2003 Dbq Analysis

The major American wars of the past 150 years have not lead to the most important political and social changes for minorities and women. Instead the Government made policy changes to better serve national interests.

Though cultural changes gave minorities and women new job opportunities, it was for filling wartime needs rather than a nationwide egalitarian shift. This is evidenced in the quotes “I hereby reaffirm the policy of the United States that there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in the defense industries or government…”(President Roosevelt, Document G) and “The colored man in uniform is expected by the War Department to develop high morale in a community that offers him nothing but humiliation and mistreatment”(Brigadier

government secure interests in a more sinister way through the use of internment camps. Justice Murphy highlights the multiple flaws of the government’s actions in the quote “…the order deprives all those within its scope of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. It further deprives these individuals of their constitutional rights to live and work where they will, to establish a home where they choose and move about freely… this order also deprives them of all their constitutional rights to procedural due process”(Document D). Based off of Justice Murphy’s findings, it is shown how Japanese Americans were unfairly punished for another country’s actions because of race. This is further supported by Congressman Rankin’s comments in Document E when he says “Even though they may be the third or fourth generation of Japanese, we cannot trust them… Let us get rid of them now!” Rankin makes it obvious that racism is still very much alive in America. In the same speech he states that Japanese Americans guided Japanese planes to naval vessels during Pearl Harbor even though there is no evidence to support his claims. The U.S. criminalized an entire nationality without substantial reasoning due to