Japanese Americans 1940

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was the end of Japanese competiveness in the air. This Battle gave way to the United States’ ability to project its military power further into the heart of Japan with little to no resistance from the Japanese Fleet in the form of aerial warfare. It also left the Japanese desperate to find new ways of fighting American naval forces in ways other than the standard convention. The Battle of the Philippine Sea was “not the decisive battle in World War II”7; however, it did help accelerate the United States’ takeover of the auxiliary islands with the destruction of Japanese conventional air warfare.

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on the Pretense of expanding their area of control. Document A the Japanese Ministry of Education on August 1, 1941, states “An old order … (European and American) … is now crumbling.” (Doc A). Meaning not only the Germans fighting the British, French and other European countries, including the US who supplies them, are losing the war. “The Benevolent Rule of the Emperor may be extended so as to embrace the whole world.” (Doc A). In this weaken world the Japanese are will take over and the kind and generous Emperor would then rule the world. A Map, Document B shows just how much the Japanese took in their plot for World domination. The Japanese took over Manchukuo, Taiwan, and the bottom half of Sakhalin by 1932, Tonking and stealing parts of

On April 18, 1942, the Japanese capitol city of Tokyo and the nearby cities of Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe were bombed by sixteen United States Army B-25 bombers. In these attacks the United States damaged ammunition factories and steel plants. These small bombings did not really do much damage, but they did do their job, however, boosting the confidence of the American people. Captured Americans flying in the B-25 bombers were not considered Prisoners or War, but criminals, and went to trial. The Americans were put to death in some cases. Japan continued to build up a massive fleet that included four aircraft carriers, seven battleships, thirteen cruisers, forty destroyers, sixteen submarines and many troop transport ships (McGowen 24). The Japanese sailors had great morale and felt

Japanese immigrants and the following generations had to endure discrimination, racism, and prejudice from white Americans. Two months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the United States government to forcibly removed thousands of Japanese-American citizens who lived on the West Coast. They would relocate them to concentration camps in remote parts of Arizona, California, Idaho, and other states in the West because of an unfair reason from white Americans due to fear and ignorance. The relocation of Japanese-Americans into internment camps was one of the most flagrant violations of civil liberties in American history. Approximately, 130,000 Japanese immigrants were relocated to these interment camps, lost their businesses, forced to give up their homes and assets in addition to their freedom. Most of the population were long-standing immigrants (Issei) who arrived before 1924 or American-born children of immigrants (Nisei) who were solid members of the community and loyal to their country.

During World War II, approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent who lived on the Pacific Coast of the US were sent to internment camps after the bombing at Pearl Harbor by Japan on December 7th, 1941. American citizens made up 62% of those who were interned. And even though these American citizens were being unconstitutionally blocked off from the rest of society, the majority of these citizens still declared that they remained forever loyal to America. Some of the recollections left behind by the internees of their experiences at these camps include letters to their loved ones, diaries, pictures, and even full plays. And while living in often cramped, and poorly maintained conditions, the internees still tried to lead normal lives

Imagine if people consider you guilty of sabotaging your country without a fair trial. Your home was searched against your will. And you were denied rights as straightforward as freedom of speech. That’s what the Japanese underwent during WWII. 120,000 Japanese Americans were taken from their homes and brought to concentration camps in remote locations that were in in harsh environments. That all happened because they were considered possible spies, sent from Japan. On December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese military. War hysteria, failure of leadership, and preexisting racism was mostly why the reason why so many Japanese Americans were put into concentration camps. Our country was trying to balance common good with individual rights of the people. But, the common good was valued more than people’s during World War II. Most of the time, The United States government does a favorable job balancing people’s rights and the good of the nation. For example, we pay taxes to support our government, and the government protects us (ex: the police force) But during WWII, the US broke more than half the amendments in the bill of rights. Some of the major ones being the 4th amendment (search and seizure,) the 1st amendment (mainly freedom of speech) and the 6th amendment (right to a speedy and fair trial) Why, in the land of the free was a large amount of citizens denied basic constitutional rights for so long?

A series of Japanese codes broken by the U.S. Crytologist in 1920 revealed the country preparation for war, after decoding another of message that orders a ship to be position in Pearl Harbor (Glick). Before the raid Britain had broken Japanese codes and had key clues (Glick). They broke Japan’s diplomatic code; American officials knew about the Japan’s Embassy order to destroy its codes machines (Pearl Harbor). On October 9, 1941 the War Department decoded a Tokyo-to-Honolulu dispatch instructing the consul General to divide Pearl Harbor into five areas and to tell the exact location of American ship in that area (Perloff). The Dutch army decoded a dispatch forecasting attacks on four areas including Hawaii (Perloff). There were a lot of different Japanese codes that were cracked, warning of the Japanese going to attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, took place on Saturday, April 18, 1942. It was an air raid by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on the island of Honshu during World War II. THe Doolittle Raid was the first air operation to strike the Japanese Home Islands, and although its effects on the Japanese’s lands were little the psychological effects were huge. It demonstrated that Japan was vulnerable to American air attack, served as retaliation (revenge) for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and provided an important boost to American morale.

In 1942, Japan's military became very strong and powerful than the western armies. With their army, naval, and air force units, Japan was able to seize great amount of territory that included British ruled Hong Kong. By the mid 1943, U.S forces had to put the Japanse on the defensive side where an American plane dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima and a second bomb on Nagasaki threatening the lives of 100,000 people. This action also caused resources such as air, soil, and groundwater to cause poison in natural substances which was very harmful to the society. With the concentric circles Japan had the benefits of the islands.

In 1941, Japanese forces struck Pearl Harbor, inciting the United States’ position in World War 2. As a result of this more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans were imprisoned to get rid of possible spies on the inside. Although many people believe that this was necessary to keep our country safe, I disagree and think it was wrong for these reasons.

With racist propaganda floating around of Japanese soldiers with giant sharp teeth, such as Tokio Kid. Along with the fact that thousands of Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps, what immigrant would trust such a government. The answer is surprisingly a lot of them, the image of the Japanese being the enemy was burned into the heads of everyone. Young Japanese-Americans were given the option to fight in the war for the same people who put them in labor camps. No one is going to join the Americans right? Wrong, a good majority of the young Japanese signed up to fight for Uncle Sam, and those who refused found themselves in a jail. After the war there were two different views from the Japanese-Americans: either they no longer identified as Japanese and wanted to be more American; or there were those who were still loyal to the Japanese Empire and are in the US for the money. The former, which mostly consisted of younger immigrants, saw those who didn’t fight in the war as worthless scum, calling them no-no boys. There was a smaller group of extremists who believed that Japan had won and there were boats on the way to bring all the true Japanese home, these people were typically older immigrants. First generation immigrants are more resistant towards assimilation and feel a stronger connection to their home country, than their second generation American-Japanese children exposed to American ways and ideas.

In the beginning of war, Japanese victory in Pacific terrified West Cost Americans. Partial victory for Americans appeared when Japanese capital Tokyo was bombed. It was less of a material loss but huge in terms of psychological attack. It was followed by the Battle of Coral Sea in May 1942 and after that the decisive Battle of Midway Island took place. U.S. aircraft carriers destroyed three out of four Japanese carriers that sabotaged their further plans of invasion and they adopted a defensive strategy.

This event happened in World War Ⅱ, and is now considered the Doolittle Raid (“30” 1). The purpose of bombing Tokyo, according to World War II by Loyd Lee was, “To reassure the American public” (Lee 186), and to boost morale after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor (“30” 1). A top secret training program began for volunteers (“Doolittle Raid 1942” 1). Lieutenant- Colonel James H. Doolittle was in command of the this program (“‘Doolittle Raid’.” The 943), and had to figure out, as stated in “The Doolittle Raid 1942”, “How to force the bombers to get airborne using the 450 feet carrier deck” (“Doolittle Raid, 1942” 1). Eighty crewmen (“‘Doolittle Raid’.” The 946) flew to San Francisco to board the U.S.S Hornet (“Doolittle Raid, 1942”). Sixteen B-25’s were used to attack Japan (Lee 186), and fifteen planes followed the bombers each carrying four bombs (“Doolittle Raid, 1942” 1). The planes weighed thirteen tons (“‘Doolittle Raid’.” The 943). The Doolittle Raid showed that Japan, as stated in Loyd Lee’s book World War II, was “vulnerable to air attacks” (Lee

There are two phases that Japanese community undergoes in the United States. In the first phase, as the United States steadily progresses in the 19th century, there was a rise in the arrivals of the immigrants in particularly the Japanese Immigrants, which are found to have migrated to Hawaii and subsequently the west coast area in the States for better opportunities. Although it was quite difficult for Japanese immigrants to take up the citizenship, the offsprings of these immigrants that were born in the United States were considered citizens. The second phase begins at the start of the World War II that resulted in the relocation and internment camps for the Japanese-Americans.

Migration of Japanese people to America began in mid-1800s as they searched for peace and a mode of payment to improve their family conditions, and escape from unstable home conditions in Japan. Migration resulted in a life of great hard work and severities of hostility in the workplace. In addition, Japanese immigrants had to face multiple legislative attacks from Americans and endure poor working conditions because of their presence in a foreign land.