Japanese Internment Camps

The camps that the Japanese-Americans were taken to had the worse conditions imaginable. “More than 120,000 Americans of Japanese Ancestry were incarcerated in 10 camps scattered throughout the Western United States during World War II” (Children of the Camps Project 1). Detainees spent many years in these camps. They were locked behind barbed wire fences, and armed guards patrolled the camps. The conditions were comparable to the Jewish camps in Eastern Europe. Entire families lived in quarters that were poorly constructed and horribly cramped. These areas were also unbearably cramped and unclean. There was also no hot water for dishes or showers in the living quarters. In addition, lice was a huge problem in the internment camps. These camps and the laws that our government passed against the Japanese community were atrocious. The United States experienced a terrible tragedy when Pearl Harbor was attacked. However, the American government had no right to make these innocent Americans prisoners of war. During the 1940s and 1950s the Japanese

The Japanese had to go to camps mainly because it was their civil duty. They could not function properly in society because of racism, especially when the Japanese attacked pearl harbor. After the attack nobody trusted Japanese-Americans. The government felt that they needed to protect them from society. Americans had very strong feelings towards these people and there was propaganda made to encourage the withdrawal of Japanese people. Even the creators of looney tune cartoons made an episode of how the Japanese man is a savage and extremely ruthless person to anything. Some episodes were about the Germans as well, and how they train the youth to believe in these horrible things, and growing up

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.

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.

Throughout history of not only the United States but also the world, racism has played a huge role in the treatment of other humans. A dark mark in United States history, the Japanese Relocation during WWII is a prime example of this racism coming into play. Whether or not this event was necessary or even justified, however, is a constant question for historians even nowadays. The Japanese relocation of the 1920’s unnecessary and unjustified because it’s main causes: selfish economic plots by farmers, unrealistic military measures, and blatant racism.

The American government evacuated approximately 120,000 Japanese Nationals, American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II, and placed them in internment camps at the beginning of World War II. Japanese Americans were forced from their homes and businesses, forced into relocation camps in the deserts of California, Arizona, into the mountains of Idaho, and small towns in the southern United States. These were Japanese American people of unquestionable loyalty to the United States. These were citizens denied the rights of normal citizens under the United States Constitution. Americans who had volunteered to fight in the war for the United States, and against the Japan. They wanted to fight for the United

Everyone that even looked to be Japanese would be mistrusted and be labeled as “the enemy.” On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt issued an executive order which rounded up every Japanese person that lived in the US as they were seen to be threats to the nation. Many endured names such as being called an “alien.” In March, the government shipped the Japanese to relocation camps where they were sure to be not in contact with the enemy. Any former possession that the internees might had had were usually gone shortly afterwards as their lands would be repressed. Despite the fact that most of these Japanese were Nisei, native-born American citizens whose parents were Japanese, and that some volunteered for military service they were still put into these camps. They were housed in barracks and used communal areas, for washing and eating. Over half of those taken in were merely children. These camps were then overseen by military personnel. All internees over the age of 17 were given a loyalty test were they were asked questions. 120,000 Japanese were taken in, and only 60,000 survived. In 1988, the U.S. Congress passed legislation which awarded formal payments of $20,000 each to the surviving internees. At the end of the war some remained in the US and rebuilt their lives, others however were unforgiving and returned to Japan.

     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.

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.

Back in World War 2 Japan had bombed pearl harbor, people got scared many died, many got injured, ships were destroyed, About 300 airplanes were destroyed, everyone probably said we are going to die, Japanese Americans were put internment camps because people thought their was a possibility they would try help Japan defeat the U.S. I have one question what do you about what happen to the Japanese Americans about how they suffered . I think that what the U.S. did to Japanese, was very racist, mostly because the u.s. thought that just because they were Japanese they would help Japan defeat the u.s. And like some people say they were judging a book by it’s cover. And because of that they made them suffer, feel bad, and put them in internment

Roughly 70,000 of the Japanese that had been displaced and relocated to theses camps were Americans citizens. There were never charges brought against them but they were not able to petition their incarceration. While incarcerated they lost their homes and all of their property. They tried to argue that this was unconstitutional to the government but the Supreme Court upheld their decision.

If I was there when they were taking away Japanese- Americans to internment camps I would feel mad, sad. It wouldn’t be fair to them because they still have rights as a U.S. citizens. I would’ve helped them out fight for them. I would speak for their rights. If my close friends or families, people I know were taken away I would help them, I would try to get them out of there. Taking them away is against their right. They should be able to be free and not be taken away just because of their ancestry. It's not right what the government is doing to them. If someone was really against the U.S. they should just send those people not all of

How would you feel if you were taken from your rightful home and sent to live with no privacy and rigorous rules? Could the U.S be wrong for taking Japanese Americans from their home?

More than 110,000 Japanese in the U.S were relocated into internment camps for the sake of National Security.

After the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, life in the U.S. had changed. It was the first time in a long time that America was attacked on its homeland. This national security threat was a big shock to the people. The Japanese had to suffer the consequences of their attack. Just as the Germans developed concentration camps for the Jewish during World War II, the Americans set up "relocation" programs better known as internment camps to keep all the Japanese. The reason the Japanese were moved into these camps was because they were suspected of being spies. They were forced to live there for up to four years and were not able to continue with their own lives as they were before while they were living in these camps.