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Japanese Internment Camps Essay

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Final Paper – Japanese American Internment Camps The Japanese American Internment Camps during World War II was one of the darkest moments in American history. After the bombing at Pearl Harbor a policy was made that forced Japanese Americans to relocate to these camps. These internment camps were created to detain Japanese Americans who were deemed a security threat to the United States. This essay will analyze the causes of the Japanese Americans, from mainly a constructivists perspective. On December 7, 1941 Japan bombed the U.S. Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, HI, causing the United States to enter World War II. During this time nearly 113,000 people of Japanese heritage, two-thirds of which were American citizens, were residing in California, …show more content…

In the case of the Japanese American internment camps, the constructivist perspective suggests that the United States’ decision to detain Japanese Americans was shaped by the dominant ideas and identity prevalent in the country during the time. Similar to Wendt’s main argument in “Anarchy is What States Make of It” that the nature of the international system is socially built by the beliefs and identities of its actors, a similar idea happened with the internment camps. The citizens of the United States were pressuring the government that the Japanese in the country would go against the United States and would help Japan attack the United States further. The beliefs and identities of the citizens forced the government to take action against the Japanese Americans. The belief that was based on the assumption that Japanese Americans were loyal to Japan was just based off fear and anger from the attack on Pearl Harbor. In reality the Japanese Americans had no ties to the Japanese military or government. The dominant ideas and norms in the United States at the time made it difficult for the government at the time to see them as anything other than a security …show more content…

The constructivist perspective acknowledges the view of the United States, but brings forth the knowledge that their was no communication involved to diffuse the ideas. The acknowledgement of the norms and identities of United States at the time, leading to the furthering of the situation is why the constructivist perspective is overall the best paradigm to look through when looking at the Japanese American Internment

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