Argumentative Essay On Japanese Internment Camps

Japanese Americans were finally free to return to their homes on December 17,1944 although most of the internment camps did not close till October 1946. A lot of those who were forced into the internment camps lost their homes and possessions to say nothing of their personal liberties and freedoms that was supposed to be guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Their properties had been seized for nonpayment of taxes or otherwise appropriated.Even if they had homes to go back to their homes and lands were marked by the violence and agitation of the Americans, despite the fact that not a single documented act of disloyalty by a person of Japanese ancestry was reported during World War 2.. As they started over, meeting waves of hostility,

This act was signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1948. It was enacted by the congress with an aim to make the public change their perceptions towards Japanese Americans and reflect deeply back on their wartime imprisonment. It was also the first civil rights associated law in the 20th century (Robinson).

Under this act, Japanese Americans filed a total of 23,689 claims, for an amount of 131,949,176 dollars. By 1950, the Department had heard over 200 claims out of the 23,000 that were filed but authorized only 137. The process of settling the claims were extremely slow and the last claim was not settled until 1965 (Robinson). In all, the government paid 38 million dollars to settle damage claims, which was only a fraction of actual losses by the Japanese Americans. Many families paid more in lawyer's fees than they received in compensation

The act was supported by the supporters as a needed step in preventing communist invasion in the United States, while the opponents decried, for they thought the legislation was discriminatory. However, this law did relatively little to alter the quota system for immigration into the United States (History.com).

Before the act was practiced, immigrants from England, Ireland, and Germany were allotted two thirds of the 154,657 spots available for immigrants each year (History.com). The Asians however, including Chinese, Japanese and Koreans did not receive any of these spots. However, after this act came into law, it did actually remove these previously established racial barriers that had excluded immigrants from the Asian nations and immigrants from these countries were finally assigned space to enter the country, though they were still very limited.

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