The Progressive War

Shortly after the United States entered into war with Japan, the federal government initiated a policy whereby 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were rounded up and herded into camps, 2/3 of these people were actually United States citizens. They were incarcerated without indictment, trial, or counsel - not because they had committed a crime, but simply because they resembled the enemy. These were similar to concentration camps that the Germans were using for the Jews, though no one was being killed and Japanese Americans were allowed to work within the camps. Not many Americans knew about the camps at that time, and some still don't know today. Like discussed in class, it was an embarrassing moment for this country. The book that was assigned in class, Desert Exile by Yoshiko Uchida, told the story of a family who lived through these horrible times. As we discussed in class

The Parallels of Japanese Internees and American POWs War can be loud and visible or quiet and remote. It affects the individual and entire societies, the soldier, and the civilian. Both U.S. prisoners of war in Japan and Japanese-American citizens in the United States during WWII undergo efforts to make them “invisible.” Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken hero, Louie Zamperini, like so many other POWs, is imprisoned, beaten, and denied basic human rights in POW camps throughout Japan. Miné Okubo, a U.S. citizen by birth, is removed from society and interned in a “protective custody” camp for Japanese-American citizens. She is one of the many Japanese-Americans who were interned for the duration of the war. Louie Zamperini, as a POW in Japan, and Miné Okubo, as a Japanese-American Internee both experience efforts to make them “invisible” through dehumanization and isolation in the camps of WWII, and both resist these efforts.

Everyone that even looked to be Japanese would be mistrusted and be labeled as “the enemy.” On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt issued an executive order which rounded up every Japanese person that lived in the US as they were seen to be threats to the nation. Many endured names such as being called an “alien.” In March, the government shipped the Japanese to relocation camps where they were sure to be not in contact with the enemy. Any former possession that the internees might had had were usually gone shortly afterwards as their lands would be repressed. Despite the fact that most of these Japanese were Nisei, native-born American citizens whose parents were Japanese, and that some volunteered for military service they were still put into these camps. They were housed in barracks and used communal areas, for washing and eating. Over half of those taken in were merely children. These camps were then overseen by military personnel. All internees over the age of 17 were given a loyalty test were they were asked questions. 120,000 Japanese were taken in, and only 60,000 survived. In 1988, the U.S. Congress passed legislation which awarded formal payments of $20,000 each to the surviving internees. At the end of the war some remained in the US and rebuilt their lives, others however were unforgiving and returned to Japan.

I do not think President Roosevelt was justified when ordering Executive Order 9066 because, most Japanese Americans were law-abiding citizens who loved their country. The government believed Japanese Americans to be a threat to society and that they would do what was necessary to protect the people of the United

Anna Schlemmer AP World History 2/25/2015 AP World Paper When the Nazi’s arrested Jews and sent them to concentration camps, the conditions were terrible. The men, women, and children in the camps were not treated with the rights they deserved, since they were forced into harsh labor, placed in killing centers where gas chambers were used to effectively and quickly murder thousands of Jews a day, and experimented on to find new medicines and so the German scientists could find out how much pain and torture they could endure until death. In America, over 120,000 Japanese-Americans were relocated into camps during the period of World War II. Even though these Americans were not treated as harshly as the Jews in concentration camps, they lost

The Dieppe Raid was bitter­sweet. It was a Canadian attempt to destroy a lot of German defence tools and weapons while also taking back many German prisoners to Britain. The raid took place on August 19, 1942 right after dawn and lasted nine hours. It was fought on eight beaches and ended very

One such story involves non-repatriate Edward Dickenson, who was a cook while in captivity. He was accused of stealing food from other prisoners by taking a little from each one and then using the excess to trade for tobacco or candy. Another non-repatriate, LaRance Sullivan, was accused of doing

Although the POWs had stayed in the camps for a shorter duration than the internees at their camps, the POWs had suffered from disorders that would keep them from being sane. The POWs were pretty much living with the fear of being in the camps again or being lashed at. As a POW said, “There was no right way to peace; every man had to find his own path, according to his own history. Some succeeded, for others,

Have you heard of Bowe Bergdahl. A U.S. soldier named Bowe Bergdahl was a prisoner. Bow was held five years as a prisoner. The U.S. army exchanged five Afghan prisoners for Bowe Bergdahl. Bow did not support the Americans. He wanted to start a new life. He slipped off the remote military outpost in Pakistan province on the border. Soldiers went looking for him and they were sadly killed looking around the Afghans land.

Approximately 20,000 American service members were held in concentration camps at some point during World War II. Berga, was the most infamous to house American POW’s. However, Berga did not start out as a concentration camp. In fact, it started as the very opposite. In the 1930’s Berga started as a young Nazi volunteer camp. Later, as historians came to discover, Berga was an off-shoot of Buchenwald another infamous concentration camp. After being captured many of the Americans said they were made to remove their boots, and march to the camp in waist deep snow. Upon arrival, they were registered into the camp by other American Service members by rank, serial number, and finally religion. Before deploying

I. Search for Primary Sources On June 1st, on my way to Eisenhower Library at Abilene, KS by taking the I-70 highway, I stopped at Independence, MO, where the Truman Library is located. Although this visit was not listed in my research plan, I spent half a day in its reading

All that being said, the devaluation of human life brings the In January of 2009, newly elected President Barak Obama annouced the signing of an executive order that states that Guantanamo Bay would be closed within the year; he did not fulfill this promise though. In November of 2009 President Obama announced that the base would not be closed due to not being able to find somewhere for the detainees to be relocated to. (Cohn, 2015) The fact of the matter is that Americans are the ones paying for this inhumane detention center. With the closure of the Guantanamo Naval Base detention center America tax dollars could be used in a much more effective way. We have veterans who are homeless, yet the money Americans are putting in the government is being used to torture other humans. In Guantanamo Bay there is a practice that is called pharmacologic water boarding. This is where guards administer the drug Mefloquine despite the knowledge the Pentagon had of the side effect, which include suicidal thoughts, hallucinations, and anxiety. This drug is meant to treat malaria, however it was administered to prisoners whether they were presumed to have malaria of not. Leopold said, “The government has exposed detainees to unacceptable high risks of potentially severe neuropsychiatric side effect, including seizures, intense vertigo, hallucinations, paranoid delusions, aggression, panic, anxiety, severe insomnia, and thoughts of suicide. These side effects could be as severe as those intended through the application of the enhanced interrogation techniques.” The effects of this drug are not easily reversed. In fact, with the massive doses administered to the detainees cause the side effects to take weeks or even months to wear off. When the drug began being administered to prisoners the psychiatric cases rose in extreme amounts. This drug has been said to be “human experimentation or enhanced interrogation”. The mind altering side effect of the drug may

Guantanamo Bay, though started with good intentions, only highlights America’s negative side. Marine Major General Michael Lehnert, who played a significant role in the opening of Guantanamo, has drastically changed his opinion and said that it, “Validates every negative perception of the U.S.” (Sutton 1). One example of this occurred in 2006, when President Bush justified the use of “physical coercion” (torture) during interrogations (Fetini 1). Some of these torture methods include isolation, beatings, sleep deprivation, and general abuse. Other tactics such as disrespect for Islamic symbols or sexual provocation are used to encourage stress in detainees (Bloche 1). These immoral methods led to an international outcry. It was later remarked that the Cuban territory upon which Guantanamo is located is being used as a “concentration camp” of sorts (Fetini 1). Guantanamo and its unethical values are being recognized by nations around the world, displaying America in a bad light.

The prison later became a focus of not only a controversy in the United States that spread worldwide about how the detainees were being tortured while they were being held at Guantanamo. The violation was that the people there were being abused and tortured and this was against the legal rights of the detains under the Geneva Convention. The Geneva Convention is a law that was created in war time to help protect soldier back in World War II who were ship wrecked, wounded, or sick soldiers during war times. (Staff, 2007) But

Human rights are universal and inalienable. It is so important that the rights of every individual on this planet are upheld that human rights abuses are the focus of 2015’s Amnesty International Student Conference. Today, we’re going to explore an abuse of human rights that occurred in a nation that prides itself on its freedom. Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp is a detainment facility located at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After the debilitating attacks against the US on September 11th 2001, US congress passed the “Authorization for Use of Military Force” a bill that allowed then US President George W. Bush to use any essential, suitable force against the parties responsible for the attacks. Subsequent military action in Afghanistan led the US to