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How Is Japanese American Internment Justified

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The Internment of Japanese Americans Was Not Justified
December 7, 1941 was a turning point in American history; it was the day Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. The following day, December 8, 1941, was the day the United States officially joined World War II. The United States took precautionary steps and ordered thousands of Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast to barbed wire-enclosed internment camps (Dudley 116). According to Frank Murphy, Michigan governor and U.S. attorney general, these actions were inhumane (Dudley 117). The Civilian Exclusion Order No. 34 violated constitutional rights, discriminated against race, and was deliberate in releasing Japanese Americans (Dudley 118).
Without the declaration of martial law, the United States forced Japanese Americans out of their homes. This, in effect, deprived these citizens from the equal protection of the law given by the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Fifth Amendment states that a person can not be held responsible for a crime committed without just cause, or habeas corpus. Governor Murphy states, “This racial restriction...is one of the most sweeping and complete deprivations of constitutional rights in …show more content…

According to Frank Murphy, “...in the Commanding General’s Final Report on the evacuation from the Pacific Coast area he refers to all individuals of Japanese descent as ‘subversive,’ as belonging to ‘an enemy race’ whose ‘racial strains are undiluted,’and as constituting ‘over 112,000 potential enemies...at large today’ along the Pacific Coast.” This justification was solely based on questionable opinion, and not reasonable cause or facts. Most of the people who supported the move of Japanese Americans into internment camps had reasons that were full of misinformation, only half the truth, and were based off personal racial and social prejudice (Dudley

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One reason why the U.S government’s decision was not justifiable is because many of the Japanese-Americans were innocent people who legally received their American citizenship. For example, in Monica Sone’s “Camp Harmony”,

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While the government cited national security concerns, there was no concrete evidence of Japanese Americans posing a threat to the United States. The forced relocation and internment of Japanese Americans were based on racial profiling and discrimination, and it resulted in the violation of their constitutional rights, including the right to due process and equal protection under the

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Oscar Deolarte Social Studies:3, English:2 2/22/16 Relocation Camps Unjustified On December 7, 1942 the Japanese attacked an American naval base on Hawaii called Pearl Harbor. This surprise attack on the Pacific fleet left the West Coast open to a potential attack which could have no retaliation due to the decimated fleet numbers. The U.S government then issued Executive Order 9066, which required the relocation of the Japanese and anyone of Japanese descent living in the U.S. That leads us to the controversy surrounding the evacuation. Was the relocation of Japanese-Americans during World War II justified?

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As opposed to righteous view that America was safeguarding its position in the war, the Japanese American internments were created out of resentment and racial prejudice fostered by other Americans. As the article “Personal Justice Denied” stated, the internments were led by “widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan” (Doc E, 1983). It may seem like a precautionary cause to make internments but there aren’t any other extreme measures for other fronts. Caused by a hatred stirred by media and society’s view, many people disdain the Japanese.

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The relocation of Japanese into internment camps was necessary for national security and protection for the people, but it ignored the fact that many Japanese citizens and noncitizens alike had to leave much of their homes, valuables, and assets behind, lived in horrible conditions in the camps, isolated them from everyone, and disrupted their lives greatly. Simply, relocating 120,000 people to a different location was overboard. Military personnels at the defense bases and factories could easily restrain any people from approaching the bases and facilities. They could also tell the Japanese people or Asian race in general apart from the white Americans since anybody of Japanese ancestry was easily recognizable. Moreover, every citizen was already told advised to report any suspicious persons or activities to the government for investigation after the incident at Pearl Harbor.

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There was profound racism against the American Japanese both from the society and some government policies. White farmers in the West Coast were highly prejudicial against their Japanese counterparts and the attack on Pearl Harbor offered them an opportunity to condemn and take away the farms owned by people of Japanese descent. Such groups instigated and fully supported the internment camps to enable them reach their objectives.(Trowbridge, 2016) After receiving contradictory advice and popular opinion, President Roosevelt signed an executive order in February 1942 authoritatively mandating the Relocation of all Americans of Japanese ancestry to what would become known as Internment Camps in the interior of the United States. Evacuation orders were posted in JAPANESE-AMERICAN communities giving instructions on how to comply with the executive order.

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In december 1941 rumors spread about sending the Japanese to internment camps which means leaving their homes and being separated from their families This is very important to me because they could have handled this a better way , sixty two percent of the internees were united states citizens ! The Japanese internment camps was a forced relocation and incarceration during World War II of between 11,000 and 120,000 people of japanese ancestry who lived in the pacific coast . Ten internment camps were established in California , Utah , Arizona , Colorado , Arkansas and Wyoming . “ President Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 authorizing the war relocation authority to force 110,000 Japanese and their american-born children into relocation

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The internment of Japanese-Americans in the US was completely unjust and violated the constitutional rights of many. It classified the Japanese as ‘dangerous aliens’ as they were unrightfully sent sent from their homes to militarized locations under fear of espionage during WWII. ” The American Friends Service Committee (a Quaker group), and the Japanese-American community—countered that singling out a particular group for internment was an unconstitutional infringement of their liberty” (Japanese-American Internment). There were legal organizations against the interment under the proof that it was unconstitutional. This included American citizens targeted by their own government because of their ethnicities.

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Imagine living in San Francisco, CA you’re a 12 year old, Japanese- American boy, you have black straight hair, round glasses, a small petite frame, and all your family were residents from Japan. On April 1, 1942, Lieutenant General John Dewitt from the U.S. Army ordered all Japanese persons, both alien and non-alien to evacuate San Francisco by a designated time. All Japanese-Americans were evacuated, loaded on buses and relocated to camps by the Western Defense Command and Forth Army Wartime Civil Control Administration. Executive order 9066, by President Roosevelt stated the internment of 100,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. On September 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, entering the military alliance against the United States, also known as the “Axis”.

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How would you feel if one day you were told to leave your whole life behind to live in captivity just because people halfway across the world did something wrong? This horror story was all too true for the thousands of Japanese Americans alive during World War II. Almost overnight, thousands of proud Japanese Americans living on the west coast were forced to leave their homes and give up the life they knew. The United States government was not justified in the creation of Japanese internment camps because it stripped law-abiding American citizens of their rights out of unjustified fear.

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The Japanese were not placed in internment due to their race/ancestry for three reasons: They were the ones responsible for their removal, Justice Black’s statement that “Exclusion of those of Japanese origins were deemed necessary because of the presence of unascertained number of disloyal members of the group, most of whom we have no doubt were loyal to this country” (Japanese Interment pg. 3) and because the United States were at war with the Japanese Empire. The first reason the Japanese were not placed in interment due to their race/ancestry was that they were the ones responsible for their removal. If the Japanese did not attack Pearl Harbor the United States would not have joined World War II in the first place. Roosevelt would not have created the War Relocation Authority to relocate them either. The Japanese-Americans also failed to voluntarily remove themselves from the West

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521 Words | 3 Pages

“The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States was the forced relocation and incarceration during World War II of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the Pacific coast in camps in the interior of the country.” (Crawford 1). After the attack, the government felt threatened by the Japanese. Therefore, they could not trust any, even the ones living in the United States. Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps or military camps where they were not allowed to leave.

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Many historians agree that this event was undoubtedly unconstitutional and an infringement of basic human rights. The forced incarceration of Japanese

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Although President Roosevelt had already delivered a speech calling for a formal declaration of war on the Japanese Empire, demand for harsher government measures to be taken against Japanese-Americans grew until Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942. The order authorized the forced evacuation of all Japanese-Americans from the West Coast to ‘relocation centers’ further inland. Anyone with the slightest Japanese relation was clearly targeted, with the evacuation including those who were as little as 1/16 Japanese and orphans with “a single drop of Japanese blood”. Within weeks of the order being signed into law, over 100,000 Japanese-Americans were imprisoned in the internment camps. They had no choice but to submit to constant demoralization over the three years that the camps were active in hopes of demonstrating their ‘patriotism’.

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In my opinion, the internment of Japanese-Americans in 1941 was not only unnecessary for national defense, it was also a racist act. Due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, over 110,000 Japanese Americans were forced by the executive order 9066 to evacuate the west coast, being placed in internment camps. Even though to some measure it is understandable that one may be sceptical after such a traumatic experience takes place, internment camps for innocent men, women and children cannot be justified. A large majority of these Japanese-Americans were forced to stay and withstand immensely difficult living conditions and harsh treatment for two and a half years. Relocation has left many with a sense of shame that continues to live on in our modern day.

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