African Americans on the battle front are put into segregated divisions, whereas Native Americans dealt with compliment racism or unintentional racism. Chinese Americans were concerned with being accused of being Japanese, while the Japanese Americans tried to prove they were American too. Throughout his book, Takaki demonstrates the varying levels of racism experienced, and how hard work and perseverance helped these groups prove themselves to some degree. Takaki claims, all of these minorities groups, gained some form of freedom and equality either through the military or through job opportunities and improvements.
In the case of Japanese Americans, they were able to receive some levels of equality among whites. In the article, “No Jap Crow’: Japanese Americans Encounter the World War II South”, author Jason Morgan Ward looks at how Japanese Americans were treated during the Second World War in the American South, and how they were allowed to be considered semi-white. In his thesis Ward said, “This episode revealed the increasing inability of southern white leaders to defend the segregated status quo, even as it exposed their segregated society to comparisons with fascism. At the same time, in trying to make Japanese Americans behave according to the Jim Crow script, white leaders foreshadowed the ways they would later react to the protests of the civil
Tolerance turned to distrust and irrational fear. The hundred year old tradition of anti-Asian sentiment on the West Coast resurfaced, more vicious than eve. (Houston, p. 15). Three years of wartime propaganda funded racist headlines, atrocity movies, hate slogans, and fright-mask posters turned Japanese faces into something despicable and grotesque. The American Legion and The Native Sons of the Golden West were racist organizations agitating against the West Coast Japanese for decades (Houston, p. 115).
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.
How badly did the US treat Japanese Americans during and after war?How it was not justified to treat them like enemies. They forced 110,000 Japanese and their American born children into relocation camps. However these citizens had become the enemy and America had to become protected from them. These japanese americans were mostly loyal. Some japanese went to war or wanted to go.
“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.
This is a time where racial oppression in LA begins to affect each race in a different way, which then produced a different reaction from both races (37). The African Americans had an easier time getting housing since they were actually seen as citizens, unlike the Japanese. Black homeowners and civil rights lawyers worked together on the housing front to break restrictive covenants whilst Japanese consular officials decided their best course of action was to avoid racial conflict and just let things be (37). However, once being “subjected to violent attacks” and witnessing the “racist structures affect[ing] all communities of color,” they changed their minds and began to look to the African Americans for help (37). The Japanese continued to have similar reactions towards racism when they started a massive “campaign against discrimination and ‘Yellow Peril’” when they received major opposition for the creation of a subdivision in Jefferson Park (91).
On December 7th, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service proposed a surprise bombing on the United States naval base. This attack changed the life of many Japanese Americans. Not only did this attack make America more involved with World War II, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt also issued executive order 9066. The order relocated over 100 thousand Japanese Americans, due to fear, war hysteria, and racism. Japanese Americans were feared upon by the government because they were thought to be “spies”.
President Roosevelt approved several orders and committees that specifically targeted Japanese Americans on the West Coast, while war propaganda was created to instill fear and hatred of the Japanese in the American people. World War II not only exacerbated the racial tension within the American people, but also excused the racist actions taken by American government against the Japanese Americans, as the Americans then prided themselves for fighting in the “good war”. War time propaganda was used to influence the American people psychologically in order to alter their social perceptions of the Japanese, as America considered Japan to be their number one enemy. The posters during the this time were used as a fear tactic, as well as a way to
My essay is about how the Japanese were treated during WW2 by the U.S government and how their actions were not justified. This includes extraneous relocation and illegal search and seizures etc. This was all done when the Japanese men/women in question were totally legal U.S citizens and were supposed to have all of the rights possessed by one. My first 2 examples will give insight on how the new situations brought about by the government ruined the traditional Chinese family and how the spirits of Japanese Americans were essentially killed.
Many Americans value freedom and believe it is necessary to live a happy and meaningful life. To experience this sense of independence, many immigrants immigrated to America. However, American essayist H.L. Mencken contradicts this, asserting that not everyone desires to be free, rather they primarily desire attaining safety. Although freedom is necessary, safety has more importance in contemporary society during situations like global pandemics and world wars. When pandemics strike the world, people prefer safety over individual liberty because taking precautions for the public's health is necessary.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor, a Japanese attack on the U.S., happened in 1941. In fear of another attack, President Roosevelt sent all Japanese-Americans to internment camps. This caused people to “ beg[in] to fear ethnic minorities as potential secret reserves for foreign powers, and this fear extended beyond the Japanese” (Zoot Suit Riots Exemplify Ethnic Tensions in L.A.). After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, ethnic minorities in the United States began to be seen as possible enemies of the country. This built up a fear and prejudice towards any minorities living in the United States, including Mexican-Americans, which raised the likelihood of the Zoot Suit Riots to occur.
How would you feel if you were punished for something you didn’t do? This is what happened to many Japanese Americans. After the Pearl Harbor attack, the Americans lost trust with the Japanese Americans. There were many events that caused the Japanese internment camps, not just the Pearl Harbor attack. Political pressure was also a big factor.
Thesis statement: Though many speculate that the act of dropping the atomic bomb on Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) while not doing so on Europe (Germany and Italy) was racially motivated, racism played little to no role in these bombings. The United States of America and her allies were willing to end World War II at any cost, had the atomic bombs been available they would have been deployed in Europe. In the 1940’s there is no doubt that the United States of America was engulfed by mass anti-Japanese hysteria which inevitably bled over into America’s foreign policy. During this period Japanese people living in both Japan and the United States of America were seen as less that human.
Another group was soon persecuted after the Chinese immigrants were deported: the Japanese, who had come to work in mines and agriculture on the West Coast. Just as Americans today treat Mexican immigrants, the Japanese were seen as threats to security. A “yellow peril” ensued, and governments proposed pieces of legislation to segregate the Japanese from other American citizens (Brown). The unfair treatment of Japanese-Americans parallels with the current decrees of politicians that immigrants are stealing jobs and are a threat to U.S.
