Bush, meanwhile, was apparently put into a plane and was flown around in the air so that he would not get hit with another bomb. This sparked uncertainty among the public, for no one know how many more violent planes existed. Everyone wondered whether it was over, or whether there would be more bombs. The populace felt very sad that day for the country in general, and it was a new tragedy that we would have to live with. America suddenly felt more vulnerable, for we had been attacked on our own soil. I knew that there would immediately be new restrictions and things would never be the same as they were on September 10th.

What do you think of the 9/11 conspiracy theories?
I think that the theories are ridiculous, for the president is the president, and he does not need any more power than he already holds. I do believe, however, that Bush was looking for an excuse to go to war with Iraq. He lied about many things, especially the fact that Iraq had nukes, for they most certainly did not. Cheney was also lying about the Iraqis being at fault, for al-Queda were obviously behind the 9/11 attacks. The theories do not make any sense and there is no convincing evidence that someone in the United States would attack their own country to make themselves more powerful. Bush was still popular at the beginning of his presidency and he had three long years ahead of him. His popularity did not need to be boosted, and he was still learning how to govern the country.

What happened once the war began?
Bush’s credibility with the American populace went out the window when he made the decision to bomb Afghanistan. Though not everyone had problems with attacking Afghanistan, Bush then pressed his luck with targeting Iraq. He began to build a case to target Iraq, but that resulted in confused and opposing public. Bush grouped all Middle Easterners together as terrorists, which was a fatal mistake. The American people disagreed with him, but they did not completely speak out. Bush maintained that going to war was patriotic of the Americans.

How did the Americans react to terrorism and the Muslims within the country?
People began to look at those who appeared to be Middle Eastern with more suspicion, and some Muslim businesses were damaged. There were some protests in predominately Muslim neighborhoods near where I live, and I know that a few people even got hurt. The populace was upset and emotional and needed a target to attack. Their ignorance of the conflict in the Middle East caused the attack, while the Muslims being targeted were scared for themselves. Some tried to speak out, for they had absolutely no desire to be synonymous with the term of terrorists.


Did the government wanting to bomb the Middle East help people’s attitude towards the Muslims?
The bombing persuasions occurred several years after the discrimination, but because of the people’s desire for revenge against terrorists, it was easier for the government to start a quick war in Afghanistan. As that country was the source of the problem of 9/11 and a center of terrorism, the American public was able to be convinced. This was a much harder sell for Iraq, which was not the source of the 9/11 attacks. The government needed to put together a list of the most wanted terrorists in order to show the people the existing danger.

This is basically propaganda, is it not?
Yes, the message was that America needs to protect itself by attacking Iraq. The idea was that a leader from a culture similar to that of Iraq bombed the United States, so Iraq was therefore linked to the bombings of 9/11. This was all done to garner the support of both the public and a large portion of the government. Many people were uneasy and wanted proof of connections to Iraq, but the response they were given was that the information was classified.

What changes have you noticed since 9/11?
I have noticed the increased security around nuclear power plants since the attacks. There has also been less information available to reporters, and therefore the people in general, for news stories. Information in national infrastructure is sparse so that it does not get out and present a target for hostile terrorist groups. Many internal structures of the government are kept quiet out of the fear that they could be attacked.

Is the mindset of “they are among us” present?
Yes, especially since I heard about a Pakistani man who drove a van into Times Square three months ago. The van was noticed by several people and was deserted with smoke and popping noises emanating from it. Once the police arrived on the scene, they explored the van and found it filled with explosives that failed to detonate properly. Apparently, the man in possession of the van had gone to Pakistan and had received money and training in order to accomplish this attack.
This event merely enforces the fact that people are still aware that anything can happen—not necessarily just from foreigners in airplanes. Events such as the van have led to increased security in countries worldwide, for terrorism can occur anywhere at any time. This mindset did not begin with 9/11, but it certainly increased since then.

How were your work and the media in general affected by 9/11?
Personally, I was not greatly affected by the attacks, for the local news reports that I do progressed unchanged. As a reporter, I notice that information about certain systems that would be vulnerable to terrorists is difficult to obtain. In order to get the information, it is necessary to go through more channels, meaning that some reporters need to work harder to get their stories. The local news basically remains the same, though there may be a slight increase in the attention paid to the demographics of Muslim communities after 9/11. Muslims and their religion were definitely spotlighted directly following the attacks.



The government censorship that you mentioned is interesting.
Yes, the nuclear power plants (the Nuclear Regulatory Committee) closed their websites down for months in order to clean it and make sure that there was no information included that could be valuable to enemies. There is still a lot of information included in the website, but the committee took out a great deal of it. I know that there used to be more information available on that website, so I think that they might have been watching what people who accessed the site were looking into. I would be very unsurprised if the government was tracking the interests of some people, or tapping the phones of others. It is always impossible to know whether security is innocent or abusive, which brings us back to McCarthyism and the Red Scare. The question remains: How far is too far when it comes to public security? Civil liberties in America are a careful balancing act which shifted to one side following 9/11.



Interview 3 - Deborah Wiese is a family friend in her mid-fifties who currently works as a reference desk librarian in Port Townsend. She studied political science in college and experienced part of the Cold War and 9/11. Deborah will talk about her opinions on McCarthyism as well as her beliefs about the 9/11 attacks.

What do you remember about McCarthyism and the Red Scare?
Well, I was born in Wisconsin in 1955, and that was the state that McCarthy was from. I grew up in a republican family who was very patriotic and did not question the government. They did not support McCarthy, believing that civil rights were extremely important. The Red Scare, though I do not remember much of it, reminded me greatly of the premise of the Salem witch hunts. There was so much fear in both cases. During the trials of suspected communists, I felt that they were unjust and they broke the constitution. In the United States, people are allowed to be members of opposing parties, but these trials caused suspected communists to lose their jobs for no good reason. This was a time in our country’s history that was bad.

What about 9/11?
I do not believe that 9/11 was as bad as McCarthyism, though it was still bad. People were against attacking Afghanistan, and they realized how harmful our actions could be through their grief. I wish that they would have taken the matter through international court. Iraq and Iran had nothing to do with the attacks, and they did nothing wrong. The conflict only created hardship for Iraq and the United States. I suspect that there were definitely more deaths in Iraq than the media reported to America. The Bush administration merely used 9/11 to do something that they had wanted to do.

What did you observe after 9/11?
Everyone was in a state of shock, horrified by the attacks. They were suddenly aware of why people who do not have power turn to terror to accomplish their goals. People in our country suddenly got ideas that Muslims were terrorists, and that the country was at war with terrorists in general. The media certainly did not help, as it promoted the ideas of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, and it targeted terrorists as enemies. The voices of those who were against the bombings became subdued, though there were demonstrations opposing the bombing. It was like the power of the people did not exist.
What changes have you noticed since 9/11?
First of all, there has been an increase in border patrols and in security checks. The released fact that Guantanamo was holding terrorists against their wills has done nothing to help the government’s image in the eyes of the people. Many see 9/11 as a threat to their civil liberties just like the McCarthy era. The government has played up the fear angle, and Obama is stuck attempting to lessen it. Obama still needs to make more progress against terrorists, but terrorists are only one threat to our country and the planet. There are more serious threats to the planet that cannot be solved with bombing.

Do you believe in the 9/11 conspiracy theories?
I think that rigging the buildings to explode would have been too complex, but I just do not know. Based on the government, I can see why people would believe the theories. However, the fact remains that there is no concrete evidence in support of the 9/11 conspiracy theories.