Rachel Maddow Presents: Burn Order

Episode 5: Sheep and Goats

Date: December 13, 2025
Host: Rachel Maddow
Guests/Featured Voices: Eiko Herzig Yoshinaga, Frank Abe, Chuck Rosenberg, Edward Ennis

Episode Overview

This episode of Burn Order delves into the critical moment when the unconstitutional mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII was challenged in court and the explosive evidence that was systematically suppressed by the U.S. government. Rachel Maddow leads the listener through the journey of a government lawyer discovering damning military intelligence reports, the cover-up that followed, and the remarkable later discovery of that evidence by researcher Eiko Herzig Yoshinaga. The episode illustrates both the moral failings and the bureaucratic maneuvers surrounding this dark chapter in American history, with personal stories highlighting both resistance and the later reckoning with historical injustice.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The “Ringle Report” and Its Suppression

• Discovery of the Article (01:00)
  • Edward Ennis, a Justice Department lawyer and opponent of incarceration policy, finds an anonymous Harper’s Magazine article by “an intelligence officer” detailing that Japanese Americans posed no threat, directly contradicting the government’s justification for mass incarceration.
  • The anonymous author is revealed to be Naval Intelligence Officer Ken Ringle. (05:18)
  • Quote (Frank Abe, 06:20):
    “He was proud of it that it got in Harper's, but he was proud of it mostly because it got the point of view across. He was very gratified by that. It was too little, too late. But it was better than nothing.”
• Importance of the Ringle Report (07:13)
  • Ennis discovers the official Navy intelligence report the article was based on, which flatly contradicts the Army's claims of “military necessity” for incarceration.
  • Quote (Chuck Rosenberg, 07:27):
    “What Ringle found was there was no justification for the mass internment of Japanese Americans.”

2. Justice Department’s Internal Crisis

• Ennis’s Dilemma (08:18, 12:08)
  • Ennis is unnerved by how the military’s intelligence and the FBI and FCC findings (which debunked sabotage claims) were at odds with the government’s case.
  • He writes a direct memo (“goes to paper”) to Solicitor General Charles Fahey, warning that hiding the Ringle Report would be illegal suppression of evidence. (12:08)
  • Quote (Edward Ennis, 13:21):
    “It occurs to me that any other course of conduct might approximate the suppression of evidence. And I don't think anybody in the Department of Justice could read that and not understand how serious Ennis was about this issue.”

3. Systematic Concealment and Destruction of Evidence

• Collusion and Burning of Reports (15:48, 20:42)

  • The Army, specifically the Western Defense Command, had knowledge of these exculpatory reports and conspired not only to rewrite them to remove overtly racist language but also to incinerate all original copies.
  • Bendetsen’s report declared the impossibility of distinguishing “sheep from goats,” implying all of Japanese descent were untrustworthy—a blanket racist justification.
  • Quote (Frank Abe, 22:00):
    “This was clearly racial. It was an overtly racist statement that was flatly unconstitutional.”

• The “Burn Order” (24:48)

  • Bendetsen recalls 10 copies of his original report and orders them burned, with destruction witnessed and certified. This version is never submitted to DOJ or the Supreme Court.
  • Quote (Frank Abe, 24:48):
    “Bendetsen recalled all 10 copies of this printed final report and ordered that they be burned and that the burning and destruction be witnessed and recorded and documented in writing.”

4. The Supreme Court Decisions

• Impact of Suppression (27:18)
  • The DOJ withholds all exculpatory evidence, leading to Supreme Court decisions upholding convictions of Hirabayashi, Yasui, and Korematsu; only Mitsuye Endo’s case succeeds, as the Court rules her incarceration unconstitutional.
  • Quote (Rachel Maddow, 29:07):
    “It wasn't principled politicians in Washington. It wasn't mass protests in the streets. It was four stubborn, independent young Japanese Americans who took this fight on themselves when nobody else would.”

5. Generational Reckoning and Activism (Late 1970s)

• Silence—and Breaking It (36:48, 39:30)
  • Japanese American families, especially the Nisei generation, rarely discussed their imprisonment until younger activists organized events—most notably the 1978 “Day of Remembrance”—that sparked intergenerational dialogue.
  • Quote (Frank Abe, 40:35):
    “It burst open the tomb... These stories all started coming out.”

6. Eiko Herzig Yoshinaga’s Archival Breakthrough

• Passion-Driven Research (35:43, 43:06)

  • Yoshinaga, once a detainee herself, becomes an unmatched expert on government records pertaining to incarceration, hired eventually by the Congressional commission investigating the injustice.
  • Quote (Eiko Herzig Yoshinaga, 43:06):
    “I documented everything. I got exactly where I found it. What file, what box, what record group, so that when the commission wrote its report, people couldn't say, how can that be?"

• The Historic Find (47:16)

  • Yoshinaga discovers the missing 10th original copy of Bendetsen’s incriminating report at the National Archives, filled with editorial marks—a “smoking gun” for subsequent legal and historical redress.
  • Quote (Eiko Herzig Yoshinaga, 47:16):
    “I noticed in the margin many handwriting, delete, scratch, change to move to page, so and so. Oh my goodness. You know, this is one of the first versions. I recognize this as that one, the 10th copy that was missing.”

Memorable Quotes & Moments, by Timestamp

• Eiko Herzig Yoshinaga (02:01):
  “It was an unnecessary military act and perhaps the greatest violation of civil liberties in the United States.”

• Rachel Maddow (08:37):
  “What happened in response to Ennis raising that alarm would become one of the most consequential and malignant cover-ups in US history.”

• Frank Abe (15:23):
  “The Justice Department lawyers went back to the FBI and the FCC and verified, confirmed that these stories were lies.”

• Edward Ennis (18:06):
  “Tell them all the things that the line attorneys in the Department of Justice knew and believed which would have been material to the hearing and to the determination by the Supreme Court... They weren't included.”

• Rachel Maddow (47:59):
  “Whether or not it was luck, there it was, the original report, paired with all the documents and the cables and the memos that she had found. This was the proof that the government had lied.”

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:00 – 07:13: Discovery and significance of the Ringle Report
• 12:01 – 13:21: Ennis’s memo to the Solicitor General; warning of illegal suppression
• 15:48 – 16:44: Confirmation from FBI and FCC debunking sabotage claims
• 20:42 – 25:02: Bendetsen’s report, the “sheep and goats” justification, and the order to burn evidence
• 27:18 – 29:07: Supreme Court decisions: upholding and undoing incarceration policy
• 32:25 – 35:43: Eiko Herzig Yoshinaga’s background and start of archival research
• 38:53 – 40:57: The 1978 “Day of Remembrance” and intergenerational conversations
• 43:06 – 46:20: Yoshinaga’s role as key researcher, uncovering documentation of the cover-up
• 47:16 – 48:29: The discovery of the “missing” 10th copy of Bendetsen’s report
• 49:13 – 49:44: Legal and historical implications of Yoshinaga’s find

Conclusion and Next Steps

The episode closes with Yoshinaga recognizing the historic and legal weight of her discovery and her immediate contact with legal scholars like Peter Irons. Maddow teases that the final episode will explore the legal and reputational consequences for those responsible for the cover-up, and the ways this buried truth finally came to light.

Quote (Rachel Maddow, 47:59):
“This was the proof that the government had lied. Not just to the public and not just to the people they had put in prison. They had lied to the Supreme Court. And in court you're not supposed to be able to do that.”

Summary Takeaways

• The U.S. government had in its possession clear intelligence disproving the “military necessity” justification for Japanese American incarceration, which it actively suppressed.
• Exculpatory evidence—including the crucial "Ringle Report" and FBI/FCC findings—was concealed from the Supreme Court; a final Army report was rewritten to hide overt racism, then original copies were burned in an orchestrated cover-up.
• All but one major Supreme Court challenge to incarceration failed; Mitsuye Endo’s case led to the camps’ closure.
• For decades, the truth about the policy’s origins, execution, and cover-up was obscured until Eiko Herzig Yoshinaga uncovered original, suppressed documents—crucial to efforts seeking justice and redress for survivors.
• The episode exposes both the bureaucratic cynicism and the persistent efforts of individuals—both those inside government and those affected by its policies—to bring the truth to light.

For more on this pivotal moment in American history, and its relevance to contemporary issues of civil liberties and government power, listen to the full episode or visit the series’ webpage.