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Was the internment of Japanese Americans a compulsory act of justice or was it an unwarranted, redundant act of tyranny which breached upon the rights of Japanese Americans? During World War II thousands of Japanese Americans were told by government officials that they had twenty-four hours to pack their things, get rid of any belongings of theirs, and to sell their businesses away for less than retail value. Although many people thought the Japanese American internment was needed to ensure U.S. security during the war against Japan, these relocation centers were unnecessary violations of Japanese Americans’ rights. These concentration camps are unconstitutional because they infringed upon the Japanese Americans’ first, seventh, and eighth amendment rights.
The argument for the opposing viewpoint states that these relocation centers were needed to ensure U.S. security during the war against Japan. A major contributor to these internment camps was the bombing at Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, the republic of Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The government feared attacks by “imperial Japanese forces” and a sabotage by Japanese Americans (The Japanese Internment: World War II). In addition, the U.S. military saw the Nikkei, Japanese immigrants, as a “potential security risk” and worried that the Nikkei would provide “sensitive information” to the Japanese government and/or subvert U.S. government (The Japanese Internment: World War II). The FBI began making a “threat list”; the people on this list were to be arrested and detained (The Japanese Internment: World War II). The government felt that it was the “military necessity” to intern Japanese Americans in order to prevent “espionage,...
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...Valerie. "Japanese American Internment." Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History. 286-288. US: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 1998. History Reference Center. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
Robson, David. "The Defining Characteristics of Japanese Internment." The Internment of Japanese Americans. San Diego, CA: Reference Point, 2014. N. pag. Print.
Robson, David. "Life in Camps." The Internment of Japanese Americans. San Diego, CA: Reference Point, 2014. N. pag. Print.
Robson, David. "War and Evacuation." The Internment of Japanese Americans. San Diego, CA: Reference Point, 2014. N. pag. Print.
Wukovits, John F. "Background to Evacuation." Internment of Japanese Americans. Detroit: Lucent /Gale Cengage Learning, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Wukovits, John F. "The Evacuation." Internment of Japanese Americans. Detroit: Lucent /Gale Cengage Learning, 2013. N. pag. Print.
World War Two was one of the biggest militarized conflicts in all of human history, and like all wars it lead to the marginalization of many people around the world. We as Americans saw ourselves as the great righteous liberators of those interned into concentration camps under Nazi Germany, while in reality our horse was not that much higher than theirs. The fear and hysteria following the attacks on pearl harbour lead to the forced removal and internment of over 110,000 Japanese American residents (Benson). This internment indiscriminately applied to both first and second generation Japanese Americans, Similarly to those interned in concentration camps, they were forced to either sell, store or leave behind their belongings. Reshma Memon Yaqub in her article “You People Did This,” describes a similar story to that of the Japanese Americans. The counterpart event of pearl harbour being the attacks on the world trade
During World War II, countless Japanese Canadians, and Americans, were relocated to internment camps out of fear of where their loyalties would lie. Because of this, those people were stricken from their homes and had their lives altered forever. Joy Kogawa’s Obasan highlights this traumatic event. In this excerpt, Kogawa uses shifts in point of view and style to depict her complex attitude and perception of the past.
What were the Japanese internment camps some might ask. The camps were caused by the attack of Pearl Harbor in 1942 by Japan. President Roosevelt signed a form to send all the Japanese into internment camps.(1) All the Japanese living along the coast were moved to other states like California, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona. The camps were located away from Japan and isolated so if a spy tried to communicate, word wouldn't get out. The camps were unfair to the Japanese but the US were trying to be cautious. Many even more than 66% or 2/3 of the Japanese-Americans sent to the internment camps in April of 1942 were born in the United States and many had never been to Japan. Their only crime was that they had Japanese ancestors and they were suspected of being spies to their homeland of Japan. Japanese-American World War I veterans that served for the United States were also sent to the internment camps.(2)
The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/life_18.html>. "Relocation and Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II." Calisphere. The.
How would you feel if you were forced out of your home to go to a camp where you shall be incarcerated for an unknown amount of time in an unknown location. You have no idea what will happen to you and your family. Why were you forced into the camps? Because of your ethnicity or beliefs. Japanese internment camps and Holocaust concentration camps both left their hateful marks in the fabric of history. During World War II, the Holocaust concentration camps were located around Central or Eastern Europe while the Japanese internment camps were located in the Western United States. Both types of camps have interesting similarities. However, one must realize that despite this similarities, these camps were very different in many ways. Yet, one thing is certain. We must learn more about this dark time in history in order to prevent such acts of hatred and paranoia from ever happening again.
Marsh, James H. "Japanese Internment: Banished and Beyond Tears." The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. .
DeWitt, John L. "Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast." Letter to Chief of State, U.S. Army. 5 June 1943. MS. N.p.
The novel, Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, tells her family’s true story of how they struggled to not only survive, but thrive in forced detention during World War II. She was seven years old when the war started with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942. Her life dramatically changed when her and her family were taken from their home and sent to live at the Manzanar internment camp. Along with ten thousand other Japanese Americans, they had to adjust to their new life living behind barbed wire. Obviously, as a young child, Jeanne did not fully understand why they had to move, and she was not fully aware of the events happening outside the camp. However, in the beginning, every Japanese American had questions. They wondered why they had to leave. Now, as an adult, she recounts the three years she spent at Manzanar and shares how her family attempted to survive. The conflict of ethnicities affected Jeanne and her family’s life to a great extent.
Much controversy has been sparked due to the internment of the Japanese people. Many ask whether it was justified to internment them. It is a very delicate issue that has two sides, those who are against the internment of the Japanese-Americans and those who are for it. With World War II raging in the East, America was still, for the most part, very inactive in the war. When America took a stand against Japan by not shipping them supplies, Japan became very upset. Japan, being a big island that is very overpopulated with little natural resources, depended on America to provide them with an assortment of supplies including scrap metal and oil, vital items that are needed in a time of war. Japan retaliated by declaring war on America and attacking Pearl Harbor. This surprise act led to many soldiers deaths and millions of dollars of damaged army equipment, including air craft carriers and planes. As a result to Japan declaring war, the Japanese-Americans were asked to and eventually forced to do their duty to the country and report to internment camps until the war conflict was over. Many opposed this act for a couple of reasons. One reason was that people felt that it was a huge hypocrisy that the Japanese were being interned while the Italians and Germans, also our enemies, were still walking around free in America. Another reason why many were against the internment was because many of the Japanese had already been in America for some time now. The Issei, the first generation of Japanese people that immigrated from Japan, had immigrated many years ago. A whole another generation of Japanese children had already began growing up in America called the Nissei. They were automatically U.S. citizens for they were born in America and for the most part were like other American children. Anti-Internment activists also said that the Japanese were being robbed of their rights as U.S. citizens. However, there are two sides to everything.
21 . Robinson, Greg By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans,2003, Harvard University Press
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States was filled with panic. Along the Pacific coast of the U.S., where residents feared more Japanese attacks on their cities, homes, and businesses, this feeling was especially great. During the time preceding World War II, there were approximately 112,000 persons of Japanese descent living in California, Arizona, and coastal Oregon and Washington. These immigrants traveled to American hoping to be free, acquire jobs, and for some a chance to start a new life. Some immigrants worked in mines, others helped to develop the United States Railroad, many were fishermen, farmers, and some agricultural laborers.
“The summer I was thirteen, the Japanese came to Ellis” (Dallas 1). A young girl that goes by the name, Rennie, has had her life turned upside down. Even with the war going on, the only thing the community can think about is, why would the government send the Japanese here after what happened at Pearl Harbor? Rennie Stroud’s small, quiet, town has been altered, and forever changed. The Japanese have created a negative energy throughout the entire community of Ellis. In this journal, I will be evaluating, clarifying and questioning.
Farewell to Manzanar, written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Japanese American, and James D. Houston, describes about the experience of being sent to an internment camp during World War II. The evacuation of Japanese Americans started after President Roosevelt had signed the Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. Along with ten thousand other Japanese Americans, the Wakatsuki was sent on a bus to Manzanar, California. There, they were placed in an internment camp, many miles from their home with only what they could carry. The lives of the Japanese Americans in the internment was a struggle. But for some of the Japanese Americans, it was even harder after they were discharged from the internment camp. The evacuation and the internment had changed the lives of all Japanese Americans. The evacuation and internment affected the Wakatsuki family in three ways: the destruction of Papa’s self-esteem, the separation of the Wakatsuki family, and the change in their social status.
Matsumoto studies three generations, Issei, Nisei, and Sansei living in a closely linked ethnic community. She focuses her studies in the Japanese immigration experiences during the time when many Americans were scared with the influx of immigrants from Asia. The book shows a vivid picture of how Cortex Japanese endured violence, discriminations during Anti-Asian legislation and prejudice in 1920s, the Great Depression of 1930s, and the internment of 1940s. It also shows an examination of the adjustment period after the end of World War II and their return to the home place.
Maybe it is effortless for those who had never felt the sear conditions of internment camps to say, “stay there.” But when you have witness savage crowds torch your mothers and fathers homes by wish and stone your sister and brothers on impulse; when you have witnessed soldiers overflow with loath burn, curse, and even murder your sisters and brothers; when you have witnessed an excruciating amount of your one hundred twenty thousand japanese brothers thrown into the frightening ring of oppression in the heart of a free government; when you unexpectedly find yourself flummoxed and stuttering as you search for an excuse to tell your nine year old sister why she cannot go to the new ice cream bar that opened around the block, and notice despondency