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{ "url_title": "Morris Opler", "title_sort": "oplermorris", "links": { "json": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Morris%20Opler/?format=api", "html": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Morris%20Opler?format=api" }, "modified": "2024-02-15T21:52:08", "title": "Morris Opler", "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 Morris E. Opler\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 May 16 1907\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 May 13 1996\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 Buffalo, NY\n </td>\n </tr>\n </tbody>\n </table>\n </div>\n <div id=\"databox-People\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n FirstName:Morris;\nLastName:Opler;\nDisplayName:Morris E. Opler;\nBirthDate:1907-05-16;\nDeathDate:1996-05-13;\nBirthLocation:Buffalo, NY;\nGender:Male;\nEthnicity:White;\nGenerationIdentifier:;\nNationality:US;\nExternalResourceLink:;\nPrimaryGeography:;\nReligion:;\n </p>\n </div>\n <p>\n Cultural anthropologist and community analyst at\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Manzanar/\" title=\"Manzanar\">\n Manzanar\n </a>\n . As\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Community_analysts/\" title=\"Community analysts\">\n community analyst\n </a>\n at Manzanar, Morris E. Opler (1907–96) cogently documented various aspects of life there with great sympathy for the incarcerated Japanese Americans. He also ghost wrote two key legal briefs for the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Japanese_American_Citizens_League/\" title=\"Japanese American Citizens League\">\n Japanese American Citizens League\n </a>\n (JACL) in the\n <i>\n Hirabayashi\n </i>\n and\n <i>\n Korematsu\n </i>\n Supreme Court cases. He enjoyed a long and distinguished academic career after the war mostly at Cornell University, with a lifelong specialization on the Apache peoples. His younger brother Marvin was also an anthropologist and was the community analyst at\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Tule_Lake/\" title=\"Tule Lake\">\n Tule Lake\n </a>\n .\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_the_War\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 1\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n Before the War\n </span>\n </a>\n </li>\n <li class=\"toclevel-1 tocsection-2\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#Community_Analyst_at_Manzanar\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 2\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n Community Analyst at Manzanar\n </span>\n </a>\n </li>\n <li class=\"toclevel-1 tocsection-3\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#Postwar_Academic_Career\">\n <span class=\"tocnumber\">\n 3\n </span>\n <span class=\"toctext\">\n Postwar Academic 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_the_War\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Before_the_War\">\n Before the War\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Morris Edward Opler was born on May 16, 1907, in Buffalo, New York. He attended the University of Buffalo, graduating with a degree in sociology in 1929 and an M.A. in anthropology in 1930. He subsequently entered the doctoral program at the University of Chicago, earning his Ph.D. in 1933 with a dissertation on Apache ethnology, an area of focus that would remain throughout his career. He conducted fieldwork among the Apache over the next several years while working as a research associate at the University of Chicago and later worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1936 and 1937. After a stint as a lecturer at Reed College, he became as assistant professor at Claremont College in Southern California in 1938. Between 1938 and 1942, he published three books on the folklore of various Apache peoples.\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Community_Analyst_at_Manzanar\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Community_Analyst_at_Manzanar\">\n Community Analyst at Manzanar\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n While at Claremont, Opler was asked to come to Manzanar to become a part of the Community Analysis Section (CAS). He arrived there in April of 1943. Familiar with Japanese American students whom he had taught—he \"knew them as kids who were interested in baseball\"—he came to be a strong opponent of the mass incarceration.\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 His reports from Manzanar thoroughly documented the aftermath of the December 1942 \"\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Manzanar_riot/uprising/\" title=\"Manzanar riot/uprising\">\n riot\n </a>\n ,\" the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Loyalty_questionnaire/\" title=\"Loyalty questionnaire\">\n loyalty questionnaire\n </a>\n crisis, the nascent\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Draft_resistance/\" title=\"Draft resistance\">\n draft resistance\n </a>\n movement, and many other aspects of life at the camp that continue to be relied upon by scholars today. In the process, he openly disagreed with the administrative leadership at Manzanar, particularly camp director Ralph Merritt, and had an impact on changing policies there on at least one occasion.\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 His disaffection with the incarceration led him to voluntarily write two important legal briefs in his spare time.\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/A.L._Wirin/\" title=\"A.L. Wirin\">\n A.L. Wirin\n </a>\n of the Los Angeles\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/American_Civil_Liberties_Union/\" title=\"American Civil Liberties Union\">\n American Civil Liberties Union\n </a>\n office approached him about writing an amicus brief in the\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Hirabayashi_v._United_States/\" title=\"Hirabayashi v. United States\">\n Hirabayashi v. U.S.\n </a>\n </i>\n Supreme Court case for the JACL. Working nights after his job at Manzanar, he authored a 126 page brief that made the case that Japanese Americans were like other immigrant groups in maintaining some ethnic practices while seeking assimilation and acceptance in American society and also pointing out the racially discriminatory nature of\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/John_DeWitt/\" title=\"John DeWitt\">\n John DeWitt\n </a>\n 's statements to argue that his military orders drew on factors beyond \"military necessity.\" A year later, Wirin asked Opler to again write an amicus brief for the JACL in the\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Korematsu_v._United_States/\" title=\"Korematsu v. United States\">\n Korematsu v. U.S.\n </a>\n </i>\n case. His 200 page brief cited over 300 academic works and newspaper articles and again zeroed in on DeWitt and specifically accused him of racism. \"We contend that General DeWitt accepted the views of racists instead of the principles of democracy because he is himself a confessed racist,\" he wrote. \"General DeWitt has gone to unusual lengths to make perfectly clear his unalterable hostility,\n <i>\n on racial grounds\n </i>\n , to all persons of Japanese ancestry, regardless of citizenship and regardless of evidences of loyalty.\"\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 He also contributed to the JACL brief in the\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Regan_v._King/\" title=\"Regan v. King\">\n Regan v. King\n </a>\n </i>\n case. His authorship of these briefs was kept hidden at the time.\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Postwar_Academic_Career\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Postwar_Academic_Career\">\n Postwar Academic Career\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Opler left Manzanar in 1944 to work for the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Office_of_War_Information/\" title=\"Office of War Information\">\n Office of War Information\n </a>\n , becoming deputy chief of the Foreign Morale Analysis Division, where he argued forcefully for the postwar retention of the Japanese emperor. These two wartime posts piqued his interest in Asian Studies, which would become his second area of focus in the postwar years. After a brief stint as a visiting professor at Howard University in 1945 and two years at Harvard, he joined the faculty at Cornell University in 1948, where he would remain until 1969, becoming the director of the university’s South Asia program. He finished his academic career at the University of Oklahoma in 1977. His postwar career was marred by \"McCarthyistic attacks\" on other anthropologists, most notably Leslie White, with whom he had studied at the University of Buffalo.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-4\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-4\">\n [4]\n </a>\n </sup>\n Throughout his life, he remained a strong advocate for Apache rights. He passed away on May 13, 1996.\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 Hayashi, Brian Masaru.\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/democratizingene00haya\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n <i>\n Democratizing the Enemy: The Japanese American Internment\n </i>\n </a>\n . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.\n </p>\n <p>\n Irons, Peter.\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/justiceatwar00iron\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n <i>\n Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases\n </i>\n .\n </a>\n New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.\n </p>\n <p>\n Price, David H.\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/anthropologicali00pric\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n <i>\n Anthropological Intelligence: The Deployment and Neglect of American Anthropology in the Second World War\n </i>\n </a>\n . Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2008.\n </p>\n <p>\n ———, and William J. Peace. \"Un-American Anthropological Thought: The Opler-Meggers Exchange.\"\n <i>\n Journal of Anthropological Research\n </i>\n 59.2 (2003): 183–203.\n </p>\n <p>\n Webster, Anthony K., and Scott Rushforth. \"Morris Edward Opler (1907–1996).\"\n <i>\n American Anthropologist\n </i>\n 102.2 (June 2000): 328–29.\n </p>\n <p>\n Zamora, Mario D., J. Michael Mahar, and Henry Orenstein.\n <i>\n Themes in Culture (Essays in Honor of Morris E. Opler)\n </i>\n . Quezon City, Philippines: Kayumanggi Publishers, 1971.\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 Cited in Peter Irons,\n <i>\n Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases\n </i>\n (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), 192.\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 Michi Weglyn,\n <i>\n Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps\n </i>\n (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1976. Updated ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996), 143.\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 Irons,\n <i>\n Justice at War\n </i>\n , 305–06.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-4\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-4\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n David H. Price, and William J. Peace, \"Un-American Anthropological Thought: The Opler-Meggers Exchange,\"\n <i>\n Journal of Anthropological Research\n </i>\n 59.2 (2003): 183–203.\n </span>\n </li>\n </ol>\n </div>\n </div>\n <!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCached time: 20240418160800\nCache expiry: 86400\nDynamic content: false\nComplications: []\nCPU time usage: 0.017 seconds\nReal time usage: 0.023 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 210/1000000\nPost‐expand include size: 1762/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 223/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 6/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0/100\nUnstrip recursion depth: 0/20\nUnstrip post‐expand size: 1604/5000000 bytes\nExtLoops count: 0\n-->\n <!--\nTransclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)\n100.00% 16.060 1 -total\n 41.81% 6.714 1 Template:Databox-People\n 17.12% 2.749 1 Template:Reflist\n 8.67% 1.393 1 Template:Published\n 8.65% 1.390 1 Template:AuthorByline\n-->\n <!-- Saved in parser cache with key encycmw:pcache:idhash:258-0!canonical and timestamp 20240418160800 and revision id 36070\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": [], "coordinates": {}, "authors": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/authors/Brian%20Niiya/?format=api" ], "ddr_topic_terms": [ "https://ddr.densho.org/api/0.2/facet/topics/topics-80/objects/", "https://ddr.densho.org/api/0.2/facet/topics/topics-403/objects/" ], "prev_page": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Morning%20Glory,%20Evening%20Shadow:%20Yamato%20Ichihashi%20and%20His%20Internment%20Writings,%201942-1945%20(book)/?format=api", "next_page": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Morton%20Grodzins/?format=api" }