The Internment Of Japanese Americans

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

Secondly, Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor was impact on Japanese American in the U.S. It was two months later, after bombing Pearl Harbor on December, 7 1941 Japanese-American were immediately became victim of what the Japanese did. As a result, of the President Franklin Roosevelt's "signed Exclusive order 9066" that allowed military force to removed Japanese American form the anywhere into internment camps( Uchida 407). The reason why the U.S. government relocated Japanese-American into internment camps because the U.S. concerns over the loyalty of Japanese American associated with Japanese to defeat the U.S. However, no anyone found evident to prove about the U.S. concerns. In addition, Japanese American that moved to camps, they lost everything

Imagine being taken out of you home to place of the unknown. There is a lot of chaos and horror. You don’t know who the trust. The government is coming to your neighborhoods and taking you and your family to internment camps just because the government does not trust anyone of your ethnicity. That sounds horrible, right? Well, during World War 2 the United States of America sent Japanese- Americans to internment camps because the government could not trust people of the Japanese decent. They were told that the Japanese- Americans will tell the enemy, Japan, all of secrets about war, that America will do to defeat the Japanese. But, by sending these innocent Americans to these camps is just unjustified, cruel and horrible. This essay will talk about why sending these people to these internment camps were dreadful and unacceptable.

September 1, 1939, World War II began. For the first two years America did not get involved in the war. America just helped out a couple of the allied countries by giving them weapons. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. There are some theories of why The U.S. got bombed, but America does not know for sure; immediately after the attack Franklin D. Roosevelt (the President of the U.S. during the time) declared war. February of 1942, America put all Japanese, even Japanese-American in internment camps. Due to the political, social, and military threat to the United States all people with Japanese ancestors needed to be interned during World War II.

“The relocation of Japanese-Americans into internment camps during World War II was one of the most flagrant violations of civil liberties in American history.” The event of Japanese internment camps occurred from 1942 to 1946. During that time, the imprisonment of the Japanese-Americans had an effect on both Americans and Japanese-Americans, for many Americans had lost friends and family, and many Japanese-Americans had lost the same. In 1942 Franklin D. Roosevelt unfairly ordered the evacuation of all Japanese ancestry into internment camps around the United States and split up countless Japanese families.

Starting in the 1880s, the story of Japanese Americans and their presence within the grand scheme of America’s culture has its fair share of controversies, but perhaps the most contentious chapter is the internment of Japanese Americans during World War 2. Widely considered one of the most egregious breaches of civil rights during this era, Japanese internment was blatant discrimination that took advantage of the panic during World War 2, and the predisposed notions many Americans had concerning the Japanese. In order to best understand the cultural impact that this period had on the American racial landscape, one must understand the Japanese immigration to America, racial relations leading up to World War 2, the causation of the internment,

Following Pearl Harbor, a round-up of Japanese began in America. Orders were posted and the Japanese were instructed to leave their homes, businesses, families, and friends, and move to “war relocation camps” (Bearden, 2010). “They were forced to evacuate their homes and leave their jobs…,” sufficiently uprooting their lives (Satsuki, 1999). The internment of Japanese was un-equally enforced across America. Some full blooded Japanese on the east coast lived normal lives throughout the war, while on the west coast even those of 1/16th Japanese heritage were incarcerated. The total time most Japanese spent in internment camps varied, but they spent on average two years behind bars. Between February 19, 1942 and December 18, 1944¸ the Japanese left their lives behind to be under guard in the interest of public safety.

December 7, 1941 Roosevelt said, “A date that will live in infamy.” Japan entered World War II in 1940 alongside the Axis which included Germany and Italy. Hideki Tojo then came to power a year later. The Government saw the Dutch East Indies rich in oil as well as other Asian territories. However the only threat to stopping the Japanese from conquering them was the U.S. Navy. In order for this to happen Japan bombed the Huge Naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.The surprise attack killed 2,400 Americans and damaged warships and planes. Congress quickly took action and declared war on Japan. On December 11 Japan’s allies declared war on the United States. Roosevelt signed Executive order 9066 on February 19, 1942. Executive order 9066 forced all the Japanese on the West Coast into internment camps without a trial, (American History 807-811). The internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII was not justified because it was done because of their race, it violated their individual rights, and it did not help the war effort.

Even with an apology to Japanese Americans for their internment, the Internment is still considered a dark mark in America’s history. On December 7, 1941, The United States declared war on Japan and entered World War II out of fear and to protect its own people, The United states set up Japanese internment camps for people of Japanese decent living in America. More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were taken from their homes and put into these camps. America claimed that the Japanese had no rights of citizenship and that this was the only and best way to protect The United States. The American Government tried to protect its nation at the cost of psychological and physical distress of those in the camps who were no longer granted civil liberties or natural rights.

Despite evidence pointing to the innocence of Japanese immigrants living in America, racial bias and irrational fears lead to the internment of thousands of Japanese Americans. When Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese, wartime paranoia and discrimination spread through the US like wildfire. Fueled by fear of espionage, Franklin D. Roosevelt issues an order that relocates Japanese Americans to internment camps for an indefinite amount of time. The PBS article “Children of the Camps: Internment History” includes objective facts and sources to provide the audience with information while also utilizing word choice and language to maintain only the author’s point of view.

“It became routine for me to line up three times a day to eat lousy food in a noisy mess hall. It became normal for me to go with my father to bathe in a mass shower. Being in a prison, a barbed-wire prison camp, became my normality” (Takei). This except from George Takei’s personal account of living in internment, displays the grimness of internment. Just as thousands of other Japanese-Americans, he and his family were forced from their home during World War II, sent to Internment prison, and stripped of their American rights. Many actions and ideas led to the unjust internment and betrayal of over 110,000 Japanese-Americans.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which made every person of japanese heritage on the east coast uproot and move to ten different internment camps. No matter what their loyalty or citizenship they were forced to get up and go to camps established in either California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. After all said and done this ended up at over one hundred and twenty thousand japanese americans. Sadly most Americans don 't know why they were moved from their homes, how they were removed, and how they were treated within these camps.

Many people are unaware of the forced relocation of Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This is no wonder, as the U.S. is not proud of this dark moment. It is mentioned in schools as a footnote, often preferring to focus on the similar relocation of German Jews and other ‘undesirables.’ The internment of the Japanese people stemmed from fear and xenophobia that America still experiences today. Pearl Harbor instilled fear and animosity toward Japanese Americans in the rest of the population. Due to this fear, the president found it necessary to intern Japanese Americans in ‘concentration camps.’ Those in and out of the camps were treated poorly by the rest of society, living in fear. These camps not only impacted the lives

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt granted the use of relocation camps and removed Japanese residents away from the West coast by the executive order of 9066. Roosevelt’s gave the military broad powers to ban any citizen from a fifty­ to sixty­mile­wide coastal area stretching from Washington state to California and extending inland into southern Arizona, more than 5000 were interned. Yet while these individuals suffered grievous violations of their civil freedoms. The war­time to Japanese Americans were worse and more removing entire communities and targeting citizens. When the United States government forced about 110,000 Japanese Americans to leave their homes and live in internment camps.

this time, “...an iron curtain has descended across [Europe]...” (Churchill). A deadly war erupted in Europe between the Allied Forces and the Axis Powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan, the latter of which far closer to America than Europe, separated only by the Pacific Ocean. America, at the time, was greatly and heavily divided on whether or not jumping into the war instead of maintaining the neutrality it had maintained for years, until tensions in the Pacific between American and Japanese militia forces festered into explosive actions (NPR). As a result, America found itself deeply rooted in World War II, not too long after the end of the first World War. During this time, the Nisei, the first-generation Japanese American citizens, were incredulously bombarded with slurs and sentiments of anti-Japanese; the attack on Pearl Harbor was deeply rooted in American minds, which grotesquely changed perception of those of Japanese descent. These erupting feelings about the Japanese went political, specifically in the Anti- category. For example, laws such as the Alien Land Laws were reinforced for the people of Japanese ancestry, prohibiting for any person of Japanese descent to own land (Lyon). In order to focus America’s attention on the war rather than domestic issues, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 in 1942 (Roosevelt), to give permission to then Secretary of War