“Here was a camp of sheds, enclosed with a high barbed wire fence, with guard towers and soldiers with machine guns.” Fear is what the Japanese felt when they were being forced to these cramped camps. Whole families were usually kept to one room. It was rot right away that a mass arrest was suggested. First, they were moved to temporary holding pens called Civilian Assembly Centers. The Japanese American Internment camps had a huge impact on WWII.
To begin, these camps were built for “national security” after the bombing at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack by the Japanese. This event caused the USS Arizona to sink, the USS Tennessee damage, and the USS West Virginia was severely damaged. 2402 were killed and 1282 were injured during Pearl Harbor. Because of the attack, the Japanese that lived in America lost respect, were thought of as inscrutable and untrustworthy, and caused an uproar of racism. In order for the public to feel safe, Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 9066. This order was aimed at the Japanese Americans to be relocated returning “national security” to the people. Executive Order 9066 was established about two months after Pearl Harbor.
…show more content…
They left their homes and most of their belongings and valuables behind since there was no time to pack. The Japanese burned many of priceless valuables to seem “not Japanese” and so special dolls and pillows were thrown into the fireplace and gone forever. The Japanese were packed into cattle cars and taken away by train. The relocation process was carried out by the Wartime Civil Control Administration under Colonel Karl Bendentson. This action was administered by the War Relocation Authority. It was not right away that there be a mass arrest. First came temporary holding
People are only allowed to take to the camps what they could carry on their bags. They had to make arrangements to store or get rid of everything else, what they own, on short notice. The lucky Japanese got two weeks, some only a few days. All the Japanese got a tag that was their identity. No one knew where he or she was going to be deported, and how long he or she would be in prison. Because there were no trials, no hearings, and there was no due process to inform. As an example, I can use Fred Korematsu case. Fred Korematsu was a Japanese American boy. He had facial surgery, changed his name and claimed to be Mexican American until he was arrested. He also convicted of violating executive order No. 34. This executive order barred all persons of Japanese descent from the “Military area" of San Leandro, California. Korematsu challenged his conviction and appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the Federal Appeals Court ruled in favor of the United States. Korematsu claimed the Executive order 9066 violated his fourteenth and Fifth Amendment rights. Equal protection for all and protection for the federal government. The government argued that the internment of Japanese Americans was justified because it is necessary for a time of war. On December 18th, 1944, The Supreme Court handed down their decision. The Supreme Court said the President Roosevelt's order was constitutional. The majority opinion concluded that President and Congress did not
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
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
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
First of all, many Japanese Americans had to relocate to a different place. In article (Japanese American Internment Article) it says “ Japanese Americans were relocated for their own protection”. What this means is that even though some Japanese Americans were not associated with World War ll they’d still have to relocate to a different area. For concerns and safety issues.
In many times throughout history groups of people have been discriminated against based on race or religion. These people receive inferior rights because of the discrimination. In some cases they do not get citizenship, in others they are segregated from others, and physically harmed. Two groups of people that faced discrimination near World War II (WWII) were the Jewish people and Japanese Americans. Both groups faced very different types of discrimination by different oppressors with different motives yet their treatment was very similar and many events paralleled each other. The treatment of Japanese in WWII internment camps was as harsh as the Holocaust's treatment of the Jewish people.
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
America and the residents felt threatened by the Japanese so they started an internment camps. “President Roosevelt ordered the evacuation of Japanese-Americans relocation and internment camps after 2 months”(Japanese Internment camps )The FBI was In charge of the internment camps and ordered to gather the Japanese decedent. According to the ……….. research “The Japanese were given two weeks to gather their belonging and sell their business”.
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
Japanese Americans were housed in barracks in the internment camp. Sometimes all families lived in one room cell. They had to use communal areas for washing, laundry, and eating. The camp had factory, hospital, shop, school, church and theater. And this Minidoka internment camp was very big and this also had a fire station and baseball ground. Japanese Americans who worked in these institutions got a salary. Children, who lived in there, often went to school and play baseball after school. They could find recreations in there, but also they were surrounded by barbed-wire fence and watched by Americans with
After the restriction from the West coast exclusion zones took effect, Japanese families were moved to assembly centers and subsequently to interment or relocation camps. Many lived in assembly centers for months while waiting to be moved, having to deal with a poorly equipped community and crowded living situations. This is further described by Daniels. “The arrival at the assembly centers was particularly traumatic…Most, if not all, of the sites were overcrowded and not really prepared for human habitation. Toilet and bathing facilities were minimal.” (Pg. 65)8 Various illustrations of these poor housing situations can be seen in a yearbook made to remember the community of the Fresno Assembly Center. (Pgs. 1 & 3)9 Not only did these conditions put Japanese-Americans through a lower standard of living, but they also created distress resulting from multiple resettlements, as many had to be moved to internment camps as soon as they were getting used to life in the assembly centers. The emotions stemming from constant relocation can be seen within the same yearbook, in which the author states, “…we have experienced our primary trials and tribulations of readjusting ourselves to shape a living community out of bare nothing.” (Pg. 2)10 This community built over five months was soon shattered as families
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.
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 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.
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.