Essay On Japanese American Internment

When most people think about World War II the first event that comes into their minds is the Holocaust that lasted from January 30, 1933 until May 8, 1945. But another event also took place during World War II that many people including Americans tend to forget. The event that took place right here on American soil called the Japanese-American Internment that lasted from February 19, 1942 until March 20, 1946. Even though both of these historical events don’t always get the same recognition that they deserve, there are many similarities but also differences between them.

“The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.” (Introduction to the

The executive order called the War Relocation Authority signed by President Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 ordered that over one-hundred thousand Japanese “65 percent of whom were American citizens — would spend up to four years imprisoned, working to rebuild their lives.” (A |More| Perfect| Union). Due to this executive order, many Japanese’s Americans were forced to give up their livelihoods all because Americans were parodied and fearful. Fearful that those of Japanese descent regardless if they were born in America or not, would turn against the non-Japanese Americans and kill them. For the next four years Japanese American’s were imprisoned and forced to work on these internments. The conditions in the Internment camps were not as horrific as the concentration camps in Germany because death was not the ultimate goal. But Internment camps were there to tear down the pride and dignity of the Japanese-Americans. “While the American concentration camps never reached the levels of Nazi death camps as far as atrocities are concerned, they remain a dark mark on the nation's record of respecting civil liberties and cultural differences.” (Japanese-American Internment). Internment camps were used as a way to keep an eye on the Japanese-Americans and to control their culture in order to protect