Kenneth Ringle Direct Examination Q & A
(Permission to approach the witness)
Q:State your name and profession
A: My name is Kenneth Ringle and I am Officer of Naval Intelligence.
Q: It says here that you spent 3 years in Japan and a year in Honolulu studying the Japanese culture, can you please describe your experience with the people there?
A: While I was in Japan, I studied the Japanese language and culture but it wasn’t until I spent a year in Honolulu that I gained a further understanding of the people and their culture. I found that the people within the Japanese Community were quiet, kind, reserved and extremely hard-workers. I also discovered that you cannot classify a race of people based on a handful of individuals.
(Handout Exhibit H)
Q. You are holding what has been labeled as defence exhibit H, do you recognize it?
A. Yes
Q. What is it?
A. It is a report that I was asked to write for the chief of naval operations, about my time I spent with Japanese Americans and whether or not I considered them a threat.
Q. Does it appear to be complete and accurate?
A. Yes
Q: Can you explain what was the purpose of this report?
A: Yes, I was asked to write this report in order to reflect on and make suggestions to the way the Japanese-American situation would be handled.
Q: Can you please read the highlighted section in your report for us?
A:“(h) That, in short, the entire "Japanese Problem" has been magnified out of its true proportion, largely because of the physical characteristics of the people; that it is no more serious that the problems of the German, Italian, and Communistic portions of the United States population, and, finally that it should be handled on the basis of the individual, regardless of citizenship, and not on a racial basis”
Q: I am not familiar with military speech, can you please rephrase that passage for the courtroom?
A: Yes, it basically states that the Japanese were being racially targeted because of their physical appearance and specific characteristics.
Q: Can you explain in what manner it appeared that the Japanese-Americans were being targeted based from their physical characteristics?
A: It appeared as the Japanese-Americans were being racially targeted when propaganda posters were exhibited along with talk between the military officials about setting up exclusion zones and mass evacuations of people of Japanese descent, all of which went directly against my written report.
Q: During the composition of your report, how many Japanese people did you find to be dangerous to the US?
A: Through my experience, I found that about less than 3% were believed to be dangerous to the United States, a number close to 300 People.
Q. And how many people ended up being moved?
A. There were about 117,000 people that were moved
Kohler: No further questions your honors
(Permission to approach the witness)
Q:State your name and profession
A: My name is Kenneth Ringle and I am Officer of Naval Intelligence.
Q: It says here that you spent 3 years in Japan and a year in Honolulu studying the Japanese culture, can you please describe your experience with the people there?
A: While I was in Japan, I studied the Japanese language and culture but it wasn’t until I spent a year in Honolulu that I gained a further understanding of the people and their culture. I found that the people within the Japanese Community were quiet, kind, reserved and extremely hard-workers. I also discovered that you cannot classify a race of people based on a handful of individuals.
(Handout Exhibit H)
Q. You are holding what has been labeled as defence exhibit H, do you recognize it?
A. Yes
Q. What is it?
A. It is a report that I was asked to write for the chief of naval operations, about my time I spent with Japanese Americans and whether or not I considered them a threat.
Q. Does it appear to be complete and accurate?
A. Yes
Q: Can you explain what was the purpose of this report?
A: Yes, I was asked to write this report in order to reflect on and make suggestions to the way the Japanese-American situation would be handled.
Q: Can you please read the highlighted section in your report for us?
A:“(h) That, in short, the entire "Japanese Problem" has been magnified out of its true proportion, largely because of the physical characteristics of the people; that it is no more serious that the problems of the German, Italian, and Communistic portions of the United States population, and, finally that it should be handled on the basis of the individual, regardless of citizenship, and not on a racial basis”
Q: I am not familiar with military speech, can you please rephrase that passage for the courtroom?
A: Yes, it basically states that the Japanese were being racially targeted because of their physical appearance and specific characteristics.
Q: Can you explain in what manner it appeared that the Japanese-Americans were being targeted based from their physical characteristics?
A: It appeared as the Japanese-Americans were being racially targeted when propaganda posters were exhibited along with talk between the military officials about setting up exclusion zones and mass evacuations of people of Japanese descent, all of which went directly against my written report.
Q: During the composition of your report, how many Japanese people did you find to be dangerous to the US?
A: Through my experience, I found that about less than 3% were believed to be dangerous to the United States, a number close to 300 People.
Q. And how many people ended up being moved?
A. There were about 117,000 people that were moved
Kohler: No further questions your honors
Kenneth Ringle Cross Examination Q & A
Q: In your report, it seems to be entirely based off of your opinions.. why should we rely on one person’s opinion so much?
A: I had more experience with the Japanese people. I spent time with them and I learned a lot of things about them I know more than the average person because I had first hand experiences with them and I can say that most people of Japanese ethnicity are not a threat to our country.
Q: Can you read the highlighted section of your report for us?
A: Yes.
“That in spite of paragraph (c) above, the most potentially dangerous element of all are those American citizens of Japanese ancestry who have spent the formative years of their lives, from 10 to 20, in Japan and have returned to the United States to claim their legal American citizenship within the last few years. These people are essentially and inherently Japanese and may have been deliberately sent back to the United States by the Japanese government to act as agents. In spite of their legal citizenship and the protection afforded them by the Bill of Rights, they should be looked upon as enemy aliens and many of them placed in custodial detention. This group numbers between 600 and 700 in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and at least that many in other parts of Southern California.”
Q: So you believed that people who were people who were born and lived in japan and who came back to america were a threat to our country?
A: Yes but only those who had lived in Japan from 10 to 20 and then returned to America
Q: Why didn’t you think that the other people of Japanese descent were a threat to this country?
A: I didn’t think the others were as much of a threat because most had been born and raised in America and showed no signs of being a threat to this country.
For this cross examination, I think the prosecution will try to poke holes at the fact that this is only one opinion.
Q: In your report, it seems to be entirely based off of your opinions.. why should we rely on one person’s opinion so much?
A: I had more experience with the Japanese people. I spent time with them and I learned a lot of things about them I know more than the average person because I had first hand experiences with them and I can say that most people of Japanese ethnicity are not a threat to our country.
Q: Can you read the highlighted section of your report for us?
A: Yes.
“That in spite of paragraph (c) above, the most potentially dangerous element of all are those American citizens of Japanese ancestry who have spent the formative years of their lives, from 10 to 20, in Japan and have returned to the United States to claim their legal American citizenship within the last few years. These people are essentially and inherently Japanese and may have been deliberately sent back to the United States by the Japanese government to act as agents. In spite of their legal citizenship and the protection afforded them by the Bill of Rights, they should be looked upon as enemy aliens and many of them placed in custodial detention. This group numbers between 600 and 700 in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and at least that many in other parts of Southern California.”
Q: So you believed that people who were people who were born and lived in japan and who came back to america were a threat to our country?
A: Yes but only those who had lived in Japan from 10 to 20 and then returned to America
Q: Why didn’t you think that the other people of Japanese descent were a threat to this country?
A: I didn’t think the others were as much of a threat because most had been born and raised in America and showed no signs of being a threat to this country.
For this cross examination, I think the prosecution will try to poke holes at the fact that this is only one opinion.