Japanese Concentration Camps Essay

From the 1st of September, 1939 until the 2nd of September, 1945, World War Two had commenced. During this time, prisoners were taken captive by the Japanese Army and imprisoned in camps where conditions were ferocious. Those who survived these camps were named the Prisoners of War. These POWs required remarkable courage and hope to face the ‘…greatest crisis ever known…’ (www.loc.gov), they also needed to be resilient and adapt to the rules due to the new way of life within these camps. Some camps across the world owned by the Japanese only had a small amount of prisoners, such as in Pangkalapinang, Sumatra that only had 4, to over 16,000 prisoners in Changi, Singapore.

In 1942, 112,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast of the United States were forced to relocated to ten internment camps that were considered very similar to the Holocaust concentration camps. These internment camps were permanent camps where Japanese Americans were detained for the simple fact of being of Japanese descent similar to how the Nazis forced the Jews to relocate to the concentration camps for the sole reason of being a Jewish. These camps would also hold captive people of many origins, the majority of the prisoners being Japanese-Americans. This compares to how Adolf Hitler would come to force Hungarians, Czechoslovakians, Ukrainian, Russians, French, German, and Jewish to concentration camps (The Holocaust). Hitler’s concentration camps forced its incarcerated to either work to death or die, many did not get a choice in the matter.

Japanese-American Internment was the relocation of many Japanese-American and Japanese descendents into camps known as “War Relocation Camps” during World War II (specifically after the attack on Pearl Harbor). In 1942, the United States government relocated and interned approximately 120,000 Japanese-American citizens and people of Japanese descent into relocation camps. This internment lasted for about four years, and was backed by the government as well as the president. The last relocation camp was closed in January 1946, five months after World War II officially ended.

“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.

Internment: the state of being confined as a prisoner, especially for political or military reasons.

Written in the 1940s, Arthur Miller’s play the crucible explores the hysteria, persecution, and lack of due process that characterized the 1692 Salem Trials. Arguably, the themes explored in this play resonate with many modern and historical events. Arthur Miller himself saw strong connection between the events surrounding the Red Scare in the 1950s. When juxtaposed with events of the crucible, themes of hysteria, persecution, and lack of due process also emerge from a study of the Japanese Internment Camps. In December 7 1941, one of the American colonies was attacked by Japan. After the Attack on Pearl Harbor, America was feared of the

     For over a century, the United States has been one of the most powerful and influential states on the globe. However, every nation has made mistakes in its past. Throughout our country’s history, certain groups have had to endure horrible injustices: the enslavement of African-Americans, the removal of Native Americans, and discrimination against immigrants, women, homosexuals, and every other minority. During World War II, the government crossed the line between defending the nation and violating human rights, when it chose to relocate Japanese residents to internment camps. The actions taken by the U.S. government against Japanese Americans and Japanese living in the

The Japanese internment camps ruined the lives of the many Japanese-Americans who were involved. On December 7, Japan bombed pearl harbor and killed many Americans. This is what caused the Japanese-American internment camps. Pearl Harbor was a place in Hawaii where American ships were stationed. Japanese planes bombed the fleet and destroyed it. This is significant because it was a big time of racism and discrimination towards Japanese people. It later showed that Americans were wrong and changed the way people looked at Japanese-Americans. It also caused America to enter World War II. The Japanese internment camps of World War II was wrong by the American government and a hard time for the Japanese victims because

Many believe the camps were the appropriate thing to do because they believe the Japanese Americans had ties to the Japanese and were threatening to the citizens of the country that just gone under

In both inside and outside internment camps, Japanese American women had the most revolutionary change during World War II. Although living conditions were horrendous during incarceration, Japanese American women found opportunities to broaden their horizon with recreation and education – something that they did not have prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Jobs were available for both married and unmarried women and were given higher wages than they were before, high enough to match how much men were making in the fields. They were able to spend more time to be with family and community peers. Though some women stayed with their families in internment camps, some decided to volunteer for the U.S. military for war.

World War II was arguably the worst war that has ever occurred. While Europe was prevalent with concentration camps, there were also concentration camps located within the United States. These camps were called internment camps. The Japanese internment camps of World War II were an undeserved part of American history due to Pearl Harbor, the relocation camps, and racism.

Imagine being single out for something as simple as your beliefs, or racial descent? Having to be a prisoner for something you can’t control. This is the only reason that the Japanese-americans were evacuated from their own home and put into prison camps. Without a trial or reason other than your racial background. Over 100,000 Japanese americans were forced to evacuate their homes and refuge into Internment camps because of their racial descent.

Like all issues involving race or war, the question of whether or not it was legal and ethical to make Japanese Americans move to relocation camps in early WWII is a difficult and controversial problem. The internment of around 50,000 Japanese citizens and approximately 70,000 Japanese-American people born in the U.S. living in the American West Coast has become known as a tragedy and mistake. The government even set up numerous projects to apologize to the American citizens who were wronged (Bosworth). Still, at the time that the decision to relocate was made, the actions were constitutionally legal and seen by many as necessary. The actions were not based on racist feelings. It was, however,

Finally, a resolution to the disaster of the internment camps came, after 3 years of suffering (Ng xxii). The end of the terrible event started in December of 1944, when President Roosevelt finally revoked the Executive Order 9066 (JARDA). The events leading up to this included a protest at Manzanar Reception Center, the plans to re-accept Japanese into the army, and the close of a select few reception centers (Ng xii). With the momentum of these advances, and the cancellation of Executive Order 9066, the War Relocation Authority began a six-month process of releasing and relocating internees (JARDA). By 1946, all of the camps were closed and all internees were released, and the violation was resolved (Ng xxi).

Imagine 110,00 people being taken away into internment camps, that’s nearly the population of the big island! This is what happened to many japanese-americans during the pearl harbor bombing. I believe that it was not necessary to place japanese-americans into internment camps because it was a act of racism, violated japanese-americans rights and lastly it was unconstitutional.