In negotiations with the United States, Panama’s government agreed to the potential formation of a new national army to support Canal defense and promised to ensure coordination and cooperation between the Panama Canal Police and the Panamanian Police. The area of most visible collaboration was in the wartime internment of Japanese aliens.
While the historical literature is scanty (notably, there is no entry on Panama in The Encyclopedia of Japanese Descendants in the Americas) what seems clear is that throughout the prewar period there were Nikkei in the isthmus—by 1941 the community numbered an estimated 400. The Chicago Tribune stated in 1940 that Japanese made up a visible part of Colón’s population. Some individuals resided inside the Canal Zone. For example, California-born Ralph Toshiki Kato was listed as living there in 1935.
Thus, as relations between the United States and Japan grew tense, authorities put pressure on Japanese citizens, viewed as a potential security threat, to depart. When the Japanese freighter Sagami Maru passed through the Panama Canal in fall 1940, the ship’s crew reported that some 20 U.S. Army officers boarded the ship for inspection. In July 1941, pretexting the need for repairs, American authorities closed the canal to Japanese ships. In fall 1941 the government of Panama forbade Japanese citizens from doing business within its territory. In October 1941, according to historian C. Harvey Gardiner, U.S. Ambassador to Panama Edwin Wilson began discussions with Panamanian Foreign Minister Octavio Fabrega. The Panamanians agreed that following any action by the United States to intern Japanese residents, Panama would arrest Japanese on Panamanian territory and intern them on Taboga Island. All expenses and costs of internment and guarding would be paid by the United States Government, which would hold Panama harmless against any claims that might arise as a result.
In November 1941, Attorney General Francis Biddle hinted that the government was planning mass confinement in Panama. Biddle announced that Justice Department experts had decided against wholesale arrests—it would be unwise to treat all Japanese living in the United States as enemies—but he added that the Canal Zone and Hawaii were different, and “temporary” mass arrests there were likely.
The various plans were translated swiftly into action following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. According to Wilson’s later testimony, within 20 minutes of the announcement of the Pearl Harbor attack, Panamanian authorities began rounding up Japanese and German aliens throughout the Republic. Once rounded up, the Japanese were summarily turned over to US authorities, and transported into the Canal Zone for internment in “concentration camps.” The New York Times reported that 57 Japanese in Colón were delivered to US authorities, and 114 more were expected from Panama City. The Times added that the Japanese were being held in a quarantine station in Balboa, but that tent cities were being constructed to house the influx.