Great question. A series of public opinion questions by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago provides the answer. Most Americans favored the forced movement of Japanese in the United States, even Japanese who were born in the United States and were American citizens. The answers in this comment were taken from a March 28, 1942 survey conducted by NORC that consisted of seven questions.

On March 28, 1942, NORC asked: Do you think we are doing the right thing in moving Japanese aliens (those who are not citizens) away from the Pacific coast?

Ninety-three percent of respondents said yes.

In the same survey, NORC clarified further: "How about the Japanese who were born in this country and are United States citizens, do you think they should be moved?"

Fifty-nine percent of respondents said yes, 25 percent said no, and 16 percent weren't sure.

NORC clarified again: "For those Japanese who are moved from the Pacific coast, do you think they should be kept under strict guard as prisoners of war, or do you think they should be allowed to go about fairly freely in their new community?"

Sixty-five percent of respondents said "strict guard." Only 28 percent said "go about fairly freely."

The survey asked, "Should the government alone decide what sort of work they are going to do, or should the Japanese themselves have something to say about it?"

Two-thirds of respondents said the government alone should decide. Of those, 18 percent said it was because the Japanese can't be trusted. Another 11 percent said the government needed absolute control.

The survey asked, "At any work they do in their new places, should the Japanese work for the same wages other people get, for smaller wages, or for just their room and board?"

The answers on this question were more divided. Thirty-four percent of respondents said the same wages, 26 percent said smaller wages, 27 percent said room-and-board, and 13 percent didn't know.

The sixth question: "Of the Japanese who were born in the United States, do you think those who went to Japan to be educated are more dangerous or less dangerous than those who were educated in this country?"

Seventy-four percent, almost three in four respondents, said those educated in Japan were more dangerous.

The survey then flipped the question: "Do you think that, as a whole, the Japanese who were born in the United States are more dangerous or less dangerous than those who came here from Japan?"

The answers correspondingly flipped. Seventy percent said they thought Japanese born in the U.S. were less dangerous.

On Dec. 2, 1942, well after the initial survey, and well after the internments had begun, Gallup polling asked another question: "Do you think the Japanese who were moved inland from the Pacific coast should be allowed to return to the Pacific coast when the war is over?"

Thirty-five percent said yes under all circumstances. Seventeen percent said no, under any circumstances. Twenty-six percent said they would only allow Japanese who are citizens to return. Twenty-two percent had no opinion.

It should also be noted that NORC did fantastic work during the war with U.S. Navy Lt. Alexander Leighton to survey the opinions of internees themselves. The surveys took place at the Poston, Arizona internment camp, and the results of the surveys were published in a 1944 Public Opinion Quarterly article.

That same year, according to Adam Berinsky's In Time of War: Understanding American Public Opinion from World War II to Iraq, NORC asked: "After the war, do you think Japanese living in the United States should have as good a chance as white people to get any kind of job, or do you think white people should have the first chance at any job."

Sixty-four percent said the U.S. should give jobs to white people first.