One of the Dies Committee’s investigations focused on the alleged subversive activities of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II, resulting in this report. The committee falsely interpreted the fact that Japanese Americans would not renounce all allegiance to the Japanese Emperor as evidence of disloyalty. No person of Japanese ancestry was ever convicted of sabotage or espionage during the war.
U.S. Senate Library
Report 717, 78th Congress: Report and Minority Views of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities on Japanese War Relocation Centers, by Representative Herman P. Eberharter of Pennsylvania, September 30, 1943
House Un-American Activities Committee
The world wars stirred concerns in Congress about potential disloyalty and subversive activities in the nation. Several congressional committees met between World War I and World War II to investigate these concerns, the most prominent of which was chaired by Representative Martin Dies Jr. of Texas. Initially organized to investigate fascist activities, the House Un-American Activities Committee—popularly known as the Dies Committee—quickly became a controversial vehicle to persecute individuals and groups for their alleged communist ties or sympathies.
Nations are sometimes destroyed by a sudden revolution, but more often republics are destroyed by the gradual process of subversion.
Representative Martin Dies Jr. of Texas, Speech to the U.S. House of Representatives, February 1, 1943
One of the Dies Committee’s investigations focused on the alleged subversive activities of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II, resulting in this report. The committee falsely interpreted the fact that Japanese Americans would not renounce all allegiance to the Japanese Emperor as evidence of disloyalty. No person of Japanese ancestry was ever convicted of sabotage or espionage during the war.
U.S. Senate Library
