Talk:Office of Alien Property Custodian

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Military history: North America / United States / World War I / World War II

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Scandal

Ferdinand Lundberg (The Rockefeller Syndrome, 1975) alludes to a scandal involving the Alien Property Custodian after World War II (page 138).

Questions

During World War II, was the business property of all persons of Japanese ancestry confiscated - regardless of where they lived? Regardless of whether or not they had been born in the United States?

Was the property of those in the Western states who were interned kept in custody by this organization and returned to its rightful owners after the War? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.202.12.221 (talk) 23:21, 13 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

According to journalist Gus Russo the answer to your last question would be no. He has several pages discussing the systematic private profiteering, via the Office of Alien Property, at the expense of Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor in his book, Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers (Bloomsbury, 2007). The book was reviewed in SFGate by Trey Popp, who writes: "Russo's chapter on the shameless plundering of the assets of imprisoned Japanese Americans during World War II, presided over by a bevy of Korshak's associates, is particularly stirring." The book was also reviewed in the Chicago Tribune by Hillel Levin, who writes: "[Jacob Arvey's] clout with the Truman administration put a protege in charge of property seized from German companies and interned Japanese-Americans. Russo documents how these West Coast assets were sold for a fraction of their value to silent mob partners and the young lawyers, Arvey accomplices, who served as their frontmen." Russo also mentions how the reparations paid to Japanese Americans in the 1980s amounted to probably pennies on the dollar. It might be good to work some of this material into the article. --Mox La Push (talk) 05:49, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]