Did Any Good From Japanese Internment Camps? Apparently, Yes.

Shortly before my Dad died, he was interviewed by a writer for the Chicago Tribune. The resulting obituary stated:

Mr. LeRoy immigrated to the United States. He spent two years in the Army before he was discharged in 1953. He then moved west. After marrying the former Carol Schultz, Mr. LeRoy and his bride moved to Elgin, where they started a construction and remodeling business. He said he owed those skills to a very unlikely instructor. “Hitler,” he said. “I learned to push a wheelbarrow.”

My Dad became a very successful construction contractor over a 50+ year period.

A recent study provides lots of financial data that shows that Japanese Americans remained in the communities and areas where they spent up to three years in camps-- and in time, established businesses. 

I never thought about this, but their California neighbors sold them out—and eventually took their property and businesses (as happened to my Dad in Hungary).

So, why not start all over in places such as Arizona, Utah, and Arkansas? And why not raise your children in these areas rather than California?

A team of researchers, led by Harvard Prof. Lauren Cohen, recently published “Resident Networks and Corporate Connections: Evidence from World War II Internment Camps,” in the prestigious Journal of Finance.

Here is their research summary:

Using customs and port authority data, we show that firms are significantly more likely to trade with countries that have a large resident population near their firm headquarters, and that these connected trades are their most valuable international trades. Using the formation of World War II Japanese internment camps to isolate exogenous shocks to local ethnic populations, we identify a causal link between local networks and firm trade. Firms are also more likely to acquire target firms, and report increased segment sales, in connected countries. Our results point to a surprisingly large role of immigrants as economic conduits for firms.

Their study is based on several large bodies of census, business, and international trade data—but in my own professional experiences, I can relate to this. In the 1980s and later, Japanese “transplants” sprouted in the U.S. 

The first time I noticed was the Honda car plant about 35 miles outside of Columbus, Ohio. But I see the implication of Prof. Cohen’s point: As Japanese firms looked to invest in U.S. operations, they would have looked to rural, isolated communities, in part, because these are nonunion types of locations. 

Next, they would eventually find savvy business people who had a nationality or ethnic affinity for Japan— the children and grandchildren of these terribly mistreated Japanese American citizens. Like my father, the people who were cruelly denied their freedom also made the best they could from their misery— and once free, they were determined to succeed.