Essay On Japanese Internment

After the devastating attack by the Japs in the Pearl Harbor located at Hawaii, it triggered the tension furthermore between Japan and United States. With this tension, United States believed that they had to apprehend the Japanese Americans, mainly because they wanted to protect their national security. As stated by Justice Hugo Black “because of “military dangers” and “military urgency”—fear that people of Japanese ancestry would carry out sabotage during a Japanese invasion of the West Coast”, this quote explains how United States were afraid of Japanese Americans espionage, and in order to prevent that they had to imprison the Japanese Americans. Furthermore, the president established the Executive Order 9066, in order to protect their

On December 7,1941 Japan raided the airbases across the islands of Pearl Harbour. The “sneak attack” targeted the United States Navy. It left 2400 army personnel dead and over a thousand Americans wounded. U.S. Navy termed it as “one of the great defining moments in history”1 President Roosevelt called it as “A Day of Infamy”. 2 As this attack shook the nation and the Japanese Americans became the immediate ‘focal point’. At that moment approximately 112,000 Persons of Japanese descent resided in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and also in California and Arizona.3

Immediately after the attack, the U.S. declared war on Japan. In the days that followed, there were many presidential proclamations that declared strict restrictions on German, Italian, and Japanese residents in the U.S. In the months that followed, the restrictions for aliens from Japan continued to increase, while they were substantially relaxed for German and Italian aliens. This was most likely due to the false negotiations and the unexpected attack from Imperial Japan causing the government to become concerned with the loyalties of Japanese citizens. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government came to the conclusion that it was a very real possibility that Imperial Japan could attempt a full-scale invasion of the United States starting from the West Coast. General John L. DeWitt, commanding officer of the U.S. Army's Western Defense Command, pursued to remove all “enemy aliens” from the West Coast, due to being deemed the most susceptible area to be attacked. General Dewitt recommended the government’s evacuation of all Japanese from the coastal areas of California, Oregon, and Washington state. DeWitt's recommendations were accepted by both the Army and the civilian heads. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the Army to "designate military areas" from which "any persons may be excluded." The words "Japanese,” or "Japanese Americans" never appeared in the Order, but the order was primarily used with intent

“Herd ‘em up, pack ‘em off, and give ‘em the inside room in the badlands”(Hearst newspaper column). Many Americans were feeling this way toward people of Japanese descent after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The feelings Americans were enduring were motivated largely by wartime hysteria, racial prejudice, and a failure of political leadership. The Japanese-Americans were being denied their constitutional rights, they were provided poor living conditions in these relocation camps, and by the time apologies and reparations were paid to the Japanese, it was too late.

On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II (Prange et al., 1981: p.174). On February 19, 1942, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War and Military Commanders to prescribe areas of land as excludable military zones (Roosevelt, 1942). Effectively, this order sanctioned the identification, deportation, and internment of innocent Japanese Americans in War Relocation Camps across the western half of the United States. During the spring and summer of 1942, it is estimated that almost 120,000 Japanese Americans were relocated from their homes along the West Coast and in Hawaii and

Tension emerged between the United States and Japan. On December 7, 1941, Japanese fighter planes attacked the United States naval base located in Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii. The United States was completely blindsided. Pearl Harbor was their least suspected place for an attack to take place, so their naval base was very weak, making it an irresistible target for Japan. Over 2,000 United States sailors and soldiers died, and 1,000 were wounded. American ships and airplanes were destroyed. The United States took action against Japan and joined World War II. There was a great population of Japanese-Americans on the West Coast of the United States, which caused ongoing fear and suspicion. President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which

On February 19th, 1942, president Teddy Roosevelt signed executive orders to have all Japanese Americans on the west coast be removed detained and excluded. Without a question answered, the Japanese Americans were interned by the U.S government's orders. America was at war with the Japanese, so they took extra precautions to make sure America was at its safest. Although this was only out of protection, the U.S government did not do the right thing by interning the Japanese Americans. The government didn’t understand how to handle a precaution like this, the people made false accusations about the Japanese, and since they had Japanese ancestors and they were already at war with the Japanese, not many people had much trust in them, if not any.

Roosevelt authorized Executive Order 9066. This legislation allowed America to urgently move Japanese Americans to ten internment camps spread out across the West. President Roosevelt was advised that over 100,000 Japanese Americans were living in the United States at the time and relocation all Japanese American became the priority. The ten internment camps or the less harmful sounding ‘relocation centers’, “were established in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas, eventually holding 120,000 persons” (History). The construction of these internment camps was carried out amongst farmers who contested fellow Japanese farmers.

Japanese internment was an ineffective wartime measure because it poorly assessed the resources involved in internment, including the physical costs of relocation and unutilized Japanese American civilians. The Japanese community in the West Coast thrived in the agricultural industry, producing nearly 40% of all produce and owning 68 million dollars of farmland; when farmers had to leave their farms with little notice, their crops inevitably suffered and created complications within the agricultural industry. In addition to the cost of lost property, the cost of building the internment camps was an additional nine million dollars that could have been allocated elsewhere. World War II was already an expensive war, but the money spent to intern

The Japanese-American placement in internment camps was wrong and unconstitutional. The Japanese-American people had been living in the United States without question until the uprise of racial prejudice brought on by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many Japanese-Americans had been born in America and lived an American life, integrated into American schools, speaking with American accents, and enjoying American culture. But, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Japanese were suddenly seen as threats that needed to be controlled. Without any consent, these Japanese-Americans were placed in internment camps with poor conditions and treated as if they were ticking time bombs themselves.

The Japanese-American internment did not have a logical reason for its doing. “There is no Japanese “problem” on the coast,” (Munson, 3). Munson states there is no problem on the West Coast with the Japanese. As a “rebuttal”, Lt. Gen. DeWitt states in a government report that ”it is better to have had this protection and not to have needed it than to have needed it and not to have had it,” (DeWitt, 1). DeWitt proposes the argument that America did it out of fear of another attack by the Japanese. However,

Do you think the internment of Japanese-Americans was justified? I think the internment of Japanese-Americans was not justified. More than 127,000 Japanese-Americans were imprisoned at internment camps. Most of the Japanese-Americans held were born in the United states and legal Americans. The only people sent and called to the camps were Japanese.

The novel deepens our existing knowledge of the historical period because it allows all Americans realize that's we treated the Japanese, who were innocent, with a type of disdain. In history, we hear all about the Jewish concentration camps, but you hardly hear about the Japanese internment camps. In a country that preaches freedom,and whose core judicial belief is innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, it symbolizes America’s hypocrisy because we treated the Japanese as guilty without trial or even giving the, a chance to prove their innocence. It’s a dark stain on our history, but it is essential to learn from our mistakes, so it will not occur again.

Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt was chosen for the job of defending and protecting the West Coast. He became one of the biggest supporters of evacuating the Japanese. The FBI began investigating and arresting people along the coast who were suspected of spying for enemy countries. Not only Japanese Americans were suspected. Italians and Germans were also investigated and imprisoned (Alonso). This is one fact that shows that racism was not the reason the Japanese were evacuated. Japan was the country that attacked Pearl Harbor, not Italy or Germany. DeWitt was hearing false reports of acts of disloyalty to the U.S. and sabotage on the part of Japanese Americans including unusual radio activity caused by contacting Japanese vessels, farmers burning their fields in the shapes of markers to aid Japanese pilots, and fisherman monitoring and relaying to Japan the activity of the U.S. navy (Daniels, 29). Executive Order 9066, signed by President Roosevelt, gave the military permission to label areas "military areas"and to keep out people who were seen as threats (Daniels, Appendix). DeWitt named the west coast a military area in Proclamation 1 in March 1942. This gave him the right to remove all those who threatened the safety of the U.S. from the area. Because even 100 Japanese-Americans who were still loyal to Japan could compromise the safety of the U.S., DeWitt decided that all people of Japanese ancestry had to be

The Japanese-American Internment was a necessary choice, made by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It helped to make our nation secure during times of extreme emergency and it also helped the US government to keep their enemy under watch. “The story of how Japanese American soldiers from the war’s most highly decorated US military unit came to be there is just one part of a remarkable saga. It is also a story of one of the darkest periods in American history, one filled with hardship, sacrifice, courage, injustice, and finally, redemption. It began more than a hundred years ago” (Sandler, 2013, p. 6). At the turn of the 21st century began the immigration of the Japanese to America for various reasons, but all with one thing in mind: freedom. “We talked about America; we dreamt about America. We all had one wish – to be in America” (Sandler, 2013, p. 6). The decision by these many people was a grueling and tough decision, but they knew it would benefit them in the long run. “…like their European counterparts, they were willing to risk everything to begin life anew in what was regarded as a golden land of opportunity” (Sandler, 2013, p. 6). When they came to America, they were employed and were able to begin their new lives for the first part of it.