524
PARTISAN REVIEW
torical turning point.
In
what was a paradigm case of symbolic politics, Guisan effectively
drew on associations of the stubborn defense of liberty at a time of
equivocation and grave crisis.
The war in the Pacific was not going well for the United States in
1942 and early 1943. America suffered a series of setbacks and defeats at
the hands of the Japanese, who showed themselves to be a courageous
and determined enemy. The Japanese tide of conquest was at its height in
mid-1943.
Two major episodes of anxiety in history occurred in our own
country, on the West coast, during World War Two. I refer
to
the re–
location of Japanese-Americans in camps in 1942 and the anti-Latino
Zoot-Suit Riots of 1943. The Japanese relocations in camps was un–
founded in reality and irrational on the face of it.
It
was not based in
reality because there was not a single demonstrated case of espionage by a
Japanese American.
It
was irrational because the relatively large Japanese
Nisei and Sansei populations of the exposed Hawaiian Islands were
not
interned. As one who watched these relocations in San Francisco as an
eight-year-old boy, it is personally gratifying to me that the United
States Congress has recognized the injustice of this impulsive act of
anxiety and is now making symbolic restitution for this gross violation of
the civil liberties of Americans.
The Zoot Suit Riots of Los Angeles in the first ten days of June,
1943, were attacks on young Latino males who wore a distinctive black
suit with a long jacket and pegged pants; a floppy hat and chains often
rounded out the accessories. Servicemen from all over America were in
Southern California for basic training where they had their heads shaved,
their civilian clothes taken away to be replaced by government issue. The
Gis and Navy recruits, aware that they were given perfunctory combat
training in boot camp to be rushed out to the Pacific theater to meet a
determined and lethal brown-skinned foe, rioted and victimized the local
Latino youth.
In
June of 1943, a Los Angeles newspaper published "Directions on
How
to
' De-zoot' a Boy":
Grab a zooter. Take off his pants and frock coat and tear them up or
burn them. Trim the "Argentine duck's tail" that goes with the screwy
costume.
In
chasing, capturing, and degrading "pachucos," in unmanning
them by taking off their clothes and "duck-butt" hair, the G Is turned the
