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A Question of Loyalty
Military
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At Minidoka during World War II, questions of honor and loyalty divided internees when the government issued a questionnaire in early 1943 to all internees age 17 or older to determine suitability for military service. Question 27 asked whether they were willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty wherever ordered, but it confused women and the elderly, who feared a yes answer might require them to serve. Question 28 asked for unqualified allegiance to the United States and renunciation of allegiance to the Japanese emperor or any other foreign power, which particularly troubled Issei, first-generation immigrants who could not become U.S. citizens; they feared a yes answer meant losing Japanese citizenship and becoming country-less, while a no answer might mean deportation to Japan. Draft-aged men who answered no-no were called No-No Boys and branded disloyal, though they answered no for different reasons, including loyalty to Japan, protest against the injustice of relocation, or a desire to avoid military service. All faced segregation and were moved to the Tule Lake Segregation Center in California, including some 328 internees sent there from Minidoka in 1943. Those who answered yes-yes, 97 percent of Minidoka internees, the highest loyalty rate among the 10 camps, became eligible to be sponsored to leave the relocation center or to join the armed forces, with sponsors including East Coast companies facing wartime labor shortages.
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