Essay On Japanese Internment Camps

When you think of internment camps in World War II and the discrimination of an entire race, you probably think of the Nazi’s mass genocide of the Jewish people. However, not nearly as often discussed or taught, was the American discrimination of Japanese-Americans in the form of Japanese-American internment camps during World War II. Due to the terrible attack on Pearl Harbor, the American public became paranoid of another attack on American soil and as a result of this, war hysteria overtook the country. Anti- Japanese paranoia increased due to a large Japanese presence in the West Coast. The American people thought of the Japanese Americans as a security risk in the event of a Japanese invasion of the American mainland. State representatives took notice to the problems this hysteria was causing and put pressure on President Roosevelt to take action against those of Japanese descent living in the United States. On February 19th, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This order instated the relocation of all 127,000 American citizens

The internment camps were extremely overcrowded and provided poor living conditions. They were housed in barracks and were forced to use communal areas for laundry, washing, and eating. Food was rationed out at 48 cents per internee, and was served in a communal mess hall that held 250-300 people. Children were expected to go to school and adults had the option to work for five dollars per day. The government hoped that the internees could make the camps self-sufficient by farming, however the arid soil made this quite difficult. The lack of coal which in turn kept the internees cold at night while the desert camps led the internees to deal with extreme heat during the day. Some internees died due to inadequate medical care. Some even died due to the high level of emotional stress. If the internees attempted to flee, armed sentries, who stood watch 24/7, would shoot