President Roosevelt Requests Declaration Of War On Japan

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 of Japanese Americans during World War II was a witch hunt due to widespread fear and prosecution. Fear is the driving force of witch hunts. The war alone created fear for many Americans. This fear was multiplied by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941 (“Japanese Relocation During World War II.”). People associated this attack with all Japanese people, and feared they would attack again.

Internment was ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after Japan 's attack on Pearl Harbor. 120,000 people lost their freedom, property, and businesses. Although the United States government later issued formal apologies and paid reparations to survivors of the internment camps, it could not compensate for the horrible conditions and racism that the people of Japanese ancestry faced following the attack on Pearl Harbor. However awful this situation was it is understandable that the American people could be influenced by the propaganda of the media as many Americans had family and friends that were serving in the military. Newspapers can be both primary or secondary sources depending on the purpose of the article and how it is written. If it is an account of the facts, it is a primary source. If the article is interpreted or contains an opinion, it is a secondary source. Editorials from major newspapers after the bombing of Pearl Harbor were supportive of the internment of the Japanese. Several types of media containing propaganda were used to sway the American people, including movies and newspaper articles. The propaganda 's purpose was to propose that the relocation of Japanese-Americans was a matter of national security after the attack by the Japanese. American’s attitudes towards Japanese people quickly became racist, and this reaction was intensified by the media, which played upon issues of racism and fear. The view of the

It wasn’t very long after Pearl Harbor that we succumbed to fear of the Japanese here in America, thinking they were spies, and still loyal their ancestral land. Sadly, even our president Roosevelt succumbed to this, in which he signed executive order 9066 which authorized the relocation of all Japanese citizens here in America to internment camps where they would spend 4 years of their life, and lose their homes, valuables, lifes savings,businesses, and much more. Japanese Americans were taken by bus and train to assembly centers such as racetracks and fairgrounds, after this there were camps were created in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. Over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II because

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

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

The imprisonment of Japanese Americans occurred because of their Japanese ancestry. The fear of the Japanese, also known as Anti-Japanese Paranoia, was a direct result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many Americans feared that Japanese descendants would remain loyal to and side with their home country (Japanese American Internment, 2008). The brink of war being just around the corner clouded American minds and led to quick decisions. America was paralyzed by fear in the midst of another World War, just years after the first. Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt wrote, “The Japanese race is an enemy race, and while many second and third generation Japanese born on United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship, have become ‘Americanized,’ the racial strains are undiluted.” Like DeWitt, many Americans felt that all Japanese Americans were a threat, especially the Issei and Nisei. “Literally speaking, the Japanese terms Issei,

When the Japanese Americans migrated to the United States they were not welcomed with open arms. The Japanese Americans faced many hardships. The biggest hardships they faced were their treatment by the American people as well as by the American government after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Japanese Americans were taken from their homes and placed in internment camps for years with little to no explanation as to why. According to the United States government the Japanese Americans placement in internment camps “were justified on national security grounds” (Brooks), but the truth is Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps because of fear and racial prejudice. This event in history is important because it

The Japanese internment was not justified because the motives for interment were fueled by racism and discrimination. Protection from the threats of World War II mainly seemed to focus on the Japanese due to the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The fear of targeted bombings and mass killing caused war hysteria in Americans. Because of this, Americans acted irrationally against the Japanese-Americans and failed to be open-minded. Evidence of this discrimination and segregation showed in the Japanese-American stereotypes as spies.

In the documentary, American Experience: A Family Gathering, directed by Lise Yasui and Ann Tegnell, explores three generations of the Yasui family immigration to Oregon in the early 1900s, and through their imprisonment in internment camps during World War Two as Japanese-Americans. I found this documentary heart-warming, eye-opening and emotional to what the Japanese immigrants had to deal with when immigrating to the United States and different insights to what went through their minds before, during and after World War Two. From watching the documentary, I can’t even fathom how a civil and nothing but perfect Japanese family like the Yasui family, could immigrate to the United States, establish themselves with work, a home and the start a family, could be seen as enemies of the country and lose everything for just looking or sounding Japanese. I mean, when I was growing up and I read books about Pearl Harbor or looked at pictures, videos and the film about Pearl Harbor, I right away got mad and emotional about those attacks and got a sense of anger from those attacks and found myself thinking that the Japanese deserved what they got and brought it upon themselves, which is harsh. Now, I was just a young child and to get those feelings years later, should show to a degree on how easy it was for Americans to be upset, angered and thought of the Japanese-Americans as evil people at the time. The Pearl Harbor attacks were one of the hardest attacks on U.S. soil from a

The internment of Japanese Americans is an example of how one historical event can influence the start of another. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor created fear throughout the nation. Newspaper articles depicted Americans of Japanese descent as untrustworthy and a danger to the nation. They warned that Japanese Americans were serving as spies for their mother country. As hysteria grew, eventually all persons of Japanese descent living on the West Coast, including those born in the United States, were forced into internment camps from the spring of 1942 till 1946. Japanese Americans were separated from their families, robbed of their livelihood, and denied their human rights. It took the United States government nearly 50 years to apologize for their wrongdoing and provided the surviving internees with reparations for the hardships they faced.

Americans across the nation were pain struck and worried for each other due to the bombing and our sudden thrust into World War II. After the attack, Roosevelt and the United States worked quickly to set up internment camps for the Japanese and Japanese-Americans to reside while being watched. Following the attack, “…a special task force of one hundred FBI agents, along with city police and detectives, scoured the city, shutting down Japanese businesses and arresting Japanese nationals on their target list” (Gillon p.108). There were suspicions of deceitfulness and error in detection of the ambush and the government did not want to take any chance in letting any adversary escape. After a presidency change from Theodore Roosevelt to Harry Truman, four years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor came the war ending event which would be the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Could you imagine being a kid in the 1940s? Sitting in your living room on a Sunday afternoon waiting by the radio to hear your favorite radio talk show host, but instead the President’s voice comes through the airways and announces a national state of emergency. How would you feel? How would you react? What would you do? As President Roosevelt delivered his speech he had two main points that he wanted to relay to the nation. The first point was to encourage Congress to formally declare war on Japan. Insisting that the attack was just a start to the many more to come. The second point was to gather the support of the American people; in the war efforts that he was proposing, President Franklin used major American cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, and New Orleans as examples to show the American people that if one United States territory could be attacked, so could their neighborhoods. Both points touched their intended audiences. Moments after the speech Congress approved the declaration of war on Japan. The news sent a shockwave across the country, resulting in a tremendous percentage of young volunteers into the U.S. recruiting offices across the nation.

before the end of World War II and afterwards. The public opinion of the Pacific War was a supportive one and not just because of past occurrences such as the “surprise” attack on Pearl Harbor, but the hatred towards the Japanese grew further in the United States when the government publicly released the mistreatment acts against Americans that the Japanese had been carrying out. Walker accurately describes the position of the U.S public’s opinion throughout the book and the changes in attitudes that took place depending on Soviet influence and the fear of Americas only choice to invade, or at least that was the presumed alternative at the time. Indeed, government officials such as Marshall were concerned with public opinion and concerned that after World War II the public support for the war would diminish and the impatience to bring back American soldiers would grow. This added immense pressure to reach a decision of what to do about the war with Japan and

Whether Japan attacked the US for imperialistic purposes, for racial tensions or for resources to benefit the war, they were not defending themselves from attack and were not attempting to right previous wrongs, making their aggression unjust. They also failed to see that nothing of the greater good would come from these attacks and did not even declare war, solidifying the classification of being unjust actions. The United States were forced to defend themselves from the attack, and declared war as Japan had lost the right to not be attack in return, giving the United States full justification. Now that it has been established that the United States were participating in the war justly, the way Japan and the United States conducted themselves need justification, and how their conduct impacted future events. (MacMillan;