Japanese Internment
The decision to imprison Japanese Americans was a popular one in 1942. It was supported not only by the government, but it was also called for by the press and the people. In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, Japan was the enemy. Many Americans believed that people of Japanese Ancestry were potential spies and saboteurs, intent on helping their mother country to win World War II. “The Japanese race is an enemy race,” General John DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command wrote in February 1942. “And while many second and third generation Japanese born in the United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship, have become ‘Americanized,’ the racial strains are undiluted” (quoted in Smith, 1995: 83).
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066. The Order declared that “the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national defense material, national defense premises, and national defense utilities.” In pursuit of this goal, the Secretary of War, or the military commander whom he might designate, was authorized “to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he…may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary…or the Military Commander may impose in his discretion.” The Secretary was also authorized “to provide for residents of any such areas who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations as may be necessary…until other arrangements are made, to accomplish the purpose of this order” (see Appendix 1).
Though the Order seems to be in violation of the Constitution at the time, the Supreme Court upheld it because of “military necessity.” “There was evidence of disloyalty on the part of some [Japanese Americans], the military authorities considered that the need for action was great, and time was short. We cannot – by availing ourselves of the calm perspective of hindsight – now say that at that time these actions were unjustified,” stated Justice Hugo Black on December 18, 1944 (quoted in Irons, 1989: 83).
The War Department oversaw the removal of people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast based upon wartime military necessity. Shortly ...
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...t and control of alien enemies, except as such duty and responsibility is superseded by the designation of military areas hereunder.
THE WHITE HOUSE, Franklin D. Roosevelt, February 19, 1942.
Works Cited
Davis, Daniel S. Behind Barbed Wire. New York, NY: E. P. Dutton, Inc., 1982.
Girdner and Loftis, The Great Betrayal, 148.
Irons, Peter, ed., Justice Delayed: The Record of the Japanese American Internment Cases. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989, 83.
Ng, Wendy. Japanese American Internment during World War II: A History and Refernce Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Smith, Page. Democracy on Trial. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995, 124.
Stanley, Jerry. I Am An American: A True Story of Japanese Interment. New York, NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1994.
tenBroek, Jacobus, Edward N. Barnhart, and Floyd W. Matson. Prejudice, War, and the Constitution. Berkeley and Lost Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1954.
Thomas, Dorothy Swaine, and Richard S. Nishimoto. The Spoilage. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1946, 27.
Yancey, Diane. The Internment of the Japanese. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 2001.
Throughout the war, two cases came up in the US Supreme Court which challenged the constitutionality of EO9066, upholding it both times. Eventually, on February 19th, 1976, 34 years since the signing of EO9066, Gerald Ford signed an order “prohibiting the executive branch from reinstituting the notorious and tragic World War II order”. Following this, in 1988, President Ronald Reagan issued a public apology on behalf of the government and related associations for the mistreatment of former Japanese internees and their descendants.
It is not a well known fact that around the time the Holocaust took place in Europe, another internment (less extreme) was taking place in the United States. “Betrayed by America” by Kristin Lewis gives readers an insight on what happened to Japanese-Americans in America. The article tells us about Hiroshi Shishima, Japanese-Americans internment, and what was going on during the regime. During WW2, America went into a frenzy after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Many Americans believed what was being said about Japanese-Americans even though it was proven to be false. Since the whole fiasco with Japan took place, many Japanese-Americans were forced into internment in certain parts of the United States. The reason for the internment of Japanese-Americans was due to fear & hysteria, racial
Okihiro, Gary Y. Whispered Silences: Japanese Americans and World War II. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996.
On December 8, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor which set off a series of chain reactions. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was concerned about Japanese spies hiding in the United states and his solution was to establish Executive Order 9066 which authorized military commanders to define “military areas” and to exclude anyone from those areas. Korematsu v. the United States was a result of Executive Order 9066 which relocated over 120,000 persons of Japanese descent. Fred Korematsu refused to be relocated and suffered consequences. About 62 years later, the case of Hamdi v. Rumsfeld arises and with it follows the question; has the government learned from their mistakes. Considering that Yaser Hamdi was captured and detained without proper rulings until 2 years after, the public would say that the government has forgotten their mistakes of mass incarceration and neglects the consequences of their actions. The government has forgotten the effects of Korematsu v. United states and has not learned the lesson of what became of the Executive Order 9066 and its effect on Japanese Americans as well as history.
Taylor, Sandra C. Jewel of the Desert: Japanese American Internment at Topaz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Ten weeks after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) singed an Executive Order of 9066 that authorized the removal of any people from military areas “as deemed necessary or desirable”(FDR). The west coast was home of majority of Japanese Americans was considered as military areas. More than 100,000 Japanese Americans was sent and were relocated to the internment camps that were built by the United States. Of the Japanese that were interned, 62 percent were Nisei (American born, second generation) or Sansei (third-generation Japanese) the rest of them were Issai Japanese immigrants. Americans of Japanese ancestry were far the most widely affected. The Japanese internment camps were wrong because the Japanese were accused as spies, it was racism, and it was a violation to the United States constitution laws.
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066 allowing the military to exclude “any and all persons” from designated areas of the country as needed for national defense. These “any and all persons” were Japanese Americans, 2/3 citizens and 1/3 aliens, and the designated area was the West Coast of the United States. The Executive Order to place the Japanese living in the United States into internment camps was deemed necessary due to the recent attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, by Japan.
The Japanese-American Internment experience lasted from 1942-1946. Approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans were affected. Many lost their property, health, sense of identity, and also patriotism during the experience. The internment brings into question the constitutionality of “military necessity” and also paved the way for the later Civil Rights Movement.
21 . Robinson, Greg By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans,2003, Harvard University Press
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Many Americans were afraid of another attack, so the state representatives pressured President Roosevelt to do something about the Japanese who were living in the United States at the time. President Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066 which allowed local military commanders to designate military areas as exclusion zones, from which any or all persons may be excluded. Twelve days later, this was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire Pacific coast. This included all of California and most of Oregon and Washington.
The Bhagavad Gita is perhaps the most famous, and definitely the most widely-read, ethical text of ancient India. As an episode in India's great epic, the Mahabharata, The Bhagavad Gita now ranks as one of the three principal texts that define and capture the essence of Hinduism; the other two being the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras. Though this work contains much theology, its kernel is ethical and its teaching is set in the context of an ethical problem. The teaching of The Bhagavad Gita is summed up in the maxim "your business is with the deed and not with the result." When Arjuna, the third son of king Pandu (dynasty name: Pandavas) is about to begin a war that became inevitable once his one hundred cousins belonging to the Kaurava dynasty refused to return even a few villages to the five Pandava brothers after their return from enforced exile, he looks at his cousins, uncles and friends standing on the other side of the battlefield and wonders whether he is morally prepared and justified in killing his blood relations even though it was he, along with his brother Bhima, who had courageously prepared for this war. Arjuna is certain that he would be victorious in this war since he has Lord Krishna (one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu) on his side. He is able to visualize the scene at the end of the battle; the dead bodies of his cousins lying on the battlefield, motionless and incapable of vengeance. It is then that he looses his nerve to fight.
The whole issue involved with the unfair treatment of Japanese Americans in the internment camps by the Americans, started not so long after Japanese warplanes bombed the Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt, the chief of staff at that time signed an Executive Order 9066 which entailed the detainment of anyone who had any descendant from Japan. Contradictory to all evidences presented by the intelligence agencies, first generation Japanese Americans were the easy prey used by the government to show they had total control of the situation. Using several primary documents and secondary sources, the forced imprisonment and harsh mistreatment of Japanese Americans in internment camps would be examined. Since there was a huge influx of Japanese Americans in the West Coast, there was anger and fear that they might take over the U.S [Yellow Peril]. The imminence of the World War II solidified the motive to be afraid of the Japanese Americans and created cause for the U.S government to lead them to internment. Surprisingly even though Americans boasted about democracy, most of the Nikkei placed in internment were American citizens by law and had no right to be incarcerated. After 30 years, President Ford, the current chief of staff reversed Executive Order 9066. He stated that it was wrong to detain Nikkei as they were loyal to America. A public apology and a payment of $20,000 were made out to Nikkei. This gesture solidifies the wrongdoing of Nikkei by the U.s government. The same conclusion could be drawn from a close look inside of the internment camps. From my research on the issue at hand, I propose a thesis stating that the incarceration of the Japan...
On February 14, 1942 Lt. General J. L. DeWitt, “commanding general of the Fourth Army and the Western Defense Command[i]” recommended to the War Department, the “evacuation[ii]” of Japanese living along the Pacific coast, deemed a Military Zone. About 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, many of those people American citizens, living on the West Coast and Southern Arizona were removed from their homes to locations of the government’s choosing. The very term “evacuation” is misleading to say the least because it suggests that the Japanese were being relocated to protect their safety. The excuses cited by the military were to establish “broad civil control, anti-sabotage, and counter-espionage measures.[iii]” The reasons given to justify “evacuation” suggested that the Japanese were a threat to the nation and not the nation a threat to the Japanese.
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.
To summarize the article, Burger asks the American people to question whether or not the gun laws and regulations in place are