Japanese Internment Camps in World War II 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 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 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

A reason why it was an act of racism is because even though their ethnicity is japanese, they are still an american citizen. Although they were american citizens, they were still placed into internment camps because the government believed that they were a threat. As a result, they made a justification to place japanese-americans into internment camps. In paragraph 4 of the article “Japanese-American Internment Was An Unnecessary And A Racist Act” it states, “ Uno says the claim that japanese-americans were relocated for their own protection was ‘sheery hypocrisy’ and denies that japanese-americans posed a national security threat. Instead, he calls the relocation a crime attributable to ‘racism’ and economic and political oppurtunism.” This supports my claim because it shows how placing japanese americans was an act of racism. Like I said, even though their ethnicity is japanese, they are still an american citizen.

Japanese internment camps from 1942 to 1946 were an exemplification of discrimination, many Japanese Americans were no longer accepted in their communities after the Bombing of Pearl Harbor. They were perceived as traitors and faced humiliation due to anti-Japanese sentiment causing them to be forced to endure several hardships such as leaving behind their properties to go an imprisoned state, facing inadequate housing conditions, and encountering destitute institutions. The Bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7, 1941 (Why I Love a Country that Once Betrayed Me). This led president Roosevelt to sign the executive order 9066, which authorized the army to remove any individual that seemed as a potential threat to the nation (“Executive Order 9066”) This order allowed the military to exclude “‘any or all persons from designated areas, including the California coast.”’ (Fremon 31). Many Japanese opposed to leave the Pacific Coast on their own free will (Fremon 24) . Japanese Americans would not be accepted in other areas if they moved either.Idaho’s governor stated, Japanese would be welcomed “only if they were in concentration camps under guard”(Fremon 35). The camps were located in Arizona, Arkansas, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and California where thousands of Japanese Americans eventually relocated. (“Japanese Americans at Manzanar”) The internment lasted for 3 years and the last camp did not close until 1946. (Lessons Learned: Japanese Internment During WW2)

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

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.

Japanese Internment can not be justified by the United States government. The United States government, in the twentieth century can not justify the Internment of Japanese Americans and their families. Many will argue that in times of war that difficult decisions and choices have to be made on behalf of the nation at war. World War II highlighted the actions of a nation, embracing and expediting the actions and decisions while not seeing the long term consequence of such decisions. People in support of the war and the policies of our government, will argue that they needed to make the war more efficient to shorten the war and spare our nation needless lost of life. Can a society sacrifice moral principles as they blur the lines of its citizens and its enemies?

The decision to imprison Japanese Americans was a popular one in 1942. It was supported not only by the government, but it was also called for by the press and the people. In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, Japan was the enemy. Many Americans believed that people of Japanese Ancestry were potential spies and saboteurs, intent on helping their mother country to win World War II. “The Japanese race is an enemy race,” General John DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command wrote in February 1942. “And while many second and third generation Japanese born in the United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship, have become ‘Americanized,’ the racial strains are

     During this time of crisis in America, the Japanese people in our country were done a huge injustice. They were stripped their constitutional rights, relocated to a location with poor living conditions, and when America apologized it was just too late. The mental and physical health impacts of this event continues to affect tens of thousands of Japanese

Like I said above, a massive number of Japanese-Americans were sent away to the Internment-Camps just because of their race for an average of 3-4 years. During those three to four years the Japanese-Americans could not attend to their jobs, property, and other obligations simply because they were in the internment camps. For reading this excerpt from Document D (Korematsu Supreme Court Ruling), you can see that the Japanese-Americans were not allowed at their houses during the time of Internment: “Compulsory exclusion of large groups of citizens from their homes… is inconsistent of with our basic governmental institutions.” That obviously states that Japanese-Americans were took away from their property, which would lead to loss of job, and other

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,

The Japanese-American placement in internment camps was wrong and unconstitutional. The Japanese-American people had been living in the United States without question until the uprise of racial prejudice brought on by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many Japanese-Americans had been born in America and lived an American life, integrated into American schools, speaking with American accents, and enjoying American culture. But, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Japanese were suddenly seen as threats that needed to be controlled. Without any consent, these Japanese-Americans were placed in internment camps with poor conditions and treated as if they were ticking time bombs themselves.

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.

The Japanese community had two different experiences after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In Hawaii Japanese American showed that they were just as American as whites, ROTC students when to sensitive areas that could cripple Hawaii and stand guard. Also, few Japanese were not taken to the camps due to General Delos Emmons defied the order. Moreover, Emmons knew that if the Japanese were to be removed that Hawaii’s economy would suffer because they were the majority of the labor force. The Japanese that suffered were in areas in the mainland that were designated as a security risk. Many Japanese were removed from their home; others lost their business and land. Once removed, they were put in detention centers, which were often stables that recent