Ringle Report on Japanese Internment (January 30, 1941)

Report of Lt. Commander K. D. Ringle to The Chief of Naval Operations on the "Japanese Question on the West Coast"

Lt. Commander Kenneth D. Ringle

[In this first report on the question following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Ringle estimates the total number of Japanese in the US (both aliens and citizens) that might act as agents of Japan or saboteurs to be less than 300.  Ringle argues that the "Japanese Problem" has "been magnified out of its true proportion" and that the problem "is no more serious than the problems of the Genrman, Italian, and Communistic portions of the United States population."  Ringle urges that treatment of Japanse-Americans be handled "on the basis of the individual" and "not on a racial basis."]