On November 26, 1941, a White House aide named Henry Field was
summoned to the office of Franklin Roosevelt’s secretary, Grace
Tully, for what seemed like a bizarre assignment. Tully
instructed Field, one of the president’s bright young staffers,
to produce, as quickly as possible, the names and addresses of
all Japanese Americans, whether born in Japan or America. The
assignment was "of the utmost urgency," said Tully, adding, "Use
your own judgment to achieve results causing the least possible
chance of a breach in security." This was eleven days before
Pearl Harbor. That same day Secretary of State Cordell Hull
issued what amounted to an ultimatum to two top Japanese
diplomats, ambassador to the U.S. Kichisaburo Nomura and special
envoy Saburo Kurusu. "Nomuru," writes John Toland in his book
Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath, "was too stunned to
talk," while Kurusu instantly saw that this would be regarded in
Tokyo as "an insult." Having placed Japan under strain of severe
economic sanctions, the Unit