Japanese Americans In Hawaii

Japanese internment camps from 1942 to 1946 were an exemplification of discrimination, many Japanese Americans were no longer accepted in their communities after the Bombing of Pearl Harbor. They were perceived as traitors and faced humiliation due to anti-Japanese sentiment causing them to be forced to endure several hardships such as leaving behind their properties to go an imprisoned state, facing inadequate housing conditions, and encountering destitute institutions. The Bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7, 1941 (Why I Love a Country that Once Betrayed Me). This led president Roosevelt to sign the executive order 9066, which authorized the army to remove any individual that seemed as a potential threat to the nation (“Executive Order 9066”) This order allowed the military to exclude “‘any or all persons from designated areas, including the California coast.”’ (Fremon 31). Many Japanese opposed to leave the Pacific Coast on their own free will (Fremon 24) . Japanese Americans would not be accepted in other areas if they moved either.Idaho’s governor stated, Japanese would be welcomed “only if they were in concentration camps under guard”(Fremon 35). The camps were located in Arizona, Arkansas, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and California where thousands of Japanese Americans eventually relocated. (“Japanese Americans at Manzanar”) The internment lasted for 3 years and the last camp did not close until 1946. (Lessons Learned: Japanese Internment During WW2)

It wasn’t very long after Pearl Harbor that we succumbed to fear of the Japanese here in America, thinking they were spies, and still loyal their ancestral land. Sadly, even our president Roosevelt succumbed to this, in which he signed executive order 9066 which authorized the relocation of all Japanese citizens here in America to internment camps where they would spend 4 years of their life, and lose their homes, valuables, lifes savings,businesses, and much more. Japanese Americans were taken by bus and train to assembly centers such as racetracks and fairgrounds, after this there were camps were created in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. Over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II because

The decision to imprison Japanese Americans was a popular one in 1942. It was supported not only by the government, but it was also called for by the press and the people. In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, Japan was the enemy. Many Americans believed that people of Japanese Ancestry were potential spies and saboteurs, intent on helping their mother country to win World War II. “The Japanese race is an enemy race,” General John DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command wrote in February 1942. “And while many second and third generation Japanese born in the United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship, have become ‘Americanized,’ the racial strains are

     Unfortunately, the Japanese-Americans living on the west coast were given no time to show what their loyalties were: they were expelled from the area. They were shipped off to remote locations in the more barren sections of the country. The living conditions at the camps were inadequate at best. Residents were forced to endure extreme cold and extreme heat, cramped living spaces, poor meals, and a lack of indoor plumbing. The whole time, they were under the watchful eyes of armed military police. They were treated as prisoners.

The Japanese internment was not justified because the motives for interment were fueled by racism and discrimination. Protection from the threats of World War II mainly seemed to focus on the Japanese due to the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The fear of targeted bombings and mass killing caused war hysteria in Americans. Because of this, Americans acted irrationally against the Japanese-Americans and failed to be open-minded. Evidence of this discrimination and segregation showed in the Japanese-American stereotypes as spies.

When Pearl Harbor was hit they removed 5,000 Japanese-Americans from the U.S. army on December, 19412. They army took away Japanese-American rights as citizens, by not allowing them to be apart of the United States Army. The selective services renamed them “enemy aliens” and stopped the draft of Japanese-American citizens. Military officials denied Japanese-Americans citizenships. December 7th, 19412, FBI arrested selected Japanese-American nationals on the West coast, they never returned home. They never got to say goodbye to their family until after six years, when the war was over.

Japanese-American’s before World War II were treated not good but not bad in the United States, even at the start of the war they were still treated the same. It wasn’t until the Japanese’s attack on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor that everything changed for them. They were looked down on and that they were un-American to most Americans at the time and were treated very poorly. They were forced to live in a interment camp throughout the duration of the war and work there. No one really cared that they were being brought to camps to live except for some people that would eventually help them while their time in the camp and donate to them. The American government actions after this event changed every Japanese-Americans life forever.

Over 110,000 Japanese Americans up and down the Pacific coast received numbers and involuntarily relocated to ill-equipped, over-crowded assembly centers at stockyards, fairgrounds, and racetracks, eventually reassigned to one of ten internment camps in remote areas of Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, Idaho, Arkansas, Utah or California. Surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed soldiers, families lived in poorly built and overcrowded barracks with no running water and very little heat. Forcing Japanese Americans into camps deprived them of their liberty, a basic constitutional

The internment of Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor was not justified because it was discriminatory. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States took high security measures and placed all Japanese Americans into internment camps. The United States argued that they did this strictly because they were at war with the Japanese Empire, but people think that the United States did this because of race. The United States feared fifth column activity which was a smaller group out a big rebel group. Harry Paxton Howard wrote the excerpt “Americans in Concentration Camps,” The Crisis in September of 1942. German and Italian Americans on the east coast were considered dangerous to the military because these countries were at war with the United States. This is similar to Japanese Americans being considered dangerous on the west coast.

Throughout the 1940’s race relations in the United States changed, some for the worse and others for the better. The Japanese, Mexican, German, Italian, and Chinese-Americans all saw differences in the way Americans treated them. On December 7th, 1941 the Japanese-American population in the United States had their entire lives and identities stripped away from them. That day, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which contained a large naval base. “The attack resulted in what many consider the worst defeat in U.S. military history…2,403 people were killed.”

Along the coast, Japanese Americans were put into camps, and the government claims it was a safety measure in order to protect the people of the United States, but in reality, it was a mask for racism. For example, in the editorial, “Americans in Concentration Camps” published to the Crisis by Harry Howard, he asserts, “From a military point of view, the only danger on the coast is from Germany and Italy, but the American government has not taken any such high handed action against Germans and Italians.” Due to racial prejudice, actions were not taken against the real threats because Italians and Germans were considered “white.” The U.S. assumed that all Japanese Americans were potential enemies because the Japan was responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor. To add on, Howard goes on to argue, “Color seems to be the only possible reason why thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry are in concentration camps… There are no Italian American, or German American in such camps.” Without question, this proves that America went down the road of segregation and racism once again and discriminated against a group based on a couple people from that group. Internment and segregation against African Americans were very similar to each other. America is trying to improve from the segregation against blacks, but is falling back down the same hole of racism all over

In the article title Japanese American Relocation and Internment Camps, it states, “Not a single act of espionage, sabotage, or 5th column activity was committed by an American citizen of Japanese ancestry or by a resident Japanese alien.” Nothing was found that could condemn the Japanese as guilty traitors, loyal to Japan. The Japanese were living like all the other American citizens, and yet, they were discriminated against because fear. The government compromised the Americans beliefs and values by issuing Executive Order 9066, which sent the Japanese to internment camps. The Japanese went undeservingly to internment camps because of

way. Japanese citizens that were living in American for years have been persecuted and sent to internment camps innocent Japanese people forcibly moved from their home and treated harshly. Innocent people dying from sickness in the camp those people had nothing to do with the bombing at pearl harbor the fact that they were Japanese people was afraid of them.

“Studies point to the fact that only West Coast Issei and Nisei were removed-not those living in Hawaii or on the East Coast-and that the residents calling for their removal were California nativists, laborers, and farmers, who had long viewed Japanese immigrants as social and economic threats” (Hay 15-17). "Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066, or the Japanese Internment Order, authorized the secretary of war to prescribe military areas and was presented to the public as a necessary wartime measure to aid the United States in fighting World War II. The order was used to authorize the internment of over 100,000 Japanese Americans during the war. Both the U.S. government and much of the public feared that Japanese Americans would commit acts of sabotage in the United States to undermine the U.S. war effort and assist the Japanese. Instead, the government forced Japanese Americans into camps throughout the West, where they suffered from deprivation, despair, and disease for much of the war, even as Japanese-American units distinguished themselves in the U.S. military”

The Japanese community had two different experiences after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In Hawaii Japanese American showed that they were just as American as whites, ROTC students when to sensitive areas that could cripple Hawaii and stand guard. Also, few Japanese were not taken to the camps due to General Delos Emmons defied the order. Moreover, Emmons knew that if the Japanese were to be removed that Hawaii’s economy would suffer because they were the majority of the labor force. The Japanese that suffered were in areas in the mainland that were designated as a security risk. Many Japanese were removed from their home; others lost their business and land. Once removed, they were put in detention centers, which were often stables that recent