Zoot-Suit Fighting Spreads On Coast Summary

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In the article “Zoot-Suit Fighting Spreads on Coast” (1943) it discusses the racial tension between sailors and soldiers and the “zoot suits” on the west coast. Zoot Suits were mainly Mexican Americans and some African Americans who wore certain outfits that showed that they opposed these “wartime authorities” on the west coast. Most of the Zoot Suits were young men, some as young as twelve years old. This racial tension eventually turned into the soldiers and zoot suits hating each other and this eventually resulted in a week of rioting where more than 150 people were hurt. During this time in 1943 the US was still fighting a world war, so there was no need for anymore chaos to be going on. Officials had to frantically try to figure out a solution to end the fighting/riots. The first idea that the city council came up with was to provide a thirty-day jail sentence to anyone who was wearing a Zoot Suit outfit. This was a very unfair and unconstitutional rule, because not …show more content…

United States” it discusses a case where Fred Korematsu got arrested for not leaving his home in California. The reason he was asked to leave his house is because of the Executive Order 9066 which made all persons of Japanese Ancestry leave the west coast. He made this order because of the war between the US and Japan and the west coast is the closest place to Japan in America. People were very paranoid that the Japanese living on the west coast were spies and the US needed to do this avoid sabotage. The US knew that this was unconstitutional, but during wartime sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. The US took steps leading up to Japanese relocation. First, they issued a curfew on Japanese citizens that they needed to be home between 8p.m. and 6a.m. The US was justified in doing this, because they could not take any risks when being at war. In the end the US did award the Japanese people effected with some compensation for going against their