During World war 2, Japanese Americans were viewed as a threat to national security. To ensure the safety of all Americans, thousands of Japanese Americans were forcefully placed in internment camps. Numerous people lost their lives, separated from their families, and lost their homes and other valuable family possessions. Though safety was the top priority, individual freedom should not have been offered as a sacrifice. With the allocation of Executive Administrative Order 9066, President Roosevelt violated individual rights, created mistrust between citizens, and misused government powers. It’s not right that individual freedom should be sacrificed in the name of national security. During World War II, Japanese Americans had a tough time. …show more content…
collected and through various channels transmitted information to the Japanese Empire." During those times, people believed that this information was accurate, which created fear within the community, fearing they would be killed by their local Japanese Americans because they were Japanese. The national and West Coast media vilified the local Japanese community as if they had been implicated in espionage. In combination with other factors, the timing of the report proved to be a turning point in public opinion concerning the mass removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Based on it, the government decided to intern people based on their Japanese …show more content…
He recalls, "As a young kid, I really didn’t think too much of it." talking about the internment, "we’d say, ‘well, it’ll be over in a few days or a few weeks and it’ll be back to normal,’ kind of attitude. We use to have visitation, and the white people, the church members would come down… to see the people who were incarcerated." They would visit people who were incarcerated, he used the term "incarcerated" since the place didn’t feel like a home but a prison cell and when they tried to shake their hands, they would say "Get away from there," and that’s when he realized that they don’t trust them. And he implied that what he was taught in school beforehand about the ideas of democracy and the protection of freedom "went down the drain." Japanese-American children weren’t able to attend school as they were limited in education books, which made it hard for them in the future. But the damage went beyond economic loss. Many Japanese Americans never fully recovered from the shock and trauma of the move, coupled as it was with the disruption of careers and economic upheaval. The trauma and discrimination they faced while in the camps also led to long-term mental health
The narrative begins with the first two chapters focusing on assessing Roosevelt’s evolving attitude toward Japan and Japanese-Americans, during his pre-presidential years and his first two terms in office. Continuing, Robinson changes directions and focuses on the origin and implementation of the internment policy, beginning with Roosevelt’s decision to issue Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, the authorization of relocating Japanese-Americans from the West Coast into internment camps, the subsequent controversy over with Japanese-Americans deemed “loyal” to the United States, and the decision to finally close the camps in 1946. The final chapter concludes with Robinson attempting to understand how Roosevelt, whom historians have celebrated for his strong commitment to individual rights, could have supported such an unjust policy. Robinson argues Roosevelt’s “past feelings toward the Japanese-Americans must be considered to have significantly shaped his momentous decision to evacuate Japanese-Americans from their homes … whether citizens or longtime resident aliens, [Japanese-Americans] were still Japanese at the core and should be regarded as presumptuously disloyal and dangerous on racial grounds” (p. 118 -
As the tension with Japan increased, the authority doubted that the Japanese government had hidden connections with Japanese Americans and Japanese living in the United State, particularly, on the West
While the government cited national security concerns, there was no concrete evidence of Japanese Americans posing a threat to the United States. The forced relocation and internment of Japanese Americans were based on racial profiling and discrimination, and it resulted in the violation of their constitutional rights, including the right to due process and equal protection under the
The U.S. becomes hysterical and is blinded by racial prejudice; they order anyone with Japanese descent into internment camps. This created a time of pain and shock for the Japanese Americans who had done nothing wrong. Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans During World War II by Martin W. Sandler highlights the shock and fear this ethnic group faced while teaching older audiences not to discriminate through the in depth examples of the Japanese Americans and the internment camps in World War II. The first lesson Sandler teaches is to not judge a person by their skin or race.
Influences like these are, ultimately, the deciding factor in what lead to the heroism that most Americans felt at that time; and unfortunately this sort of prejudice doesn't care if you are a citizen or not, it only cares about what you look like, and that meant Japanese Americans were an easy target because of their physical
Inequitable Incarceration The months before and during WW1 in America were a dark and gloomy period for the Japanese-American citizens. Many Japanese-Americans have shared their story of the internment camps during WW1 and Jerry Stanley, a victim of the camps noted, “I am proud that I am an American citizen of Japanese ancestry, for my very background makes me appreciate more fully the wonderful advantages of this nation.” (Stanley 3). Stanley was a proud american and appreciated the freedoms he had.
Further yet, the government again complied with the fears of Americans with states from California to Louisiana passing Alien Land Laws that prohibited any ‘alien ineligible for citizenship’ from purchasing agricultural land or leasing it for long periods of time (Ng 9). Japanese immigrants felt the negative sentiment against them as the laws were directed at them, but they still managed to assimilate their lives to American culture. With the attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war on Japan, the anti-Japanese sentiment that had been accumulating over the past hundred years met its boiling point with the Department of Justice’s issuance of the first federal regulation which discriminated directly against American citizens of Japanese ancestry (Daniels 27). It closed land borders of the United States to all enemy aliens and all persons of Japanese ancestry (ibid). These early influences on the government imposed by biased Americans planted the seed for the passing of Executive Order 9066 and eventual internment of the US Japanese
A Japanese American had written a letter to one of their friends explaining , document 3 states “These among other things I remember of that Christmas 1941. Then another memory runs through my aching head...a low voice -- “You damn Jap-you! By gosh,the government should put every damn one of you in concentration camps”----I remember the cold shiver that ran up my spine…” the racism happened before they were sent to the concentration camp during all of the racism they have trauma and terrible memories of what they went through. Someone had written a letter to the congress saying to eliminate the Japanese american, in Document 5 “The Japanese cannot be assimilated as the white race. We must do everything we can to stop them now as we have a golden opportunity and may never have it again.”
On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii causing the United States to enter World War II. Soon after, President D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 approving the removal of any and all civilians from “military areas” to prevent any acts of espionage from being committed. Over 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds being American born citizens, living in the West coast were forcibly sent to internment camps. The U.S. government released a film discussing how the relocation was accomplished. However, the video blatantly disregards the true personal effects and conditions of the Japanese-American WWII relocation.
Even before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Japanese Americans were discriminated against because of their race. During World War ll, the United States was also at war with Germany and Italy, but German and Italian Americans were not experiencing the same unfair treatment that Japanese Americans endured. This was because of their race. For example, in an editorial in The Crisis periodical, Harry Paxton Howard wrote in September of 1942, “Color seems to be the only possible reason why thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry are in concentration camps. Anyway, there are no Italian-American, or German-American citizens in such camps” (Document E).
The US used a questionnaire to test their loyalty. This is not a valid reason to place them in internment camps because a few questions do not determine their loyalty toward their country. “Since US law did not allow any Japanese immigrants to become naturalized US citizens, answering “yes” to question #28 would mean they were in danger of losing their Japanese citizenship.” (Loyalty). These questions put Japanese Americans in a tough position.
Alex Uhrich Mrs. Price ACC US History 07 April 2023 Japanese Internment Camps in the US At the beginning of World War Two the United States was uncertain whether they were going to join the war or not. The US was in a state of isolation following WWI but felt threatened by the Japanese because they were struggling economically after the embargo policy set by the US. The Japanese were having some success in the battles they were fighting in places such as Guam and were continuing to scare the US. The first big step the Japanese took was when they bombed pearl harbor which motivated Franklin D. Roosevelt to pass executive order 9066.
Many historians agree that this event was undoubtedly unconstitutional and an infringement of basic human rights. The forced incarceration of Japanese
The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II is an embarrassing moment in United States history. Fear contributed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the federal government’s unlawful detainment of American citizens without proper cause and justification. The United States failed to take full responsibility and accountability for the illegal detainment of American citizens. These actions impacted several generations of Japanese Americans through the internment, postwar, and redress
The United States Constitution consists of basic human rights granted to everyone in the country, which includes the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, religion, and press. The Fourteenth Amendment affirms that no state shall enforce a law that deprives a person of life, liberty, or property without due process. However, in 1942, Japanese Americans were deprived of these rights. Due to fear from the bombing of Pearl Harbor, many Japanese Americans were detained in internment camps or confinement places during wartime (“Japanese Internment,” 2007).