Communication Arts: Faculty Publications

“Comforting the Afflicted”: How a Small Number of Journalists Fought for Japanese Americans During the Internment

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-13-2024

Publication Title

American Journalism

DOI

10.1080/08821127.2024.2376665

Abstract

Historians have documented that newspaper editorials and radio commentaries played a role in turning public opinion against Japanese Americans and pressured President Franklin D. Roosevelt into interning them during World War II. But what has been overlooked were the efforts of a few reporters who fought to reverse journalistic and public opinion regarding the government-sanctioned, racially-inspired injustice. This study documents the work of the unsung journalists—some who addressed a limited forum and others with a national audience—who sought to end the internments and secure restoration of Japanese Americans’s civil rights. By doing so, these reporters fulfilled one of the press’s most sacred responsibilities to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Although these journalists failed to secure freedom for the internees during the war years—these reporters eventually helped restore the dignity and constitutional rights of Japanese Americans by speaking on their behalf.

Comments

Georgia Southern University faculty member, Reed Smith authored, "Comforting the Afflicted”: How a Small Number of Journalists Fought for Japanese Americans During the Internment."

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