John Lesesne DeWitt | |
|---|---|
 DeWitt as a lieutenant general | |
| Born | (1880-01-09)9 January 1880 Fort Sidney,Nebraska |
| Died | 20 June 1962(1962-06-20) (aged 82) Washington, D.C. |
| Place of burial | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1898–1947 |
| Rank |  General |
| Commands | Quartermaster General Commandant,Army War College Fourth United States Army Western Defense Command Army and Navy Staff College |
| Known for | Internment of Japanese Americans |
| Battles / wars | Spanish–American War Philippine–American War World War I World War II |
| Awards | Army Distinguished Service Medal (3) Navy Distinguished Service Medal |
John Lesesne DeWitt (9 January 1880 – 20 June 1962) was a four-stargeneral in theUnited States Army. He was best known for overseeing theinternment of Japanese Americans duringWorld War II.
After theattack on Pearl Harbor by theJapanese Empire on 7 December 1941, DeWitt believed that Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans in theWest Coast of the United States were conspiring to sabotage the American war effort, and he recommended they be removed from coastal areas. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt issuedExecutive Order 9066, giving authority to restrict military sensitive locations. DeWitt used the authority granted to him to issue military proclamations to place most of the west coast off limits to Japanese Americans, incarcerating 110,000 Japanese men, women, and children in concentration camps, most of whom wereAmerican citizens.
DeWitt was born atFort Sidney,Nebraska, on 9 January 1880. His father, Brigadier General Calvin DeWitt (1840–1908), served with the United States Army and was an 1863 graduate ofPrinceton University. His mother, Josephine (Lesesne) DeWitt, was a native ofCharleston, South Carolina, and he was named for his maternal grandfather, John F. Lesesne. He had an older brother, Wallace, a younger sister, Mary Wallace, and a younger brother,Calvin Jr. DeWitt was of Dutch descent.[1]
DeWitt enrolled at Princeton University in 1896, but left at the start of theSpanish–American War to enlist in theUnited States Army.[2] On October 10, 1898, he was appointed as asecond lieutenant of the infantry. DeWitt also served in thePhilippine–American War, during which he witnessed the U.S. Army's use ofconcentration camps on Filipino civilians.
In 1918, DeWitt shipped out with the42nd Division to the battlefields ofFrance as aquartermaster in the division headquarters. Other noteworthy members of the division includedDouglas MacArthur andWilliam J. Donovan. In July 1918, DeWitt was promoted to full colonel, and continued quartermaster duties for the First Army. He received theDistinguished Service Medal at the end of World War I.
After the war, DeWitt graduated from theArmy War College in 1920.[3] Between 1919 and 1930, he served in various quartermaster positions, including assistant commandant of the General Staff College, Chief of the Storage and Issue Branch, and the Supply Division. In 1930, DeWitt was promoted tomajor general and assigned asQuartermaster General of the U.S. Army. He also assumed control of theGold Star Mothers' Pilgrimage to visit the graves of their sons who died in France during the First World War. General DeWitt was responsible for all logistics involving this Congressionally approved event. He was awarded an honorary A.M. degree by Princeton University in 1932.[2][3]
After returning to the infantry, DeWitt assumed control of thePhilippine Division. In July 1937, he became commandant of the Army War College. Two years later, in December 1939, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, and then assumed command of theFourth Army as well as theWestern Defense Command of the United States Army, with responsibilities for the protection of the West Coast area of the United States from invasion by the Japanese.
At age 62, DeWitt would produce the "Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942", which argued for the removal and internment of American-born citizens of ancestry tie to a past or present immigrant of Japan.[4]
At the end of the internment of more than 100,000 Japanese-American citizens, not a single case of espionage was uncovered.[5]
From 5 December 1939, to 15 June 1943, DeWitt was assigned command of the IXCorps Area and its 1942 successor, theWestern Defense Command, both headquartered at thePresidio of San Francisco.
DeWitt was inSan Francisco on the evening of 8 December 1941, one day after the Japanese attack onPearl Harbor, when air raid sirens were sounded. An estimated 35 Japanese warplanes were supposedly sighted aboveSan Francisco Bay on a reconnaissance mission. DeWitt was furious at the lack of blackout precautions during the air raids. He blasted city leaders at a Civil Defense Council meeting the next day, saying, "Death and destruction are likely to come to this city at any moment. … The people of San Francisco do not seem to appreciate that we are at war in every sense. I have come here because we want action and we want action now. Unless definite and stern action is taken to correct last night's deficiencies, a great deal of destruction will come. Those planes were over our community. They were over our community for a definite period. They were enemy planes. I mean Japanese planes. They were tracked out to sea."
At the Civil Defense Council meeting, DeWitt suggested that it might have been a good thing if the planes had dropped bombs to "awaken this city." He said, "If I can't knock these facts into your heads with words, I will have to turn you over to the police and let them knock them into you with clubs." DeWitt acknowledged that some people had asked why he failed to give orders to fire on the planes. "I say it's none of their damn business," he responded. "San Francisco woke up this morning without a single death from bombs. Isn't that enough?"[6]
DeWitt recommended for the 1942Rose Bowl football game, normally played inPasadena, California, to be moved.[7] DeWitt feared that the large crowd of spectators would be too tempting a target for Japanese warplanes. For the first and only time in its history, the 1942 Rose Bowl game was moved toNorth Carolina.
On 19 December 1941, General DeWitt had recommended to the Army's GHQ "that action be initiated at the earliest practicable date to collect all alien subjects fourteen years of age and over, of enemy nations and remove them to the Zone of the Interior." He initially felt very differently about the necessity and practicality of locking up citizens as well, in a telephone conversation with Major GeneralAllen W. Gullion on 26 December. Regardless of this, following theRoberts Commission report of 25 January 1942 accusing persons of Japanese ancestry of widespread espionage in Hawaii prior to Pearl Harbor, along with his perception of public opinion as anti-Japanese, he became a proponent of internment of Japanese and initially German- and Italian-descended persons. He felt that the lack of sabotage efforts only meant that it was being readied for a large-scale effort. "The fact that nothing has happened so far is more or less . . . ominous, in that I feel that in view of the fact that we have had no sporadic attempts at sabotage that there is a control being exercised and when we have it it will be on a mass basis."[8]
In February 1942, DeWitt reported to PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt that no sabotage by Japanese Americans had yet been confirmed, but he commented that it only proved "a disturbing and confirming indication that such actionwill be taken."[9] He recommended the evacuation of all Japanese from the coastal areas ofCalifornia,Oregon,Washington, andAlaska (thenincorporated U.S. territory at the time). UsingExecutive Order 9066, DeWitt then began implementing a plan for classifying, rounding up, and removal of "undesirables."
On 2 March 1942, DeWitt issued "Military Proclamation No. 1," which designated the western parts of California, Oregon and Washington as "military area no. 1," further divided into "prohibited zone A-1" and "restricted zone B." In the first phase of the order, a provision was included directing that "any person of Japanese ancestry, now resident in Military Area No. 1, who changes his place ofhabitual residence must file a 'change of residence notice' at his local post office not more than five days nor less than one day prior to moving."[10] Days later, DeWitt announced that the army had acquired 5,800 acres (23 km2) of land nearManzanar, California, for construction of a "reception center" which he said was "to be used principally as a clearing house for the more permanent resettlement elsewhere for persons excluded from military areas."[11] On March 6, Executive Order 9066 was later extended to all Japanese persons and Americans of Japanese ancestry living in Alaska.[12]
Removal began on 23 March 1942, with the resettlement of citizens living inLos Angeles. On that date, General DeWitt issued new orders applying to Japanese-Americans, setting an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and banning ownership of firearms, radios, cameras, and other contraband. DeWitt stated, "Let me warn the affected aliens and Japanese-Americans that anything but strict compliance with this proclamation's provisions will bring immediate punishment."[13]Northern California followed in April,[14] as DeWitt declared, "We plan to increase the tempo of the evacuation as fast as possible." Citizens in specific areas were required to report to their designated "Civil Control Station," where they would then be taken to an Assembly Center for relocation.
All told, DeWitt ordered the removal andinternment of 110,000 ethnic Japanese persons from their homes in the West Coast to internment camps inland. According to DeWitt, "a Jap is a Jap,"[9][15] whether a U.S. citizen or not.
A federal judge,James Alger Fee ofPortland, Oregon, ruled in November, 1943 that American citizens could not be detained without a proclamation of martial law. DeWitt's response was "All military orders and proclamations of this headquarters remain in full force and effect."[16]
After the relocation of Japanese Americans was complete, DeWitt lifted curfew restrictions on Italian-Americans on 19 October and on German-Americans on 24 December. Technically, the curfew was "inapplicable to the Japanese since all members of this group were removed from the affected zones."[17] DeWitt had a personal vendetta against one Italian in particular,Remo Bosia, which is detailed in Bosia's autobiography,The General and I.
DeWitt was opposed toWar Relocation Authority efforts to distinguish loyal from disloyal Japanese Americans/and to the creation of anall-Japanese combat unit. He testified before Congress, in 1943, that he would "use every proper means" at his disposal to stop the resettlement of Japanese Americans outside camp and their eventual return to the West Coast after the war. His and ColonelKarl Bendetsen's "Final Report" (circulated and then hastily redacted in 1943 and 1944) also laid out his position that their race made it impossible to determine their loyalty, thus necessitating internment. The original version was so offensive, even in the atmosphere of the wartime 1940s that Bendetsen ordered all copies to be destroyed.[4][18]
In 1980, Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, interned at Manzanar concentration camp as a teenager, found a copy of the original Final Report in the National Archives, along with notes showing the numerous differences between the original and redacted versions.[4] The earlier, racist and inflammatory version as well as the FBI and Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) reports led to thecoram nobis retrials, which overturned the convictions ofFred Korematsu,Gordon Hirabayashi andMinoru Yasui, on all charges related to their refusal to submit to exclusion and internment. The courts found that the government had intentionally withheld the reports and other critical evidence, at trials all the way up to the Supreme Court, which would have proved that there was no military necessity for the exclusion and internment of Japanese Americans. In the words of Department of Justice officials writing during the war, the justifications were based on "willful historical inaccuracies and intentional falsehoods."
DeWitt's orders also regulated other areas of life on theWest Coast. A proclamation prohibited deer hunting and the playing of outdoor sports at night.[19] An Alaska Travel Office was established to issue permits to anyone seeking to travel into or out of the territory ofAlaska.[20]
Less known is DeWitt's role in supervising the combat operations in theAleutian Islands, some of which had been invaded by Japanese forces. When houses of prostitution were closed across America, General DeWitt allowedSally Stanford to continue to operate a high-class brothel in San Francisco.[21] At the end of his tenure as head of Western Defense Command, he was appointed as the commandant of the Army and Navy Staff College in Washington.[22] He retired from the army in June 1947.
In 1943 DeWitt was reassigned as the commander of the Army-Navy Staff College (predecessor of theNational War College) atFort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C. He held this position until he retired from the Army in 1946.
On 19 July 1954, DeWitt became a full general by special act of Congress for his services in World War II.
DeWitt died in Washington, D.C., on 20 June 1962, after suffering a heart attack at his home in theGlover Park neighborhood.[23] He is buried in Section 2 ofArlington National Cemetery along with his wife Martha.[24] Buried in an adjacent gravesite are his son, John Lesesne DeWitt Jr. (1904–1982), who retired as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army; and John's wife, Annie Sue DeWitt (1907–1996).[25]
On 3 June 1903, inBirmingham, Alabama, DeWitt married Martha Estes (1883–1968), daughter of George Henson and Anna Georgia (Thornton) Estes. She was the sister of United States Army officerGeorge Henson Estes Jr. Together, they had one son:
His paternal grandparents were Rev. William Radcliffe DeWitt (1792–1867) and Mary Elizabeth (Wallace) DeWitt (1807–1881). William was a Presbyterian pastor inHarrisburg, Pennsylvania and had served with the United States in the War of 1812 prior to that. Mary was the granddaughter of CongressmanWilliam Maclay, great-granddaughter ofJohn Harris Jr., and great-great-granddaughter ofJohn Harris Sr., both of whom Harrisburg is named for.
His paternal great-grandfather, John Radcliffe DeWitt (1752–1808), was a captain in theAmerican Revolutionary War and served as a New York State Assemblyman from 1785 to 1788. His paternal great-great-grandfather, Peter DeWitt (1722–1790), was a private in the American Revolutionary War. Through these men John L. DeWitt is a second cousin, three times removed, of former New York GovernorDeWitt Clinton. Another second cousin, three times removed wasSimeon DeWitt.
His first cousin, twice removed, William Radcliffe DeWitt V, served in the United States Marine Corps as a private during theKorean War. His first cousin, three times removed, Robert George Schoenkopf III, served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps during theVietnam War.
| No insignia in 1898 | Second lieutenant,Regular Army: 10 October 1898 |
 | First lieutenant, Regular Army: 29 January 1900 |
 | Captain, Regular Army: 25 May 1906 |
 | Major, Regular Army: 15 May 1917 |
 | Lieutenant colonel,National Army: 5 August 1917 |
 | Colonel, Regular Army: 30 July 1918 |
| Major, Regular Army: 1 August 1919 |
| Lieutenant colonel, Regular Army: 1 July 1920 |
| Colonel, Regular Army: 9 May 1921 |
 | Major general, Temporary: 18 January 1930 |
| Colonel, Regular Army: 2 February 1934 |
 | Brigadier general, Regular Army: 26 March 1934 |
| Major general, Regular Army: 1 December 1936 |
 | Lieutenant general, Temporary: 5 December 1939 |
| Lieutenant general, Retired List: 31 January 1944 |
| Lieutenant general, Active Duty: 1 February 1944 |
| Lieutenant general, Retired List: 10 June 1947 |
| General, Retired List: 19 July 1954 |
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Media related toJohn L. DeWitt at Wikimedia Commons
| Military offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Commandant of the United States Army War College 1937–1939 | Succeeded by |
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| National | |
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