The Yale Law Journal

The internment of the West Coast Japanese is the worst blow citizens' liberties have sustained in many years. In the course of relocation citizens have suffered severe property losses, despite some custodial assistance by the Government. On the East Coast and in the United States generally, enemy aliens were controlled without mass arrests or evacuations, despite a considerable public agitation in favor of violent action. Aliens under suspicion, and those who violated the regulations, were subject to summary arrest on Presidential warrant. Immediately after Pearl Harbor martial law was declared in Hawaii, and the commanding general assumed the role of military governor. The conception of the war power under the American Constitution rests on the experience of the Revolution and the Civil War. West Coast unions and social organizations had passed resolutions of loyalty in great number, before and after the Pearl Harbor disaster. Many had been individually arrested immediately after Pearl Harbor, and the others were under constant surveillance.