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Cause And Effects Of Pearl Harbor

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When we think of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, we think of the 2000+ military casualties and 68 civilian casualties that the Japanese left dead, and the cause of how Americans got involved in World War II. The forgotten effect of the attack is the 110,000 to 120,000 innocent people with Japanese ancestry that were interned and stripped of their properties because of this attack. The day of the bombing was an unfortunate day for the Japanese Americans. These people had immigrated all the way to the US just to be betrayed by their own “ethnic country”. They feared for their lives since they were “Japs”. Sure enough, all people with even a fraction of Japanese blood had their property taken and were forced to move to horrible prison camps. These people felt betrayed. They didn’t deserve this! They were Americans! When the government …show more content…

As there are always haters, some ignorant Americans were still racist towards them, but many were friendly and were willing to help the veterans. Societies and donations provided housing and food for the Japanese who lost everything. The president Harry S. Truman, while awarding the infantry, said “You fought, not only the enemy, but prejudice- and you won.” (Japanese Eyes American Heart 204) The same Los Angeles mayor who told the Japanese to not come back held a ceremony in the city hall just to welcome them back. It also became much easier for the Japanese to get jobs without being judged by their ethnicity. The Japanese soon were involved in all aspects of professions. When Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959, the first US congressman of Hawaii was a Japanese American named Daniel K. Inouye. 3 years later, he became the first Japanese American in the US senate. In less than twenty years, the Japanese Americans had went from one of the most hated ethnicities to one representing America in the

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