How Did Pearl Harbor Change Japanese American Culture

“Seeing there was nothing I can do for the lieutenant, I continued to my battle station” is the feeling you get when learning about Pearl Harbor. It was the end of 1941, and America felt it was an untouchable world power. Little did they know that Japan was going to attack them. On December 7, 1941 the Japanese came with their fleet and ambushed Pearl Harbor, which not only killed and wounded many Americans but also changed American history. It weakened America to the point that it lost its sense of invincibility, power and security. Due to the weakening of such a world power many changes occurred: Internment camps were built for the Japanese Americans, security was tightened and changed in Hawaii and really in all of the United States, as

There were between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of whom lived on the Pacific coast in these camps, as well as 62 percent of the internees were United States citizens. These actions were ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly after Japan’s attack on pearl harbor. On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed an Executive Order , which forced all Japanese-Americans, regardless of devotion or nationality, to evacuate the West Coast. This rule did not apply to just Hawaii, however, one-third of whose population was Japanese-American, or to Americans of German and Italian ancestry. Ten internment camps were established in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas, eventually holding 120,000 persons. Many were forced to sell their property at a severe loss before departure. Communal troubles overwhelmed the internees: older Issei (immigrants) were dispossessed of their usual respect when their children, the Nisei (American-born), were given powerful positions within the camps. A survivor from Pearl Harbor, Dale, related : “To the best of my knowledge Japanese Americans were not locked up after the Pearl Harbor attack. You cannot lump them together under one category. Many of them had been in Hawaii for generations and were good Americans. They owned and operated businesses. As for spying — visiting Japanese

Soon after they got involved in World War II in both Europe and in The Pacific. The part of the country that was affected the most though, was of course, the island of Hawaii. Soon after the attack the islands were turned into a large military base with government buildings becoming military buildings and the airports being run by the army. Perimeters were even set up on beaches of the island as to prevent attacks from Japanese forces(Pearl Harbor-Oahu). Japanese-American citizens and Japanese living in the U.S. were targeted as "dangerous." There were other changes to America after the attack as well. Another big change that occurred was that all the big factories that normally produce non-war products, started producing war-time materials. As a result they thought that could be a target of any air attacks from the enemy countries. What some of these factories did was on their roofs, they made the rooftop look like it was a small residential neighborhood so that when an enemy plane flew over they would not bomb it because it was not a factory. Many factories did this especially ones in major cities and states in the U.S. Within a matter of hours of the attack, America is moving quickly to get on a war footing. American attitudes about the war change radically, [as do] American attitudes about the economy, about giving to the war. The war is not part of the culture; the war is the culture. Everything is viewed through the prism