Japanese Internment Camps Dbq Essay

On December 7th, 1941, Japan bombed the United States naval base in Pearl Harbor. This event changed the lives and treatment of Japanese Americans drastically. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered the war, there were many rising concerns about the loyalty of Japanese Americans. Congress and many citizens believed that the United States was at a risk of Japanese Americans sabotaging America. President Franklin D. Roosevelt then signed the Executive Order 9066 which forced all Japanese Americans into internment camps. The incarceration of Japanese Americans was unjust because the internment was racially biased, there was no evidence that Japanese-Americans were going to commit acts of espionage and sabotage, and the government

Even before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Japanese Americans were discriminated against because of their race. During World War ll, the United States was also at war with Germany and Italy, but German and Italian Americans were not experiencing the same unfair treatment that Japanese Americans endured. This was because of their race. For example, in an editorial in The Crisis periodical, Harry Paxton Howard wrote in September of 1942, “Color seems to be the only possible reason why thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry are in concentration camps. Anyway, there are no Italian-American, or German-American citizens in such camps” (Document E). This proves that Mr. Howard agrees that the internment camps presented unfair treatment to Japanese Americans. The Japanese Americans experienced dreadful conditions at these camps and the Japanese Americans were forced to leave their entire life behind. German and Italian American were posed as even a greater threat to the United States than Japanese Americans, but were not forced by the government into incarceration. The double standard of German and Italian Americans over Japanese Americans was truly discriminatory and based on race and hatred. Overall, the internment of Japanese Americans was unjust because Americans racial beliefs caused Japanese Americans to suffer and

Millions of Americans sacrificed to help the United States fight in World War ll. These sacrifices included fighting in the war or helping improve the war effort. For Japanese Americans though, their sacrifice was being imprisoned in internment camps. Representative Leland Ford was the first member of Congress to publicly argue for the internment of Japanese Americans. A statement from his anti-Japanese campaign in California is, “As justification for this, I submit that if an American born Japanese, who is a citizen, is really patriotic and wishes to make his contribution to the safety and welfare of this country, right here is the opportunity to do so, namely, that by permitting himself to be placed in a concentration camp” (Document A). Representative Leland Ford believed that it was the duty of Japanese Americans to sacrifice their homes and jobs for the war effort. Representative Leland Ford thought the United States would benefit if the Japanese Americans were imprisoned because of safety and loyalty reasons. However, something that these opponents have failed to consider was Japanese Americans were forced into sacrificing their civil rights. When imprisoned, Japanese Americans had no right to a trial. Japanese Americans also had to give up their entire life and go live in internment camps with no evidence