Pete Seeger Labelled 'Subversive' After Speaking Out Against Plan to Deport Japanese

Beloved singer and activist Pete Seeger inspired countless worldwide with his songs about peace and equality, and—according to his newly released FBI file—he also inspired the ire of the U.S. government, which spied on the folk icon for decades and labelled him a "subversive" for his Communist sympathies.

The 1,700-page tome, handed over by the National Archives under the Freedom of Information Act, was revealed in an Associated Press report on Saturday.

Among the revelations was that the U.S. military launched an investigation into the young singer in 1942 after Seeger sent a letter to the California American Legion condemning the group's resolution "advocating deportation of all Japanese, citizens or not, and barring all Japanese descendants from citizenship."

"We're fighting precisely to free the world of such Hitlerism, such narrow jingoism," Seeger wrote in the letter, which was penned as the U.S. government was actively forcing Japanese-American citizens to live in government internment camps.