Japanese Internment Camps Argumentative Essay

While the attack on Pearl Harbor was a devastating time in United States history and the attack being conducted by the Japanese government, it didn’t not justify Japanese Americans being put into internment camps. The fear of a Japanese attack on mainland United States soil prompted the United States government to create these internment camps. Such fear lead to innocent Japanese Americans to live in a way that could be considered inhuman. Of the hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans in the internment camps half of them were children. The conditions of the camps where no way of life and Japanese Americans were forced to live in an undignified life that

The internment and cruel treatment of the Japanese in the U.S. stemmed from a fear of a full-pledged invasion from Japan and also from years of racial prejudice

Imagine what it would be like to be told at a moment’s notice that you must pack up and be relocated from your home all because of your ethnic background? It doesn’t seem possible that it happened, but it did. And it is still happening to specific ethnic groups. During World War Two and the bombing of Pearl Harbor the United States Government, President Roosevelt and many American citizens did not trust the Japanese. They needed to be in internment camps like the one at Newell California that is shown above. The Japanese people could be monitored and watched to prevent any underground activities. My husband and I live 55 miles from an old Japanese Internment Camp, called The Tulelake Relocation Center or the Tule Lake Segregation Center.

Despite the fact that an attack on the US mainland would have been extremely difficult with being so far away and not very technologically advanced, “public opinion in 1942 thought otherwise” (Document 14). This is even confirmed by Attorney General Biddle, who in 1942 stated that “The present military situation does not at this time require the removal of American citizens of the Japanese race” (Document 6), and shows the deep rooted racism in the reasoning for removal. Despite the facts, the public panic caused by the media caused Japanese internment to become “military necessity”, causing a lack in their loyalty to the United States (Takaki). The assumption of disloyalty played a large role in the Japanese internment, even though the Japanese that were in Hawaii, closest to the attack, were actually extremely helpful and essential to the rebuilding of Hawaii after the attack (Fraser). The claim for “military necessity” is undermined with the fact that the Attorney General Biddle opposed the relocation for the very fact that it wasn’t actually necessary (Takaki). Since “there (was) no evidence of planned sabotage”, then the relocation of Japanese during the 1940s was unnecessary and unjust, without any facts to back it up with besides racism, the main root of the

On February 19th 1942, Roosevelt signed the executive order 9066. Under the terms of the order, people of Japanese descent were placed in internment camps. The United States’ justification for this abominable action was that the Japanese American’s may spy for their Homeland. Over 62% of the Japanese that were held in these camps were American Citizens. The United States’ internment of the Japanese was a poor and cowardly method of ‘keeping the peace.’ The United States was not justified in stowing away Japanese Americans into almost concentration camps. This act goes against the basic Bill Of Rights granted to all American citizens, the Fifth Amendment's command that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due

The internment of Japanese American's was unconstitutional because the act was against equal rights. In the Constitution the it says “We the People”, the U.S. did not stand by these words during World War II. If they were going to stand by these words they would not have established internment camps. The Internment camps were not constitutional because the U.S. wasn't “We the people” any more it was “just us nobody else”. The U.S. wasn’t united anymore they excluded a whole race of people. The Japanese Americans weren't treated as Americans they were treated as terrorist. Race was the only reason people were put in intern camps.(Howard Doc C) As it can be seen the Internment of Japanese Americans was unjustified because it was

     Another factor in the case is racism. Japanese-Americans were subjected to discrimination from the government even before the United States’ entrance into WWII. Five days before the executive order that allowed for removal of Japanese from the west coast, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt speculated the possibility of the Japanese-Americans acting against the U.S., saying that “the very fact that no sabotage has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken” (RTAP, 119). This created a no-win situation for the Japanese-Americans because if they did not act against the U.S., it was still thought that inevitably would. Japanese were denied citizenship before the war, as well (RTAP, 121). Inside the camps, the loyalty questionnaires forced them to either renounce both their allegiance to

So For the Japanese To be interned under the Law your taking the people's right to have their freedom to be able to prove themselves.Basically saying "Hey I am different".Everyone Should be able to get a chance to show people loyalty and respect.No one should be staying in internment camps in harsh conditions for an opinion or the that people feeling afraid,President Roosevelt had made the worst descision and it has cost them by the reparations that they had to pay out;and the embrassment that america has had for their people.All I am saying is stay on the rights you have written for america and the american people,think before you take an opinion on of another group that everyone else has why not ask for yourself to those

Needless to say, they never found one iota of evidence that led the government to believe that they were plotting against the United States. Amendment number six, gives citizens “the right to a fair and speedy trial (Constitution).” The Japanese people didn't even get to pack up their houses, or make sure their homes and farms were being taken care of before they were shipped off. They definitely were not given a fair and speedy trial; they were merely held indefinitely until they were considered no longer to be a “threat.”Amendment number 14 is the one amendment that you can't argue that it wasn't violated. It states, per the Constitution, “everyone has equal protection under the law.” However, this amendment was blatantly withheld during the Japanese's internment. As Jennifer Jones wrote in Time Magazine, “even though America was at war with Italy and Germany they didn't round up immigrants of German and Italian ancestry and place them in internment camps.” Obviously, the Japanese were being targeted and it was masked as a “threat to national security” If immigrants were a threat why wasn't every group of immigrants rounded up? This is a prelude to the fact that the Japanese were being racially targeted. Jennifer Jones wrote in her Time Magazine article that “promoted stereotypes of the Japanese made it seem like they were the enemy. It was a propaganda parade like what happened in Germany, but not to the same

Humanity has seen great horrors throughout the course of history, one them being the Holocaust during World War II. As we look down upon the Germans of that time, the U.S. had their very own holocaust. President Roosevelt issued the Executive Order #9066 on February 19, 1942, which allowed the relocation of tens and thousands of Japanese Americans to internment camps, stripping them of their rights; the reason being that these U.S. citizens were of Japanese descent. There are other possible reasons Japanese were sent to these camps, such as being secure after the attack on Pearl Harbor; however, social and racial attitudes was most significant because Japan attacked, and there was a war going on, so what chances are there that more Japanese won’t follow, whereas the other two were formed from that discrimination and racism.

Article 9 was also very seriously violated. This article declares that humans should not be subject to arbitrary arrest, or be detained against their will with no valid reason (UDHR). This was disregarded by forcing the internees to evacuate and go to camps, and then keeping them there against their will (JARDA). Likewise, Article 12 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence”, was violated through the act of evacuating them from their homes (JARDA). These violations of the human rights were the suffering of the Japanese Americans, until resolution came.

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,

There have been long debates on whether we should have used internment camps, especially during World War II when we put all the Japanese Americans into captivity after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I strongly believe that we, Americans should not have put all the Japanese (innocent and all) into the internment camps. One article talks about a man who was put into an internment camp and afterward when all the Japanese Americans were released, he fought against the Americans telling them that it was not right. Another article talks about how all the Japanese Americans were forced out of their homes. Finally, the last article talked about the environment they had to live in, in the internment camps.

The internment of Japanese-Americans was justified because proper security measures had to be taken, citizens had to perform their patriotic duty, and Japanese Americans would be willing to stay loyal to Japan. To begin, the internment of the Japanese Americans could be defended because proper security measures had to be taken. After the attack, people were scared. This was one of the

The Japanese-American Internment was a necessary choice, made by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It helped to make our nation secure during times of extreme emergency and it also helped the US government to keep their enemy under watch. “The story of how Japanese American soldiers from the war’s most highly decorated US military unit came to be there is just one part of a remarkable saga. It is also a story of one of the darkest periods in American history, one filled with hardship, sacrifice, courage, injustice, and finally, redemption. It began more than a hundred years ago” (Sandler, 2013, p. 6). At the turn of the 21st century began the immigration of the Japanese to America for various reasons, but all with one thing in mind: freedom. “We talked about America; we dreamt about America. We all had one wish – to be in America” (Sandler, 2013, p. 6). The decision by these many people was a grueling and tough decision, but they knew it would benefit them in the long run. “…like their European counterparts, they were willing to risk everything to begin life anew in what was regarded as a golden land of opportunity” (Sandler, 2013, p. 6). When they came to America, they were employed and were able to begin their new lives for the first part of it.