The Pros And Cons Of Internment

With the outbreak of World War I immigration was put to a stop and Ellis Island was turned into a detention center for enemy aliens specifically German Americans or German immigrants. Many Americans during the first and second World War felt a sense of obligation to their country, it was this sense of obligation that drove people to participate in voluntary associations to aid the government in capturing enemy aliens. President Woodrow Wilson invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and “defined all male German citizens in the United States age fourteen and older as “enemy aliens.”” (Capozzola, Pg.177) Enemy aliens would face specific regulations including liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed. They would be forced to surrender any firearms, and weapons they own, they also were not allowed to live or travel within a half a mile of any “military installation”. Many organizations dedicated to German- American life closed shop during the war usually in fear of being seen as having multiply loyalties. The German language was removed from the schools’ curriculum along with German music being cut out of music books, even German dog breeds would be slaughtered in some states. There were four internment camps used to house these “enemy aliens” and the only visitors allowed to come to the camps were spouses, and a select group of ministers. “The Smith-Towner Bill introduced in October 1918, would create a department of education in Washington that would distribute

World War II was a war that the United States tried hard to stay out of, acting as the democratic nation they sought to be. But after the U.S. started fighting, and as the war escalated, the nation started using a not-so-democratic tactic that ultimately put down and targeted one specific group of people. The tactic of nationwide internment based on a certain ethnicity or race has never been used again since. Although it can be argued that Japanese Internment was necessary in the U.S. because it was a case of national security, the real truth to the matter is that it was an act of racial prejudice.

In 1941, the Japanese surprise attacked Pearl Harbor and consequently, the United Stated entered World War II. Thus, in 1942, FDR issued Executive Order No. 9066 which allowed the Secretary of War to designate military areas. The executive order led to Public Law 503 in which Congress made it a criminal offense to violate military orders under Executive Order No. 9066, therefore, allowing the military to begin excluding anyone of Japanese ancestry in the military areas and forcing them to report to internment camps. Fred Korematsu, a Japanese American citizen, willingly refused to evacuate under Civilian Exclusion Order No. 34 and was arrested and convicted. Korematsu appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court where Korematsu V United States was heard with Korematsu as the petitioner and the United States as the respondent.

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?

     For over a century, the United States has been one of the most powerful and influential states on the globe. However, every nation has made mistakes in its past. Throughout our country’s history, certain groups have had to endure horrible injustices: the enslavement of African-Americans, the removal of Native Americans, and discrimination against immigrants, women, homosexuals, and every other minority. During World War II, the government crossed the line between defending the nation and violating human rights, when it chose to relocate Japanese residents to internment camps. The actions taken by the U.S. government against Japanese Americans and Japanese living in the

Introduction: You might think that Japanese Internment Camps were not so dreadful because if it was more Americans would be talking about it, but the truth of the matter is Japanese Internment Camps were not what they seem and defective because the police took Japanese American relatives away from each other, they kept to many Japanese Americans in the camps in the era and the Japanese Internment Camps are really protective. Some people disagree, saying that Japanese Internment Camps were good because not that many Japanese Americans got disturbed. This is distorted information because if people tried to escape, they would have gotten execution or beaten badly.

The topic I choose to right about is the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. The question that I intend to answer today is: The Constitution guarantees American citizens no imprisonment without due process of law, yet has been violated by the federal government in at least two American wars. How did the government justify interning Japanese-American citizens in World War II? In order to understand why this happened we have to first look at what happened. We are going to look at a couple things in this paper: The Executive Order of 9066 and Korematsu v. United States (1944). As well as we are good to look at just why the U.S. decided to not give these people the basic

While there are many benefits of an executive order, the President should not be able to use them as it is overstepping their boundaries with Congress. They serve as a way for the President to abuse his power and they go against what is stated in the Preamble of the Constitution, deeming them unconstitutional.

75 years ago, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. For a brief history lesson, during World War II, tension was high and people in the US were both angry and scared. Fresh off the attack on Pearl Harbor, citizens and the government had a major fear of more homeland attacks from the Japanese as well as spies living among them. Influenced by many members of his cabinet, FDR signed the Executive Order, along with Executive Order 9102, which caused over 100,000 people of Japanese origin (over 70,000 of which were American citizens) along with several thousand German and Italian immigrants, to be put in internment camps for the duration of the war.

The start of world war two is what created the start to the Japanese internment, but why would America lock up innocent Japanese Americans, because they are sacred? The Japanese Americans should not have been put in camps because of the pearl harbor bombing, which was when the Japanese bombed the US naval fleet in hawaii in 1941. The start of world war two is what made a lot of the Americans scared that the Japanese would strike again, so America thought it would be best if we put the Japanese Americans living in the western side of the united states in camps and take away their freedom. The Japanese living in the western side had all their rights and fun taken away from them just for something that they had nothing to do with, other than they

How could the United States imprison thousands of innocent people without cause? During World War II, Japan may have posed a threat to Americans, however, the US government unnecessarily rounded up all citizens of Japanese descent and sent them to live in internment camps. They had not committed any crime. They had not done anything wrong. The United States simply decided it was better to be safe than sorry, on the off chance that there was a spy among them. They should not have imprisoned these Japanese descendants in part because imprisoning innocent people contradicts the purpose of a war for freedom. In addition, the US forced them to leave their hard earned homes and live in deplorable conditions.

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 were interned in our country during WWII. The United States justified this as a measure of security against the possibility of spies and saboteurs. The United States feared that those of Japanese ancestry would be spying for the Japanese, or would sabotage war efforts. Japanese warplanes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7th, 1941. By December 8th, the United States declared war on Japan, Germany and their allies. The Japanese attack brought America into World War II. It “outraged Americans and sparked a wave of anti-Japanese sentiment across the country. Many blamed all Japanese for the attack, directing their anger and frustration even at Japanese resident aliens and Japanese-Americans who had done nothing that would bring into question their loyalty to the United States” (Morelock). There was an atmosphere of fear, anger, racial animosity, and uncertainty. President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 two months after the declaration of war. It gave the United States Army the authority to round up Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast and put them in “relocation (internment) camps.” “In the spring of 1942, some 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were taken from their homes on the West Coast and incarcerated by order of the U.S. government. None had committed any acts of treason or espionage, and there was no evidence that any of them contemplated such activities” (Wax 13). Seventy thousand of them were United States’ citizens.

We all have studied about the Japanese-American Internment camps that happened during the World War II. These are considered as the black spot on the United States record as the United States has always been a diverse country, which has respected every culture and individual freedom, but in these internment camps, several thousands of Japanese residents were relocated from the pacific coast to the points in the interior of the United States based on the fear. While I was watching the video of the government explanation, I felt that the video had presented these camps in a way as if they had no disadvantages to the Japanese as all the Japanese were shown to be happy throughout the video. The government has explained these camps in a positive manner.

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is originally a naval base that was once used to house detention facilities for Haitian and Cuban refugees fleeing to the United States. It was also used as a refueling station for Navy ships. It was then converted into a high level detention facility to house enemy troops captured in the War on Terror campaign by Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfield. It has three main camps that house the prisoners. These prisoners of war were later referred to as enemy combatants. They were excluded from the prisoner of war statutes of the Geneva Convention because of their involvement in a foreign terrorist organization and therefore earning themselves the title of terrorists. The Guantanamo Bay Detention Center served as the perfect location to send these terrorists. It allowed the United States to strip them of any due process or protection that is provided by US law. Due to its location, being in foreign territory they are only subjected to military law. They are close enough for them to be monitored without interference of intentional agencies or international oversight. Furthermore, the US Government is holding these men without due process because they are deemed too dangerous to be released into the public because of their associations with terrorist organizations and possession of valuable information relating to National Security such as location of key members of a terrorist groups, whereabouts. However, the United States cannot release those