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. Context & Chronology The Japanese attack on the U.S. Naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941 sparked an up rise in the anti-Japanese sentiment throughout the West Coast; however, hostility towards Japanese American was common in this area nearly 40 years before the attack (“Personal Justice Denied” 4). Citizens and state leaders of California were strongly against accepting the Japanese. In 1905 the anti-Japanese movement began making waves in California. On February 23, 1905, the San Francisco Chronicle issued on article with the headline: “The Japanese Invasion: The Problem of the Hour.” Soon after a series of editorials
On December 7,1941 Japan raided the airbases across the islands of Pearl Harbour. The “sneak attack” targeted the United States Navy. It left 2400 army personnel dead and over a thousand Americans wounded. U.S. Navy termed it as “one of the great defining moments in history”1 President Roosevelt called it as “A Day of Infamy”. 2 As this attack shook the nation and the Japanese Americans became the immediate ‘focal point’. At that moment approximately 112,000 Persons of Japanese descent resided in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and also in California and Arizona.3
Startled by the surprise attack on their naval base at Pearl Harbor and anxious about a full-fledged Japanese attack on the United States’ West Coast, American government officials targeted all people of Japanese descent, regardless of their citizenship status, occupation, or demonstrated loyalty to the US. As my grandfather—Frank Matsuura, a nisei born in Los Angeles, California and interned in the Granada War Relocation Center (Camp Amache)—often
During the early stages of World War II (1939-1945), the Japanese Empire attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor; this atrocity that the Japanese committed caused an increase in distrust and resentment towards the Japanese who lived within the United States. Such agitation leads to the creation of internment camps where the United States government placed individuals of Japanese descent for the remainder of the war as a preemptive method to isolate and contain the Japanese—limiting the possibility of another attack on American soil. Through these internment camps, the United States government was able to question and determine the loyalty of the Japanese as a method of identifying non-loyalist amongst the internment camp
During the Internment of Japanese Canadians, people were treated differently in society due to their ethnic background. Firstly, it is shown/demonstarted by the actions of Prime Minister William Lyon along with, Mackenzie King who had ordered to detain/take away people's young and innocent lives from their homes and take them to Hastings Park. Leaving, the Japanese Canadians clueless , with no explanation to what is being happened. As a result of that , the governments used the “War Measure Act” to be allowed to remove them from their “own property,farms, business” (Marsh, 2012)and also forced “more than 8,000” (Marsh, 2012) Japanese Canadians through Hastings Park “where women and children were housed in the Livestock Buildings”. On the
The Japanese-Americans were kicked out of their homes and were forced to live in internment camps.
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.
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.
I first came across an organization dedicated to preserving Japanese dignity throughout history and beyond: The Japanese American Legacy Project (JALP). Its website indicated that they "were frequent targets of prejudice and political attacks for 50 years before World War II" (Densho). This site represents the organization's interests in their entirety, and describes adequate background information, which I found to be helpful. Unemployment and low wages could be equivocated to Japanese infiltration, which soon became the basis for groups to rise up in opposition, thus associations such as the Japanese Exclusion League were born. However, problems really began when businesses actively recruited Asian immigrants for tedious duties. Labor unions fired back with rallies for local elected officials to "remove all individuals of Chinese heritage from California" (Densho). The government reacted to such forceful pressure almost immediately. In 1882, a series of congressional exclusionary acts eliminated, for a period of time, what was known to the west coast as "yellow peril" (Densho). These findings were strangely new to me, so I began to browse other sources for
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
Shortly after the first bombs were dropped on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, the American people’s fear of the Japanese grew dramatically, especially for those Japanese living in America. Almost every Japanese American was seen as a threat to the country. On February 19th, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, authorizing the relocation of Japanese Americans to camps further inland. Over 175,000 Japanese Americans were affected in some way by the order, even though more than 70,000 of them were born in the United States and were American citizens. The common perspective of the American people was shown through their use of the expression “A Jap’s a Jap,” virtually destroying the thought that any
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)
According to the Japanese internment background, after Pearl Harbor was bombed, Japanese Americans were broken down into several categories based on how far the generation was separated from Japanese citizenship. I disagree because the movement was wrong, they didn't give any sort of education for the children for at least one or two years. There weren't enough doctors or medicine to take care of the people's needs. Once the war was over many people were released from the camp and did not have homes to return to because theirs were destroyed or taken over by strangers.
To be a Japanese immigrant in the early 1900s was difficult but after December 7, 1941 things only got worse. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked the United States naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. “Although conflict had been underway in both Europe and Asia for years, the United States did not formally enter the hostilities until December 8, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously declared the attack on Pearl Harbor ‘a day which we live in infamy’ and asked Congress for a declaration of war” (Wu and Izumi). After the attack on Pearl Harbor “race became increasingly associated with loyalty in the United States” (Harth 254). “What Japan had done was blamed on Japanese Americans” (Wu 2). On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. Executive Order 9066 granted the secretary of war and his commanders the power “to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded” (Executive Order 9066). “Although the text of Executive Order 9066 did not specifically mention Japanese Americans, it was intended to apply to them exclusively” (G. Robinson and G. Robinson 4).
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.