There were many factors leading up to the Japanese-American internment. On the West Coast of the United States in 1942, anti-Japanese sentiment ran high. Rumors of an imminent Japanese invasion spread among California citizens. Rumors were sparked by real scares such as the shelling of the coast near Santa Barbara by a Japanese submarine, and by various false alarms.
Americans assumed that a network of Japanese informers, living on the Hawaiian Islands had aided the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. Then, when the Japanese bombed other allied bases and cities, fear of invasion rose among California citizens. Americans also knew that Japan was ready to hit us hard in the event of war. The Japanese on the West Coast were already well prepared in case of a war. They had assembled detailed data on our vital pacific defenses. In the port of Los Angeles, Japanese fishing fleets were permitted to share harbor space with the U.S. Navy. The fishing boats were extraordinary. They had radios capable of working directly with Japan. They had radiotelephones, sonic depth finders, and strong searchlights, electrically driven compressors and winches.
To rectify this, the United States Navy bought 32 of these boats to convert them into minesweeper and patrol boats. They were also convertible on short notice to minelayers and torpedo boats. The bait boxes in these boats were built to conceal a pair of surface torpedo tubes with self-propelling torpedoes. Between the bait boxes and gunwales there was room for two or more torpedoes.
The boats could also carry 30 mines with anchors, or 90 mines without anchors. The winch could handle an 1800-pound mine. This potentially dangerous fleet sat among our naval vessels and defense plants and up and down our coastline unquestioned. Americans could only imagine what these boats could do in the event of war. This sent a strong hint to Americans.
