Japanese war crimes
The U.S. officially classified all 3,649 military and civilian casualties and destruction of military property at Pearl Harbor as non-combatants as there was no state of war between the U.S. and Japan when the attack occurred. Joseph B. Keenan, the chief prosecutor in the Tokyo Trials, says that the attack on Pearl Harbor not only happened without a declaration of war but was also a treacherous and deceitful act. In fact, Japan and the U.S. were still negotiating for a possible peace agreement which kept U.S. officials very distracted when Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor. Keenan explained the definition of a war of aggression and the criminality of the attack on Pearl Harbor:
Japanese-American life before World War II
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the public began to fear the idea of Japanese Americans possibly aiding a Japanese invasion. At one point, about one month before the Pearl Harbor attack, the U.S. State Department hired a special investigator to report on Japanese-American communities to make sure that the Japanese were not a threat to national security. The investigator's conclusion was that there is no evidence supporting a reason to fear sabotage from the Japanese Americans. This report was kept confidential, however, so the public was never aware of this report. Thus, all of the negative images they had concerning Japanese Americans were initiated by the media. The public was also unaware of the fact that over 65% of the Japanese Americans were U.S. born citizens. Also, there were rumors of possibly Japanese-American spies, but there was never any conclusive evidence.