Japanese Discrimination In Ww2 Essay

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,

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

Imagine being a part of a minority that was blamed for the disaster that was out of their control, and as a result were forced to leave behind everything. This was a nightmare that became a reality for the Japanese when President Franklin Roosevelt passed the Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, which allowed the government authorized the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. Over 120,000 innocent citizens of California, Arizona, and Oregon faced unjust and unconstitutional treatments by their own government, who was supposed to protect citizen’s rights but made the Japanese feel the complete opposite. The internment camps impacted the Japanese-American citizens tremendously in the areas of finances, social status, and physiological well-being.

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

In the United States, prejudice, propaganda, and power were collective factors influencing discrimination against Japanese Americans before, and during World War II, but the bombing of Pearl harbor catapulted the greatest violation of civil rights against a minority group during this time with the issuance of Executive Order 9066, which ordered their confinement.

Furthermore, the destruction at Pearl Harbor has been associated with the commencement of the internment camps. The Japanese bombed a U.S. naval base, killing American military personnel. A few months after the disaster in Hawaii, the President signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed anyone of Japanese descent to be placed in an internment camp. However, the Japanese-American citizens were innocent, but

“A date which will live in infamy,” quoted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt prior to the attacks on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. These attacks were committed by the naval air forces of the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941. The purpose in Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was to neutralize the U.S pacific Fleet and was caused by intensifying Japanese- American rivalry. Prior to these attacks during World War II, the fear of Japanese Americans being more loyal to their country, fell over the nation, and this mass hysteria spread quicker than one can imagine. America’s way of neutralizing this fear was too convict any Japanese American living in the United States and send them to internment camps, including children.

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,

Executive Order 9066 was signed on 19 February 1942.(“Transcript of Executive”) This order gave power to the Secretary of War and other Military commander to create military zones, which they were allowed to remove people without any hearings or due process. (“Japanese Internment”) When the order first came out the government said the order was put in

As a result of the order, nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans were dispatched to makeshift “relocation” camps.Despite the internment of their family members, young Japanese-American men fought bravely in Italy, France and Germany between 1943 and 1945 as members of the U.S. Army’s 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry. Just over two months after Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945) signed into law Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the removal from their communities and the subsequent imprisonment of all Americans of Japanese descent who resided on the West Coast.

The surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy shook the United States at its core, and challenged how this nation would treat to its own citizens who shared ancestry with the enemy forces. The U.S. government believed that the Japanese Americans could be loyal to their ancestral homeland and can assist the Japanese forces on potential attacks on American soil. Japanese Americans were considered “potential enemies”, and having them at critical areas like the west coast was considered too great of a threat on national security. In order to contain that threat, the U.S. government planned to relocate Japanese Americans inland, to remote and abandoned areas in Arizona, Utah, and other inland states. In the height of WW2 and Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt issued the Executive Order No. 9006. This policy led to the relocation and incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans, including Yoshiko Uchida and her family, under the pretense of “military necessity”. (Lee, 211) Families were forced to abandon their home and uprooted from their normal American lives. During the whole ordeal, Japanese Americans were denied their constitutional rights and became prisoners for being Japanese. The incarceration of Japanese Americans was under the pretense of “military necessity”. The real rationalization

On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which ripped 122,000 innocent lives out of their homes and shoved them into internment camps. The residents of Japanese ancestry were deemed guilty and suspicious solely based on their ethnicity. Not to mention that they were also feared as a security risk by America. Leaders in California, Oregon, and Washington, demanded the United States to remove them from their homes along the west coast and to be relocated in isolated inland areas. All of this was entirely fueled by America’s war hysteria after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 7, 1941.

Twenty years after the First World War, humanity was, yet again, plagued with more hostility. September 1st, 1939 marked the start of World War II, this time, with new players on the board. Waves of fear and paranoia rippled throughout the United States, shaking its’ very foundation of liberty and justice for all. The waves powerfully crashed onto a single ethnic group, the Japanese-Americans, who had their rights and respect pulled away from them. They were seen as traitors and enemies in their own country, and were thrown into prison camps because of it. This event marks one of the absolute lowest points in United States history and has changed the course of the country as a whole.

After the Japanese bombed the Pearl Harbor, 1941, the US started to be more cautious of the Japanese. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Gentleman’s Agreement of 1907, and the Immigration Act 1924 were other bills passed that discriminated against a certain group of people. The Japanese Americans were rounded up and kept in much rougher conditions, and kids were forced “repatriation.” Some were sent to war and showed their loyalty to America allowing them to be honored for it. They were congratulated for what they did at war. Japanese American weren’t the enemy however they were punished as ones, they just wanted to be treated like Americans. They were scared emotionally and psychologically. President Gerald Ford signed a Proclamation “Confirming

December 7, 1941 was a day that changed history. The Japanese launched an attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States Pacific fleet. This attack not only brought the United States into World War II, but also sparked fear into the citizens of America. Even as American soldiers fought to free the Jewish people from Nazi concentration camps, Japanese Americans were being put into similar camps right on American soil.