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{ "url_title": "Kenneth Ringle", "title_sort": "ringlekenneth", "links": { "json": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Kenneth%20Ringle/?format=api", "html": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Kenneth%20Ringle?format=api" }, "modified": "2024-01-23T22:42:28", "title": "Kenneth Ringle", "body": "<div class=\"mw-parser-output\">\n <div id=\"databox-PeopleDisplay\">\n <table class=\"infobox\" width=\"200px;\">\n <tbody>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Name\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Kenneth Ringle\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Born\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n September 30 1900\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Died\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n March 23 1963\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th scope=\"row\" style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Birth Location\n </th>\n <td style=\"text-align:left;\">\n Hutchinson, KS\n </td>\n </tr>\n </tbody>\n </table>\n </div>\n <div id=\"databox-People\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n FirstName:Kenneth;\nLastName:Ringle;\nDisplayName:Kenneth Ringle;\nBirthDate:1900-09-30;\nDeathDate:1963-03-23;\nBirthLocation:Hutchinson, KS;\nGender:Male;\nEthnicity:White;\nGenerationIdentifier:;\nNationality:US;\nExternalResourceLink:;\nPrimaryGeography:;\nReligion:;\n </p>\n </div>\n <div class=\"floatright\">\n </div>\n <p>\n Kenneth Ringle (1900–63) was an\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Office_of_Naval_Intelligence/\" title=\"Office of Naval Intelligence\">\n Office of Naval Intelligence\n </a>\n officer whose prewar investigation of the Japanese American community led him to conclude that Japanese Americans did not pose a security risk as a group and to oppose their mass removal and incarceration. He went on to work for the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/War_Relocation_Authority/\" title=\"War Relocation Authority\">\n War Relocation Authority\n </a>\n and authored a report on Japanese Americans that was later published anonymously in\n <i>\n Harper's\n </i>\n magazine in October of 1942.\n </p>\n <div aria-labelledby=\"mw-toc-heading\" class=\"toc\" id=\"toc\" role=\"navigation\">\n <input class=\"toctogglecheckbox\" id=\"toctogglecheckbox\" role=\"button\" style=\"display:none\" type=\"checkbox\"/>\n <div class=\"toctitle\" dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\n <h2 id=\"mw-toc-heading\">\n Contents\n </h2>\n <span class=\"toctogglespan\">\n <label class=\"toctogglelabel\" for=\"toctogglecheckbox\">\n </label>\n </span>\n </div>\n <ul>\n <li class=\"toclevel-1 tocsection-1\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#Before_World_War_II\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 1\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n Before World War II\n </span>\n </a>\n </li>\n <li class=\"toclevel-1 tocsection-2\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#Intelligence_Work_and_the_War\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 2\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n Intelligence Work and the War\n </span>\n </a>\n </li>\n <li class=\"toclevel-1 tocsection-3\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#Subsequent_Career\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 3\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n Subsequent Career\n </span>\n </a>\n </li>\n <li class=\"toclevel-1 tocsection-4\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#For_More_Information\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 4\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n For More Information\n </span>\n </a>\n </li>\n <li class=\"toclevel-1 tocsection-5\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#Footnotes\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 5\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n Footnotes\n </span>\n </a>\n </li>\n </ul>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Before_World_War_II\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Before_World_War_II\">\n Before World War II\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Kenneth Duval Ringle was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, on September 30, 1900. After graduating from Westport High School in Kansas City, he entered the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1923. Over the next five years, he served tours of duty on the USS Mississippi and the USS Isherwood.\n </p>\n <p>\n From 1928 to 1931, he served as a Naval Attaché at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo, where he studied the Japanese language and culture intensively, becoming one of the few in the navy to have such skills. After his stint in Japan, he married Margaret Johnston Avery in 1932, then went on to serve as an assistant gunnery officer on the USS Chester from 1932 to 1935. From July of 1936 to July of 1937, he served as an assistant district intelligence officer for the Fourteenth Naval District in Honolulu, Hawai'i, where he no doubt gained greater familiarity with the Japanese American community. He subsequently served as the communications officer on the USS Ranger from 1937 to 1940.\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Intelligence_Work_and_the_War\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Intelligence_Work_and_the_War\">\n Intelligence Work and the War\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Beginning in July 1940, he served as the assistant district intelligence officer for the Eleventh Naval District in Los Angeles. With his knowledge of Japanese language and culture, he was assigned to assess Japanese American loyalty on the West Coast and to engage in counterespionage efforts, tasks he approached with gusto. He built a network of informants within the Japanese American community, particularly among members of the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Japanese_American_Citizens_League/\" title=\"Japanese American Citizens League\">\n Japanese American Citizens League\n </a>\n , whose members were flattered that a military official such as Ringle sought them out. He regularly attended JACL Southern District meetings and hosted a dinner for Southern California JACL chapters in March of 1941.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n [1]\n </a>\n </sup>\n He also interviewed a range of others with knowledge about Japanese Americans and also met with presidential investigator Curtis Munson in the summer of 1941, serving as a key informant and influence on\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Munson_Report/\" title=\"Munson Report\">\n Munson's subsequent report\n </a>\n .\n </p>\n <p>\n In June of 1941, Ringle led a late-night break in to the Japanese consulate in Los Angeles. This raid was accomplished with the cooperation of local police and the FBI and even included a safe cracker that they had pulled out of prison to assist on the job. Information gleaned from the raid included lists of members of a Japanese spy ring that led to the subsequent arrest of Itaru Tachibana. (See\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Tachibana_case/\" title=\"Tachibana case\">\n Tachibana Case\n </a>\n .) These lists served as a key source for the compiling of\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Custodial_detention_/_A-B-C_list/\" title=\"Custodial detention / A-B-C list\">\n ABC Lists\n </a>\n of those to be arrested in the event of war with Japan.\n </p>\n <p>\n Based on information from the various sources noted above, Ringle submitted a report in January 1942 that vouched for Japanese American loyalty and argued against mass exclusion. He felt that the vast majority of Japanese Americans were at least \"passively loyal\" and that any potential saboteurs or enemy agents could be individually identified and imprisoned, as in fact most already had been by that time. He identified\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Kibei/\" title=\"Kibei\">\n Kibei\n </a>\n as \"those persons most dangerous to the peace and security of the United States,\" but argued that other\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Nisei/\" title=\"Nisei\">\n Nisei\n </a>\n were regarded by Japanese agents as \"cultural traitors\" who could not be trusted and who thus posed no security threat.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref2_2-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref2-2\">\n [2]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <p>\n Though his views seemed to be shared by the Office of Naval Intelligence, the navy opted not to challenge the army's actions, and so his report and recommendations were largely ignored. In collaboration with Munson and John Franklin Carter (a close associate of President Roosevelt who had hired Munson), Ringle later proposed a plan whereby Nisei—presumably JACL leaders—be entrusted with supervision of the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Issei/\" title=\"Issei\">\n Issei\n </a>\n and their property as an alternative to mass removal. Though tacitly supported by the president, General\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/John_DeWitt/\" title=\"John DeWitt\">\n John DeWitt\n </a>\n , head of the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Western_Defense_Command/\" title=\"Western Defense Command\">\n Western Defense Command\n </a>\n , refused to meet with them.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref3_3-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref3-3\">\n [3]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <p>\n With mass incarceration a reality, his son Ken Ringle described him at this time as \"drained, depressed and feeling somehow an inadvertent accomplice to the betrayal of America's Japanese,\" in a\n <i>\n Washington Post\n </i>\n piece.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref4_4-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref4-4\">\n [4]\n </a>\n </sup>\n At the request of War Relocation Authority director,\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Milton_Eisenhower/\" title=\"Milton Eisenhower\">\n Milton Eisenhower\n </a>\n , Ringle worked briefly for the WRA in May and June of 1942, expanding his January report to 57 pages, and recommended that Kibei and some Issei be separated out of the camp population, with the rest to be gradually resettled. This report was later published anonymously in\n <i>\n Harper's\n </i>\n magazine October 1942 issue under the title \"The Japanese in America—The Problem and the Solution\" by \"An Intelligence Officer.\"\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Subsequent_Career\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Subsequent_Career\">\n Subsequent Career\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n For the rest of the war, Ringle saw combat duty on board the USS Honolulu, then as commanding officer of the USS Wasatch from January 1945. He won a Legion of Merit for his performance in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However, he believed that his intelligence work ended up harming his subsequent career, both because much of that work remained secret and because it took him away from his core naval career. After the war, he commanded a division of transport ships in China. He retired from the navy in 1953, being promoted from captain to rear admiral upon his retirement. He died of a heart attack on March 23, 1963 in Louisiana.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-5\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-5\">\n [5]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <div id=\"authorByline\">\n <b>\n Authored by\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Brian_Niiya/\" title=\"Brian Niiya\">\n Brian Niiya\n </a>\n , Densho\n </b>\n </div>\n <div id=\"citationAuthor\" style=\"display:none;\">\n Niiya, Brian\n </div>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n For More Information\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians.\n <i>\n Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians\n </i>\n . Foreword by Tetsuden Kashima. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997.\n </p>\n <p>\n Lim, Deborah K.\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/limreportareseac00limd\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n <i>\n The Lim Report: A Research Report on Japanese Americans in American Concentration Camps during World War II\n </i>\n </a>\n . 1990.\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.resisters.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.resisters.com\n </a>\n .\n </p>\n <p>\n Ringle, Ken. \"What Did You Do Before the War, Dad?\"\n <i>\n Washington Post Magazine\n </i>\n , Dec. 6, 1981: 54–62.\n </p>\n <p>\n Robinson, Greg.\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/byorderofpreside00robi\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n <i>\n By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans\n </i>\n </a>\n Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.\n </p>\n <p>\n ———.\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/tragedyofdemocra00robi\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n <i>\n A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America\n </i>\n </a>\n . New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n Footnotes\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <div class=\"reflist\" style=\"list-style-type: decimal;\">\n <div class=\"mw-references-wrap\">\n <ol class=\"references\">\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Deborah K. Lim,\n <i>\n The Lim Report\n </i>\n , (1990), part I, section A-3 and A-4.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref2-2\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref2_2-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Brian Masaru Hayashi,\n <i>\n Democratizing the Enemy: The Japanese American Internment\n </i>\n (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2004), 34; Greg Robinson,\n <i>\n A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America\n </i>\n (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 55.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref3-3\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref3_3-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Robinson,\n <i>\n Tragedy of Democracy\n </i>\n , 63, 68.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref4-4\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref4_4-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Ken Ringle, \"What Did You Do Before the War, Dad?\"\n <i>\n Washington Post Magazine\n </i>\n , Dec. 6, 1981, 61.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-5\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-5\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Additional biographical information comes from a chronology provided to the author by Andrew Ringle.\n </span>\n </li>\n </ol>\n </div>\n </div>\n <!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCached time: 20240123224228\nCache expiry: 86400\nDynamic content: false\nComplications: []\nCPU time usage: 0.017 seconds\nReal time usage: 0.022 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 221/1000000\nPost‐expand include size: 1908/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 232/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 6/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0/100\nUnstrip recursion depth: 0/20\nUnstrip post‐expand size: 1908/5000000 bytes\nExtLoops count: 0\n-->\n <!--\nTransclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)\n100.00% 13.494 1 -total\n 21.47% 2.897 1 Template:Reflist\n 18.16% 2.450 1 Template:Databox-People\n 10.21% 1.378 1 Template:Published\n 10.09% 1.362 1 Template:AuthorByline\n 9.63% 1.300 1 Template:GoodNonJA\n-->\n <!-- Saved in parser cache with key encycmw:pcache:idhash:186-0!canonical and timestamp 20240123224228 and revision id 36001\n -->\n </div>\n </div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"toplink\">\n <a href=\"#top\">\n <i class=\"icon-chevron-up\">\n </i>\n Top\n </a>\n</div>", "categories": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/categories/People/?format=api" ], "sources": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/sources/en-denshopd-p222-00001-1/?format=api" ], "coordinates": {}, "authors": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/authors/Brian%20Niiya/?format=api" ], "ddr_topic_terms": [], "prev_page": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Kenjiro%20Nomura/?format=api", "next_page": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Kibei%20(book)/?format=api" }