This topic of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II is interesting because U.S government was in a predicament, they were not sure if Japanese American citizens should be trusted or not. They chose not to trust them and put the Japanese Americans into internment camps. The Japanese shouldn’t have been put into the camps because it was unconstitutional. Their rights were being violated without the government having a reasonable excuse. Like all issues involving race or war, the question of whether or not it was legal and ethical to make Japanese Americans move to relocation camps in early WWII is a difficult and sort of a controversial problem. It might have been controversial because during World War II the United States did not put German Americans and Italian Americans into camps as they did with the Japanese Americans, even though Germany, Japan and Italy were allies. The internment of around 50,000 Japanese citizens and approximately 70,000 Japanese-American people born in the U.S. living in the American West Coast has become known as a mistake. The government even set up numerous projects to apologize to the Japanese American citizens who were wronged by them. Still, at the time that the decision to relocate was made the actions were constitutionally legal and seen by many as not needed. The actions were not based on racist feelings; it was mostly based on safety. However, it was unethical to put so many innocent people through frustration, suffering, and loss of not only their property but also their freedom. The bombing of the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941 by the Japanese marked the start of trouble for the 120,000 People of Japanese ances... ... middle of paper ... ...t in WWII. The rights of the Japanese as American citizens were taken away and this can happen again. This is an important factor in the Constitution, because the government must be able to protect the country and its citizens in times of war even if it means unintentionally making innocent people suffer. Still, what happened to the Japanese-Americans was horrible which was not realized until too late, because they really did not threaten nation’s safety. Their forced internment should have been more carefully planned. The Japanese-Americans were evacuated because of their ancestry, but this does not mean the internment was necessarily racist. It was not hatred of their race that caused their mistaken relocation, but instead their relation to an enemy country. The best that can be done now is to realize what the mistakes were and to learn from them.
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Show MoreUnfortunately, Heatwole takes this whole situation way too far. A statement an affidavit stated, “He was aware that his actions were against the law and that he was aware of the potential consequences for his actions…” (“Student Charged”). To explain, he knew that he was risking thousands of innocent lives, just to bring the point across that anyone can go through TSA with suspicious items on them. This affidavit goes on to state, “...that his actions were an act of civil disobedience with the aim of improving public safety for the air-traveling public” (“Student charged”). His actions were not acts of civil disobedience. If you have to endanger the lives of thousands air-travelers for the need to increase the safety of traveling, that is plain selfishness. The basic reasoning as to why Heatwole wanted to commit these acts was, as a result of civil disobedience. In relation to, civil disobedience is defined as a peaceful form of political protest, in which Heatwole did not achieve by his actions. In no, way shape or form could anyone find what Heatwole did peaceful. He was careless with the lives of the passengers, and was practically using them for his own gain. The idea of civil disobedience came from the poet Henry Thoreau, a Transcendentalist who did not trust the government. He denounced the federal
while allowing German and Italian aliens to remain free because "a Jap is a Jap" and World War II was "a war of the white race against a yellow race." (pg., 89).
They only hard part was getting the Japanese there. Because the camps were not yet completed when Roosevelt
The Japanese captured thousands of American soldiers and held them in Japanese camps. The Japanese held prisoners of war in horrible camps throughout Japan, forced them to work in horrendous conditions, and treated them inhumanely. The living
After World War II began in 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced the neutrality of the United States. Many people in the United States thought that their country should stay out of the war. The people wanted the Allied Forces to have the victory. President Roosevelt also wanted an Allied victory because an Axis victory might endanger democracies everywhere. The United States equipped nations fighting the Axis with ships, tanks, aircraft, and other war materials. The Axis did not like this. Japan wanted to take over China, but China refused. China was led by Chiang Kai-Shek at the time. Japan wanted the United States to stop sending China supplies, but the United States refused. The United States opposed the expansion of Japan in Asia, so they cut off important exports to Japan.
The United States government gave several justifications, both military and constituently for the decision of the camps. However, not all of the Japanese Americans took the order in stride. There was resistance by the Japanese to the government policy and lawsuits were filed going all the way to the Supreme Court. In recent history, the Supreme Court has reversed a few judgments from the 1940s. The question of civil liberties over national security of the Japanese Americans in the 1940s is parallel to Arab Americans after September 11, 2001.
On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II (Prange et al., 1981: p.174). On February 19, 1942, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War and Military Commanders to prescribe areas of land as excludable military zones (Roosevelt, 1942). Effectively, this order sanctioned the identification, deportation, and internment of innocent Japanese Americans in War Relocation Camps across the western half of the United States. During the spring and summer of 1942, it is estimated that almost 120,000 Japanese Americans were relocated from their homes along the West Coast and in Hawaii and detained in U.S. government-run concentration camps (Daniels, 2004: p.3). Approximately two-thirds of these men and women were either nisei—second generation Japanese—or sansei—third generation—Japanese Americans, the other third were issei—first generation—Japanese immigrants living in the United States at the time. While issei generation Japanese people were born in Japan and were not eligible for United States citizenship, members of the nisei and sanei generations were born in the United States, and therefore, were legal American citizens. Regardless of this distinction in citizenship, however, American powers perceived all of these men and women to be an imposing threat to the security of the United States.
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.
World War II was a time of deliberate hate among groups of innocent people who were used as scapegoats. Japanese-Americans were persecuted due to the fact that they looked like citizens of Japan, who had attacked the United States on December 7th, 1941 at the naval base, Pearl Harbor. This hatred toward the group was due to newspapers creating a scare for the American people, as well as the government restricting the rights of Japanese-Americans. The Japanese-Americans were mistreated during World War II for no other reason than being different. These men, women, and children were loathed by the American public for looking like the people of the Japanese army that had attacked the United States. These people were only hated by association, even though many had come to the United States to create a better life for their family.
Interment in the US was done to put all Japanese people in place so that just in case that would not fight with the Japanese empire. This was done through executive order 9066, with order was send from the president that states that japanese people can be intered. “Now, therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated Commander deems such action necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may b...
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.
Stetson Conn (1990) wrote “For several decades the Japanese population had been the target of hostility and restrictive action.” It was easy for the government to take advantage of the Japanese-Americans because they were already the target of aggression. Since the Japanese population was already in such a low position in society, taking advantage of their circumstances was easy for the government. The Japanese found themselves having to defend their presence in a country that was supposed to be accepting; this also happened to the Chinese before the Japanese. (Terry, 2012)
The internment camps were permanent detention camps that held internees from March, 1942 until their closing in 1945 and 1946. Although the camps held captive people of many different origins, the majority of the prisoners were Japanese-Americans. There were ten different relocation centers located across the United States during the war. These Japanese Americans, half of whom were children, were incarcerated for up to 4 years, without due process of law or any factual basis, in bleak, remote camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards.
...ts were violated by the federal government during World War II.” From this, one can conclude that the United States admitted to making a mistake in their treatment of the Japanese Americans and how irrational one can behave when one does not understand and is afraid of the unknown.
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.