Japanese Americans In Internment Camps

The U.S. internment of people of Japanese descent during the 1940s was a major event in U.S. history, but it is often overlooked by many. It affected hundreds of thousands of people of Japanese descent, whether they were citizens or not. The incarceration of those placed in camps was affected mentally and it caused many of the internees to develop PTSD or otherwise commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder (Potts, 1994, p. 1). The camps affected how the Japanese were viewed in society during the time period of the camps and following the liberation of them. It also changed how the Japanese viewed society. This paper will focus on the cultural and social aspects of the Internal Improvements.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the internment of Japanese Americans on the West coast of the United States. On going tension between the United States and Japan rose in the 1930’s due to Japan’s increasing power and because of this tension the bombing at Pearl Harbor occurred. This event then led the United States to join World War II. However it was the Executive Order of 9066 that officially led to the internment of Japanese Americans. Japanese Americans, some legal and illegal residents, were moved into internment camps between 1942-1946. The internment of Japanese Americans affected not only these citizens but the

Allowing as much as a carload per family and possessions, much of their property was left behind. Executive Order 9066 forced all Japanese-Americans from western states into military areas, placing disconnected and detached families into various internment camps.

Fear of another attack sparked government actions. First, Roosevelt issued “military areas” from which anyone could legally be excluded. Following this, he issued order 9066, allowing removal and internment of Japanese Americans. The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was formed to oversee these camps (Gorman). The fear created by Pearl Harbor and the war in general found an outlet in the mass prosecution of Japanese Americans.

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

Ten weeks after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) singed an Executive Order of 9066 that authorized the removal of any people from military areas “as deemed necessary or desirable”(FDR). The west coast was home of majority of Japanese Americans was considered as military areas. More than 100,000 Japanese Americans was sent and were relocated to the internment camps that were built by the United States. Of the Japanese that were interned, 62 percent were Nisei (American born, second generation) or Sansei (third-generation Japanese) the rest of them were Issai Japanese immigrants. Americans of

After the attack on the Pearl Harbor in 1941, a surprise military strike by the Japanese Navy air service, United States was thrilled and it provoked World War II. Two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. President FDR ordered all Japanese-Americans regardless of their loyalty or citizenship, to evacuate the West Coast. This resulted over 127,000 people of Japanese descent relocate across the country in the Japanese Internment camps. Many of them were American Citizens but their crime was being of Japanese ancestry. They were forced to evacuate their homes and leave their jobs and in some cases family members were separated and put into different internment camps. There were ten internment camps were placed in “California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas”(History.com). However, until the camps were fully build, the Japanese people were held in temporary centers. In addition, almost two-thirds of the interns were Japanese Americans born in the United States and It made no difference that many of them had never even been to Japan. Also, Japanese-American veterans of World War I were forced to leave their homes and relocate in the internment camps. Japanese families in internment camps dined together, children were expected to attend school, and adults had the option of working for earning $5 per day. The United States government hoped that the internment camps could make it self-sufficient by farming to produce food.

When Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942,1 thousands of Japanese-American families were relocated to internment camps in an attempt to suppress supposed espionage and sabotage attempts on the part of the Japanese government. Not only was this relocation based on false premises and shaky evidence, but it also violated the rights of Japanese-Americans through processes of institutional racism that were imposed following the events of Pearl Harbor. Targeting mostly Issei and Nisei citizens, first and second generation Japanese-Americans respectively,2 the policy of internment disrupted the lives of families, resulting in a loss of personal property, emotional distress,

The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Many Americans were afraid of another attack, so the state representatives pressured President Roosevelt to do something about the Japanese who were living in the United States at the time. President Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066 which allowed local military commanders to designate military areas as exclusion zones, from which any or all persons may be excluded. Twelve days later, this was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire Pacific coast. This included all of California and most of Oregon and Washington.

Following the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, racial tensions increased in the United States, especially on the West Coast (Divine 898). The anti-Japanese sentiment led to President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which gave military officials the power to limit the civil rights of Japanese Americans (Danzer 802). The order also authorized the forced relocation of all Japanese Americans to concentration camps (Divine 898). These camps were located in desolate deserts and flatlands in the interior of the United States (Sato 67). Two thirds of the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were forced to relocate were “Nisei”, or native born American citizens (Divine 898).

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

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 relocation of Japanese Americans was an event that occurred within the United States during World War II. On February 19th, 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which forced all Japanese Americans living in the West Coast to be evacuated from the area and relocated to internment camps all across the United States, where they would be imprisoned. Approximately 120,000 people were sent to the camps and the event lasted through the years 1942 and 1945. The main cause of the relocation and internment of these people was because of fear made among Japanese people after Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. Citizens of the United States had been worrying about the possibility of Japanese residents of the country aiding Japan, and/or secretly trying to destroy American companies.

Executive order 9066 was a command issued by president Franklin Roosevelt that allowed the U.S. military to move all japenese-americans from the west coast to any area approved within the borders of America. The order was put into place on February 19, 1942, which was two months after the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor. After the attack the military and political collegues of Roosevelt were pressuring him into drafting and signing the order. FDR had involvment in every step in the order, but it is believed that the he made this action because of recent pressure to respond to Japan after the attack. He mostly left it to the military, which shows he might not have felt personally responsible for the migration of japenese-americans.

Despite the efforts to mobilize the war America was still afraid of attack on U.S. soil. On February 19th, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which gave the approval to send Americans of Japanese heritage to interments camps (otherwise known as “relocation