Kenneth Ringle

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Kenneth Ringle
Born

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Hutchinson, Kansas
Died March 23, 1963(1963-03-23) (aged 62)
Nationality USA
Other names Kenneth Duval Ringle
Occupation Naval officer

Kenneth Ringle was an officer in the United States Navy, best known for the role he played in the Intelligence effort against Imperial Japan, prior to and during World War 2.[1]

Naval career

Ringle graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1923.[2] He served as a Naval Attache in Japan, from 1928 to 1931, and learned the Japanese language there.[3][1]

Ringle lead a secret raid on the Japanese Consulate, in Hawaii, in the Spring of 1941.[2][4] According to Andrea Pitzer, in addition to copying the consulates list of agents they used to spy on the American military, he copied documents that indicated Japanese officials didn't trust Nisei, American-born citizens whose parents were from Japan, making them unlikely to use them as agents, in future. She suggested that if Ringle's conclusion had received more attention, there may have been no internment of Japanese-Americans.

In late 1941 Ringle published a report recommending Japanese-Americans should not be routinely interned.[1]

Ringle was a Lieutenant Commander at the beginning of World War 2, and retired as an Admiral.[5]

The Ringle Report

Ringle completed a 10 page report that recommended Japanese-Americans should not be routinely interned.[1]

In a memorandum written in February 1942 that became known as the Ringle Report, Ringle estimated that the highest number of Japanese Americans "who would act as saboteurs or agents" of Japan was less than 3 percent of the total, or about 3500 in the United States; the most dangerous of these, he said, were already in custodial detention or were well known to the Naval Intelligence service or the FBI.

Even at the height of war-time prejudice against those of Japanese descent the report was extensively quoted by Harper's magazine. It was widely quoted, after the war, by those arguing security measures against Americans of Japanese descent were unfair.

Legacy

Japanese-American honored him with a wreath, at his funeral in 1963, to show they recognized the efforts he had made on their behalf, during World War 2.[1]

Ringle is related to the Avery family, known for their long ownership of Avery Island, Louisiana.[5] Ringle lived on the Island, for a time, and he was listed as one of the notable residents in an application to enter the island the USA's National Register of Historic Places.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Andrea Pitzer (2017-01-10). "In the wake of Pearl Harbor, a secret intel report could've stopped the internment camps: The Tale of a Daring Night Raid That Vindicated Japanese Americans". Zocalo Public Square. https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2017/01/18/wake-pearl-harbor-secret-intel-report-couldve-stopped-internment-camps/chronicles/who-we-were/. Retrieved 2019-11-15. "The Navy had chosen Ringle to assess the Japanese threat in 1940 because he had previously lived and worked in Tokyo and was one of only a handful of U.S. sailors who could speak Japanese." 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Ken Ringle (1981-12-06). "What Did You Do Before The War, Dad?". Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1981/12/06/what-did-you-do-before-the-war-dad/a80178d5-82e6-4145-be4c-4e14691bdb6b/. Retrieved 2019-11-15. "For the break-in, in addition to yielding detailed evidence of the Japanese spy network on the West Coast, also produced evidence supporting one of my father's most fiercely held beliefs: that the overwhelming majority of Japanese-Americans in the nation would prove loyal American citizens in any war with Japan -- loyal despite racial discrimination against them as cruel as any this nation has produced." 
  3. Brian Masaru Hayashi (2004). "Democratizing the Enemy: The Japanese American Internment". Princeton University Press. p. 33-34. ISBN 9780691009452. https://books.google.ca/books?id=N6mNB0-99g4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Democratizing+the+Enemy:+The+Japanese+American+Internment&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKr5H9v_DlAhWkTN8KHavJD2UQ6AEIMTAB#v=onepage&q=ringle&f=false. Retrieved 2019-11-15. 
  4. Ken Ringle (2013-04-26). "Behind the Japanese internment". Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/behind-the-japanese-internment/2013/04/26/222e6b6c-adeb-11e2-b240-9ef3a72c67cc_story.html. Retrieved 2019-11-15. "As Mr. Will noted, that decision occurred after the U.S. government hid from the court a report prepared for the chief of naval operations testifying to the loyalty of 97 percent of Japanese Americans and urging that 'the Japanese problem . . . should be handled on the basis of the individual and not on a racial basis.'" 
  5. 5.0 5.1 "Louisiana National Register Review Committee Meeting". 2017-12-14. https://wwwcfprd.doa.louisiana.gov/boardsandcommissions/MeetingMinutes/320_December142017minutes.pdf. Retrieved 2019-11-17. "The Island also was home to Admiral Kenneth Duval Ringle, USN, and Admiral Arthur Dewey Struble, both World War II veterans and members of the Avery family." 

External links