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Memorandum for General Gerow

January 30, 1942 [Washington, D.C.]

Secret

At the Cabinet meeting this afternoon there was urgently presented fears regarding the Japanese who have been inducted into our Army and are now in Hawaii, also fears regarding Jap residents in Hawaii. I sent you a question regarding what was being done in these matters this morning. I pass this on to you as an indication of the fact that action is being urged by various members of the Cabinet.¹

Document Copy Text Source: George C. Marshall Papers, Pentagon Office Collection, Selected Materials, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.

Document Format: Typed memorandum.

1. Secretary Stimson noted, “I told him [Marshall] to put speed and pressure on it because it was regarded as urgent by many people including the Roberts Board.” (“Notes After Cabinet Meeting, January 30, 1942,” NA/RG 165 [OCS, 334].) Approximately 40,000 aliens and 120,000 citizens of Japanese ancestry lived in Hawaii, three-quarters of them on the island of Oahu. On February 19 the president issued Executive Order 9066 which authorized the War Department to establish military areas wherever it desired and allowing it to determine who could enter, remain, or be excluded from those areas. Marshall concurred in a plan to evacuate from Hawaii to the mainland approximately 100,000 aliens and citizens of Japanese ancestry for internment, but shipping shortages ultimately prevented this. (Documents on this subject are in NA/RG 165 [WPD, 4520-5].)

Recommended Citation: ThePapers of George Catlett Marshall, ed.Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens(Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981- ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 3, “The Right Man for the Job,” December 7, 1941-May 31, 1943 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), pp. 89-90.