Essay On African Americans During Ww2

460 Words2 Pages

During World War II several acts of racism occurred alongside with the war. Needless to say, African Americans were not the only ones at fault, but Japanese Americans as well. Although African Americans played a significant role in World War II, they faced racial discrimination. As soldiers, they didn’t get acknowledged as being fit for combat and were often not even allowed on the front lines. More than 2.5 million African Americans registered but only 1 million served. At this time, Civil Right leaders saw an opportunity to ease some of the acts of discrimination against African Americans. These attempts failed when the American Red Cross had announced a nationwide drive from people to build up blood for the war. When African Americans volunteered to donate they all were turned away. Headlines were made and eventually Red Cross found itself in the midst of all the negative backlash and uproars from several civil rights campaigns. …show more content…

Just shortly after the Pearl Harbor, an order was issued that became the foundation for the large remotion and interment of those of Japanese ancestry in American whether citizen or not. With internment being defined as detaining a person or group, many were forced to leave farms and homes, close businesses, and so forth. Although some had the opportunity to return to Japan, others moved outside the exclusion zones, but some had to endure the hardships of those internment camps. In addition, the media took it upon themselves to depicted the Japanese as being the enemy during this time especially in sketches, books (This is the Enemy), and in cartoons. The whole intent was to change Americans minds and how they overall felt about the Japanese period. Eventually, the camps came to an end and every Japanese American tried to return to their normal lives with the compensation of US