On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor, an American naval base in Hawaii, was attacked. The attack was launched by the Japanese Empire in an effort to weaken the US’s pacific military fleet because Japan was planning on invading China, one of America’s allies. The attack on Pearl Harbor was extremely concerning for many Americans because the US had never been attacked by a foreign nation before, aside from the Revolutionary War. As a result of this increase in concern, the US joined World War ll and Japanese- Americans became the victim of lots of scrutiny. Slowly Americans of Japanese descent had their rights stripped away. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 into law that allowed for the relocation of Japanese- Americans into internment …show more content…
From 1941 to 1946 Japanese- Americans were incarcerated and kept in internment camps strictly because of their race. Document E is a passage taken from a newspaper that promotes civil rights. The newspaper tells its readers that, “Color seems to be the only possible reason why thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry are in concentration camps,” (Document E). Japanese- Americans were being incarcerated and it was mainly because of the prejudice against their race. Racism was a contributing factor in the decisions that surrounded the incarceration, therefore, Japanese- American internment was unjustified. However, some believe that this racism stems from the danger of Japanese- Americans. The USA was at war with Japan, so many were afraid that people of Japanese ancestry could be partaking in sabotage or espionage against the USA in order to help their home country. Document C is a Supreme Court ruling in the case of Korematsu V. United States. Fred Korematsu was an American citizen of Japanese descent who was convicted of evading incarceration. He brought his case to the Supreme Court, which decided in favor of the United States. The ruling says, “To cast this case into outlines of racial prejudice, without reference to the real military dangers which were presented, merely confuses the issue. Korematsu was not excluded from the Military Area because of hostility to him or his race. He was excluded because we are at war with the Japanese Empire,” (Document C). Some believe there was a danger to Japanese- Americans because the US was at war with the Japanese Empire. Those people felt the racism existed and was justified because of the dangers in having Japanese- Americans who might be helping the nation the US was at war with. These people are wrong because racial prejudice against Japanese- Americans existed before the war. Document H is a photo taken in 1920. This photo is a
In the Amicus Curiae Brief submitted by the Japanese American Citizens’ League it states, “We contend that General DeWitt accepted the views of racists instead of the principles of democracy because he is himself a confessed racist.” (210) I believe this statement primarily because General DeWitt did not care if you had American citizenship, if you were also Japanese, you were deemed as dangerous to him. I also believe the reason pro-internment advocates saw those that were Japanese as a threat was because their physical features were different than Americans, but same as their
In By Order of the President, author Greg Robinson examines the controversial topic of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to relocate more than 100,000 Japanese-American citizens into internment camps for the duration of World War Two using Executive Order 9066. Preceding studies have sought to explain Roosevelt’s decision as a sensible reaction to bureaucratic pressure from military and political leaders on the West Coast, who feared the control Japanese-Americans and pro-Japanese held. Despite the vast examination of the Japanese Internment dilemma, Robinson argues that scholars have not sufficiently examined Roosevelt’s role in creating and implementing the internment policy. Robinson argues that typical narratives tend to diminish
In They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, President Franklin D. Roosevelt demonstrates irrationality fueled by anger with his decision to sign the Executive Order 9066. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, President Roosevelt was infuriated and urged Congress to declare war on Japan. Subsequently, on February 19, 1942, he issued Executive Order 9066 which “authorized the military to declare areas ‘from which any or all persons may be excluded’” (Takei 22). Consequently, Japanese-Americans were unjustly incarcerated in relocation camps.
It highlights the devastating impact of the internment on Japanese Americans and their communities. The document describes the loss of homes, businesses, and personal belongings, as well as the disruption of families and communities. It also reveals that despite the government's assertion of military necessity, no evidence of espionage or sabotage by Japanese Americans was ever found. This challenges Justice Black's perspective that the internment was justified by military necessity. Furthermore, document E shows that Executive Order 9066 and the subsequent internment of Japanese Americans during World War II did indeed represent a significant infringement of civil rights.
DeWitt managed to push for the incarceration of Issei and Nissei through sensationalism. DeWitt played on the fears of Americans and illustrated the dangers of the potential of Japanese raids on the Pacific coast externally from the Japanese military and internally from Japanese immigrants. Ultimately, the anti-Japanese sentiment won out and Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive order 9066 allowing the army to incarcerate Japanese in internment camps. Hence, Daniels demonstrated the ease with which racial prejudice met military hysteria and resulted in the incarceration of Japanese
The cause for the encampments was rooted in the hatred the American society had towards the Japanese. Discriminating and Judging
Next, precautions to keep the Japanese-Americans enclosed are a little extreme as shown in the text when it says, “We drove past a barbed wire fence, through a gate…” (pg. 19). To explain, the government was making sure that none of the Japanese people being forced to live there, would try to escape. This is a prejudice act because again, they have no evidence that shows any of the Japanese-Americans who lived in the United States had anything to do with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, yet they are enclosing them in these camps with barbed wire fences to ensure they don’t leave during the duration of the war. Lastly, while all Japanese-Americans in the west coast were forced to evacuate, they were the only race that was considered an enemy and was forced to leave and sent to camps.
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.”
Korematsu also pressed that this was an act of racial discrimination in that military leaders were displaying racist motivations against Japanese Americans, and the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed him equal protection as an American-born citizen despite his cultural background. The Supreme Court rebutted his claims, stating that there was not enough time to conduct a trail or hearing for each Japanese American and the need to protect our nation against espionage outweighed Korematsu 's
In the depth of World War II America was now in war with Japan, Germany, Italy, and all allies of theirs. Whilst these battles took place throughout Europe, Japan suddenly bombed the U.S.’s current territory of Hawaii thus forcing America into the war. With deaths flooding through other countries America felt that at this time it seemed reasonable to place all Japanese and of Japanese descent people in confinement camps. The confinement of the Japanese was unjustified because it was entirely based on racism, for the fact that the Japanese weren’t at all dangerous, they didn't feel need to do this to German and Italian descent, and after all that it wasn't military justified as claimed and defended. Despite what was said the Japanese weren't
The Japanese-American Internment was a terrible occurrence in the early 1940s because of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The camps were more like military barracks and were cramped. The camps caused a lot of controversy and this incident has been labeled the largest violation of human rights in American history. This disaster impacted the way we see human rights for all races. The Japanese American internment was the relocation of all Japanese-Americans due to the attack on pearl harbor under executive order 9066.
Jayna Marie Lorenzo May 23, 2023 Historiography Paper Professor Kevin Murphy Historiography Final: Japanese Internment “A date which will live in infamy,” announced President Roosevelt during a press conference after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Due to the military threat by the Japanese on the West Coast, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ordering for the incarceration of all people of Japanese descent. The Order forced about 120,000 Japanese Americans into relocation centers across the United States where they remained in captivity until the war ended.
The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was not justified. After Pearl Harbor, many Americans were scared of the Japanese Americans because they could sabotage the U.S. military. To try and solve the fear President Franklin D Roosevelt told the army in Executive order 9066 to relocate all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. They were relocated to detention centers in the desert. Many of them were in the detention centers for three years.
Furthermore, the United States should do more to compensate the families of those impacted by internment because the recompense provided initially was minimal and should be considered an affront to the memory of the victims. Prior to World War II, the 127,000 Japanese-Americans along America’s west coast (Japanese American Relocation and Internment Camps) were considered just another immigrant group coming to America searching for a better life. However, with the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, this perception soon saw a drastic change. The attack on the US Naval base on December 7th, 1941 left many casualties in its wake.
As a result, all Japanese were discriminated in the U.S.A. as biased perceptions were already set in their minds. They were judging the Japanese as the whole, just because the attack of a small part of the