3 
in charge of the incarceration of Japanese- Americans, uttered 
his infamous remark.: 
"A Jap’s a Jap. It doesn’t matter where they're 
born. They’re sneaky and can't be trusted." 
Now that is a statement about genetics, that deceit and 
treachery are racially inherited traits. Dewitt’s belief 
didn't spring out of the blue — it was festered and encouraged 
by "scientific" claims made by some of the most eminent 
biologists and geneticists in the early part of this century. 
In their euphoria with the Darwinian theory of evolution by 
survival of the fittest and with the discovery of Mendel’s 
laws of heredity providing a basis for natural selection, 
scientists rallied around the field of eugenics. Often 
extrapolating from fur color in guinea pigs and egg laying 
in chickens, many geneticists made sweeping pronouncements 
about the racial basis for intelligence, criminality and 
poverty. In the same way, Nazi Germany's elaborate program 
of racial purification and eugenics did not leap, full blown, 
from the brain of a single madman. It was made possible by 
the contribution and support of some of the finest minds in 
world science. 
I don’t want to belabor this, but a simple inspection 
of the history of science reveals that usually for the most 
lofty principles, for the best of intentions, the scientific 
community has contributed its expertise and technology for 
what would later be seen as misguided and ignorant purposes. 
"What becomes evident is that scientific leaders, 
when faced with a choice between the imperatives 
cf conscience and power, nationalism and inter- 
nationalism, justice and patriotism, invariably 
gravitated toward power, nationalism and patriotism." 
Joseph Haberer. 
As the amount of scientific information has exploded, 
scientists, of necessity, have had to become specialists 
within specialties with the result that we know less about 
what's happening in onher areas of science and we’ve lost 
all sense of a historical and cultural perspective of this 
[Appendix A — 196] 
