Japanese Discrimination Essay

Asian Americans have faced discrimination since the Chinese first came to the United States in the mid 1800s. They faced discrimination because as foreigners they stood out and as the US citizens started targeting foreigners for taking their gold; their opportunity to “strike it rich” since they were the citizens of the United States and the foreigners were taking what belonged. The Japanese later faced heavy discrimination from Americans whether they were an Issei, the first generation Japanese immigrants or Nisei, who were born in the US and who only a handful of them had ever been to Japan even before the Pearl Harbor. The Pearl Harbor incident had only added fuel to the fire to make the underlying discrimination against Japanese show its

Even before the Pearl Harbor bombing the Japanese were not without discrimination, rather it just fueled the fire and increased the amount of Anti-Japanese groups. After the Pearl Harbor bombing the Executive Order 9066 was passed, causing the Japanese to be removed from their houses and placed in internment camps. The Executive Order 9066 uprooted Japanese from their studies and profession. Executive Order 9066 forced them to stop everything in their life as if what they thought did not matter as citizens of the United States and it “was one of the most flagrant violations of civil liberties in American history”(“Japanese- American Relocation”) .The Japanese were told that they were being moved for their own safety and protection(Uchida 52), which was not true. In America, there was much anger and hatred towards the Japanese.The other Americans even went as far as to call them “Japs” in order to use media play to make the public connect the Japanese Americans or Nisei to the Japanese in America to the Japanese in Japan.The state was took part in supporting the hatred, such as shown when the attorney general spoke out against the Japanese saying, ”there is no way to determine loyalty when dealing with Japanese ancestry, as opposed to those who were white”(Uchida 54). The media was involved in spreading the hate through propaganda used to circulate stories that slander

These temporary homes tended to be abandoned and rundown facilities, like the Tanforan racetrack where Uchida was first moved to. Some Issei never were naturalized in America and were taken in for questioning and kept long before the Executive Order. The Issei having been in America for a long time and establishing a life in the US, should not have been seen as suspicious. Though they should not have been seen as suspicious, the Americans believed that the had strategically placed themselves in certain areas of the United States. These Issei, having been the most suspicious of being Japanese spies were placed in internment camps separate from their