Dillon Seymour Myer (September 4, 1891 – October 21, 1982) was a United States government official who served as Director of the

War Relocation Authority The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a United States government agency established to handle the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It also operated the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, which was t ...

during World War II, Director of the

Federal Public Housing Authority The United States Housing Authority, or USHA, was a Alphabet agencies, federal agency created during 1937 within the United States Department of the Interior by the Housing Act of 1937 as part of the New Deal. It was designed to lend money to th ...

, and Commissioner of the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...

in the early 1950s.Dickie, William
"Dillon S. Myer, Who Headed War Relocation Agency, Dies"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', October 25, 1982, retrieved on April 6, 2014."Dillon S. Myer Papers"

Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and resting place of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States (1945–1953), his wife Bess and daughter Margaret, and is located on U.S. Highwa ...

, retrieved on April 6, 2014. He also served as President of the Institute of Inter-American Affairs. He is the subject of ''Keeper of Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Myer and American Racism'' by

Richard T. Drinnon Richard T. Drinnon (January 4, 1925 - April 19, 2012) was professor emeritus of history at Bucknell University. He also taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught courses on American history. He was denied tenure due to his p ...

. Drinnon, Richard T. ''Keeper of Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Myer and American Racism''. Berkeley:

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

, 1987. .

Early life and education

Myer was born September 4, 1891, in

Hebron, Ohio Hebron is a village in Licking County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,336 at the 2010 census. Geography Hebron is located at (39.963125, -82.492235). According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , a ...

. He earned a bachelor's degree from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

in 1914 and an M.A. in education from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1926. From 1914 to 1916, he taught agronomy at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

. He transitioned into the civil service with the federal government, taking a job with the

Agricultural Adjustment Administration The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was a United States federal law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant on part ...

in 1933, in the administration of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

. He continued his work with the Department of Agriculture, becoming assistant chief of the

Soil Conservation Service Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners and ...

in 1938.Imai, Shiho.
Dillon Myer
''Densho Encyclopedia''. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

War Relocation Authority

On June 17, 1942, Myer was appointed to lead the War Relocation Authority, and ran it until its dissolution in 1946. He replaced

Milton Eisenhower Milton Stover Eisenhower (September 15, 1899 – May 2, 1985) was an American academic administrator. He served as president of three major American universities: Kansas State University, Pennsylvania State University, and Johns Hopkins Univers ...

, who had opposed the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans and resigned after 90 days. Myer would eventually come to agree that the internment was a mistake, but believed that the resettlement efforts he headed toward the end of the war worked toward correcting it. In one of his first actions as WRA Director, Myer established a formal leave program to allow citizen

Nisei is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants (who are called ). The are considered the second generation, ...

(second generation ethnic Japanese Americans) to exit camps for work outside the exclusion zone. (

Kibei Kibei was a term often used in the 1940s to describe Japanese Americans born in the United States who returned to America after receiving their education in Japan. Some Japanese Americans sent their children, many of whom had dual citizenship, back ...

, United States citizens who had spent considerable time in Japan and were viewed by the WRA with suspicion, and non-citizen

Issei is a Japanese-language term used by ethnic Japanese in countries in North America and South America to specify the Japanese people who were the first generation to immigrate there. are born in Japan; their children born in the new country are ...

were prohibited from leaving the camps.) The leave clearance program helped alleviate overcrowding in some of the camps and, especially important for Myer, began the process of resettling an inmate population that would have to be released at the end of the war. In some states where anti-Japanese prejudice remained high, this leave program was opposed. One historian characterized Myer as a principled hero struggling to end the program in the face of a broad, fear-driven movement perpetuating it. Hamby, Alonzo L.
Under Suspicion
" review of Greg Robinson, ''By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans''. ''The New York Times''. November 4, 2001. Myer himself told an

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

conference in 1944 that "super-patriotic organizations and individuals" and

Hearst newspapers Hearst may refer to: Places * Hearst, former name of Hacienda, California, United States * Hearst, Ontario, town in Northern Ontario, Canada * Hearst, California, an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, United States * Hearst Island, an i ...

on the West Coast were hindering the resettlement of tens of thousands of "harmless" detainees who were eligible to leave the camps.''The New York Times''. "Scores Opponents of War Relocation: Head of the Authority Says Organized Groups Hinder Aid to U.S. Japanese." Feb. 13, 1944. In July 1943, Myer was called to testify before a subcommittee of the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

. Triggered in large part by news of the resettlement program, and fed by ongoing rumors that the WRA was "coddling" inmates while the larger public suffered from wartime shortages, the Dies Committee was charged with investigating potential

fifth column A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. According to Harris Mylonas and Scott Radnitz, "fifth columns" are “domestic actors who work to un ...

activity in the camps. The Committee's final report was anti-climactic; Myer was able to disprove the more inflammatory claims. The suggestions offered by the Committee were for the most part in line with existing WRA policies. Under Myer's administration of the WRA, the agency pushed for assimilation among Nisei resettlers. Early in 1943 Myer had established WRA field offices in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, two cities that received a significant number of those released on work leave. The offices provided support to Japanese Americans, helping them find employment and housing in communities where discrimination was widespread. Following Myer's directive, WRA workers also encouraged Nisei to "blend in" by avoiding speaking Japanese or spending time with other Japanese Americans. The policy was to disperse the former internees in order to avoid large congregations of Japanese American communities or reestablishment of the pre-war

Japantown is a common name for Japanese communities in cities and towns outside Japan. Alternatively, a Japantown may be called J-town, Little Tokyo or , the first two being common names for Japantown, San Francisco, Japantown, San Jose and Little To ...

s. (Those were largely the result of discriminatory policies of many cities where Japanese immigrants settled, including prohibiting their ownership of land.) Myer continued to work with an advisory council established by his predecessor and headed by

Japanese American Citizens League The is an Asian American civil rights charity, headquartered in San Francisco, with regional chapters across the United States. The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) describes itself as the oldest and largest Asian American civil right ...

leader

Mike Masaoka Mike Masaru Masaoka ( ja, 正岡優, October 15, 1915 – June 26, 1991) was a Japanese-American lobbyist, author, and spokesman. He worked with the Japanese American Citizens League for over 30 years. He was a key player in encouraging cooperati ...

(also a controversial figure). Together the WRA and JACL emphasized hyper-patriotism and assimilation with white Americans as the primary means for Japanese Americans to achieve success.Drinnon, Richard T. ''Keepers of Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Myer and American Racism'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987) pp 72-73. Additionally, while Myer was supportive of the "good" Nisei who were eligible for leave clearance, those who were seen as "troublemakers" — mostly protestors and those who failed the so-called " loyalty questionnaire" — were removed from the general population and sent to segregated maximum security camps. President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

awarded Myer the

Medal for Merit The Medal for Merit was, during the period it was awarded, the highest civilian decoration of the United States. It was awarded by the President of the United States to civilians who "distinguished themselves by exceptionally meritorious conduct i ...

for his work at the Authority. In 1946 the

honored him for his "courageous and inspired leadership." In 1971, he published ''Uprooted Americans: the Japanese Americans and the War Relocation Authority during World War II''.Myer, Dillon S. ''Uprooted Americans: the Japanese Americans and the War Relocation Authority during World War II''.

University of Arizona Press The University of Arizona Press, a publishing house founded in 1959 as a department of the University of Arizona, is a nonprofit publisher of scholarly and regional books. As a delegate of the University of Arizona to the larger world, the Press p ...

, 1971.
Information at Google Books
/ref>

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Myer led the

in the Department of Interior from May 1950 until President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

accepted his resignation in March 1953, as part of the change in administration following his election. It was typical of high-level political appointees to be replaced by new presidents.''The New York Times''. "Myer Out as Head of Indian Bureau." March 20, 1953. Early in Myer's tenure,

Oliver La Farge Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge II (December 19, 1901 – August 2, 1963) was an American writer and anthropologist. In 1925 he explored early Olmec sites in Mexico, and later studied additional sites in Central America and the American Southw ...

, then President of the

Association on American Indian Affairs The Association on American Indian Affairs (originally the American Indian Defense Association) is a nonprofit human rights charity located in Rockville, Maryland. Founded in 1922, it is dedicated to protecting the rights of Native Americans in ...

, expressed optimism based on Myer's record that he and new

Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to: * Secretary of the Interior (Mexico) * Interior Secretary of Pakistan * Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines) * United States Secretary of the Interior See also

*Interior ministry ...

Oscar L. Chapman Oscar Littleton Chapman (October 22, 1896 – February 8, 1978) was the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, during President Truman's administration, from 1949 to 1953. Early life and career Chapman was born in Omega, Halifax County, Virgini ...

would offer tribes more assistance and less paternalism.La Farge, Oliver. "Not an Indian, But a White-Man Problem: More guidance and less paternalism is urged to alleviate poverty and ignorance of redmen." ''The New York Times''. April 30, 1950. Instead, Myer accelerated the termination policy begun in the 1940s to withdraw the federal government from Indian affairs and liquidate Indian property. This was ultimately considered to be an "abject failure."Anderson, Robert T., Bethany Berger, Philip P. Frickey, and Sarah Krakoff. ''American Indian Law: Cases and Commentary''. St. Paul: Thomson Reuters, second edition (2010). Pp. 142-145. Myer supported termination so avidly that a year into his tenure at BIA, Harold Ickes (then

United States Secretary of Interior The United States secretary of the interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior. The secretary and the Department of the Interior are responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land along with natural ...

and a key figure in implementing the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

), called Myer "a Hitler and Mussolini rolled into one."Prucha, Francis Paul. ''The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians''.

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Univer ...

, 1984.
Preview at Google Books
(quoting ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'' 124:17 (May 1951). Ultimately, Myer faced "vigorous" criticism from the AAIA, for example in its opposition to his effort to broaden the powers of Bureau law-enforcement officers, who had jurisdiction on reservations of federally recognized tribes.''The New York Times''. "2 Congress Bills on Indians Scored: Measures to Widen the Police Powers of U.S. Bureau Called Un-American." March 27, 1952. Despite comparing Bureau policy under Myer to the Japanese internment, "designed to reduce Indians to the condition of prisoners of the bureau,"

Felix S. Cohen Felix Solomon Cohen (July 3, 1907 – October 19, 1953) was an American lawyer and scholar who made a lasting mark on legal philosophy and fundamentally shaped federal Indian law and policy. Biography Felix S. Cohen was born in Manhattan, New Y ...

told the House Interior Committee that he believed Myer to be "a man of the highest integrity."''The New York Times''. "U.S. Laws on Indians Called Un-American." March 1, 1952.

Indian termination policy

From the time Myer joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he "felt very strongly that the Bureau of Indian Affairs should get out of business as quickly as possible but that the job must be done with honor." He was surprised to learn that the large majority of Indians, including their leaders, did not support termination policies. He attributed this to lack of understanding by some well-meaning people, coupled with deception by some lawyers who worked prominently with tribes (see "Tribal legal representation" below). Myer's administration of the

Indian termination policy Indian termination is a phrase describing United States policies relating to Native Americans from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. It was shaped by a series of laws and practices with the intent of assimilating Native Americans into mainstream ...

was consistent with his continued support for: * Withdrawing federal recognition and trust responsibility from tribes supposedly ready to support themselves, a position advanced in Congress, especially by Senator

Arthur Vivian Watkins Arthur Vivian Watkins (December 18, 1886September 1, 1973) was a Republican U.S. Senator from Utah, serving two terms from 1947 to 1959. He was influential as a proponent of terminating federal recognition of American Indian tribes, in the be ...

* Relocating Indians from reservations to major cities * Transferring the Bureau's educational functions to local public schools or state departments of education * Transferring

agricultural extension Agricultural extension is the application of scientific research and new knowledge to agricultural practices through farmer education. The field of 'extension' now encompasses a wider range of communication and learning activities organized for r ...

to the state extension services * Withdrawing the Bureau from providing health services (including its operation of about 60 hospitals) * Subjecting tribal lands to state law enforcement jurisdiction, rather than federal, as it had been under the BIA and FBI (for certain classes of crime) Upon leaving office, Myer wrote to his successor

Glenn L. Emmons Glenn Leonidas Emmons (1895-1980) was an American banker and politician who served as the Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 1953 to 1961 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, succeeding Dillon S. Myer. in addition, he was a candid ...

: "In order to implement these proposals and for the benefit of the Indians a strong hand will have to be taken both by the Department f the Interiorand Congress."

Tribal legal representation

As early as 1950, reformer John Collier (who led BIA for 12 years under President Roosevelt) accused Myer of taking a stance of "personal patronage" toward tribes through his control over Indian legal affairs.''The New York Times''. "Policy on Indians Scored: Ex-Official Says Bureau Head Views Affairs as Patronage." December 2, 1950. Myer later attributed Collier's negative opinion to an inadvertent dispute in 1942 over the future of Japanese internees at the

Poston War Relocation Center The Poston Internment Camp, located in Yuma County (now in La Paz County) in southwestern Arizona, was the largest (in terms of area) of the ten American concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority during World War II. The sit ...

, located on the

Colorado River Indian Reservation The Colorado River Indian Tribes (Mojave language 'Aha Havasuu, Navajo language: Tó Ntsʼósíkooh Bibąąhgi Bitsįʼ Yishtłizhii Bináhásdzo) is a federally recognized tribe consisting of the four distinct ethnic groups associated with the C ...

, when Collier was BIA commissioner and Myer headed the

.Myer, Dillon S. ''An Autobiography of Dillon S. Myer''. 1970. Manuscript available a
Open Library
(accessed April 12, 2014). Serious controversy arose when Myer drafted and the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

promulgated proposed regulations that would allow Myer to veto contracts for legal representation between tribes and attorneys. The move to control tribal legal representation grew out of frustration by Democratic members of Congress with lawsuits brought on behalf of tribes by a few particular lawyers, especially

, architect of the 1934

Indian Reorganization Act The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of June 18, 1934, or the Wheeler–Howard Act, was U.S. federal legislation that dealt with the status of American Indians in the United States. It was the centerpiece of what has been often called the "Indian ...

and author of the ''Handbook of Federal Indian Law.'' Myer viewed Cohen, counsel for the

; and James E. Curry, counsel for the

National Congress of American Indians The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is an American Indian and Alaska Native rights organization. It was founded in 1944 to represent the tribes and resist federal government pressure for termination of tribal rights and assimilati ...

, as examples of lawyers who deliberately misled Indian tribes and the public. He believed they were using Indian organizations as fronts to advance their own financial interests in tribal representation contracts and consulting fees. Opponents of Myer's regulation included the

, the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

, the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...

, the Association on American Indian Affairs, a number of individual tribes,Leviero, Anthony. "Indian War Whoop Marks Hearings." Jan. 4, 1952. ''The New York Times''. and much of the legal profession, including the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...

. Secretary of the Interior

finally laid the controversy to rest by abandoning Myer's regulation, leaving in place 1938 regulations dating to the tenure of reformer John Collier, who had studied and worked in Native American policy before coming to the government.Leviero, Anthony. "Curb on Lawyers of Indians Lifted." ''The New York Times''. January 25, 1952.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Myer, Dillon S. Internment of Japanese Americans 1891 births 1982 deaths Medal for Merit recipients Ohio State University people Columbia University people People from Licking County, Ohio