Japanese Internment Camps Injustice

The Trail of Tears, slavery, Jim Crow laws—the American government has committed many injustices against its people. But there exists an injustice of a different kind, an injustice that is rarely mentioned in history class, which unlike the others is not flaunted as a tribute to American power—the Japanese internment camps. These military areas were organized soon after Pearl Harbor attack, when the whole nation was stunned by the trauma of that event and by the fear of what was yet to come. On December 7th, 1941, the war had made its way to the American shore and the Japanese were the ones who breached the illusion of peace that the U.S. had been under/ had convinced itself of. While the dislike toward those from the Orient was substantial

The notion of discrimination alone should seem unreasonable and yet, while the Japanese put many years of hard work in order to survive in America, and before then, years of effort in order to be “chosen” by their government to represent Japan on the American shore, they were not accepted by the country where many other nationalities seemed to find a refuge (Takaki 45). But perhaps this is because the Japanese were not in need of refuge. Yes, their country’s economy was not the best: “farmers all over Japan faced economic hardship,” they were being paid low wages, only the oldest son would have the privilege of inheriting the farm, as dictated by centuries of family tradition, but they did not need to be sheltered from political unrest or injustice; they came to America to earn better wages and then return to their family hopefully with a decent fortune to their name (Takaki 43-44). The Japanese immigrants were also different in the fact that they were better educated and of a higher quality in general than many of those from the preferred European race (45). But this is exactly where the threat lay. It is because the Japanese were not at odds with their country, they were not refugees, because they were well educated, because they could accomplish anything through hard work that they posed such a high threat in the eyes of many Americans. They did not want for the Japanese to keep an ounce of their culture; they did not want colonization of America by the “proud Yamato race” (Takaki 209); they were afraid of the possibilities the Japanese had before them. And so in order to avoid the problem altogether the Japanese had to be extracted from the social order, and the attack on Pearl Harbor provided the perfect