Effects Of Japanese Internment Camps

Although World War Two was considered a triumphant win, the United States did not have a flawless victory. While under the constant pressure of the axis powers, the United States government really exposed it’s insecurities. Accusations of possible treason circulated the west coast like wild fire. More specifically, the rumors targeted the Japanese Nisei and Isei communities. Japanese Citizens were treated like prisoners as they were shipped off into internment camps. The crime that they had committed was the color of their skin and the culture that they lived in. Yellow Peril had resurfaced created an unnecessary violation of these citizens rights. As World War Two went on, the army recruited Japanese American Soldiers to fight. The Japanese

naval base on Pearl Harbor. This was considered America’s ticket of entry into World War Two. A personal attack from Japan was the worst thing that could have happened to Japanese Americans. As Roger Daniels stated, “If the attack on Pearl Harbor came as a devastating shock to most Americans, for those of Japanese ancestry it was like a nightmare come true.” All of pre-existing racism and hatred of Japanese Americans went into overdrive. It got so chaotic that the U.S. government had to decide whether these U.S. citizens are deemed ok to live amongst other citizens. So on February 19, 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive order 9066 stating that, “Whereas 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 as defined in Section 4, Act of April 20, 1918” Even though there had been no incident of treason or espionage committed by the Japanese Americans against the U.S., the president didn’t want to take any chances on loosing this war against the Japanese. The government created ten camps along the west coast to house one hundred and ten thousand Americans. Essentially the Japanese Americans lost their rights as a law-abiding citizen for committing a crime that they had no control over. Japanese

Clearly the entire concept of forcing a citizen to fight for a country that is imprisoning his family based on his race is littered with irony. Basically, fighting America meant that they where supporting the racial profiling and imprisonment that they where imposing on all of the Japanese Americans on the west coast. These Nisei boys where born and raised through the American school system with other boys of all races. Learning social cues and language through their peers and surroundings. All they knew was an American culture, most had never set foot in Japan. But, they where treated as a threat to the United States because of their parent’s home country. These Japanese Boys were constantly being taunted for being Japanese, but if they didn’t serve their country, they would serve prison time. In John Okada’s novel No No Boy the main character, Ichiro, serves time in prison for opting out of fighting during World War Two and the 442nd regiment. Ichiro is quoted as saying that, “…in truth, he could not know what it was to be Japanese who breathed the air of America and yet never lifted a foot from the land that was Japan.” How could the United States Government treat the families of the soldiers who are fighting for them to these terrible conditions? All of the men who died in the 442nd never got to experience what it would be like to be equal