In the process of war the public skipped to the conclusion that all Japanese Americans were out to get them. The suspicion of a government takeover was on everyones mind. Paranoia led people into to thinking every single Japanese American was guilty, no matter if it was a child, a WWI veteran, or if they had ever even been to Japan. The suspicion did not end there, inducing temporary segregation, and the exploitation of japanese american’s human rights. Mass hysteria and racism influenced the government's actions towards the Japanese.
At 8:15 AM on August 6th of 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, killing more than 75,000 people. Not only did the 10,000 pound atomic bomb change the innocence of America, it also changed how millions of people view war. To this day, people still have bittersweet feelings about what the United States did to Japan. Some say that the atomic bomb saved many American lives and others argue that it was unnecessary and immoral. While many deaths and injuries occurred in Japan, America was afflicted by the Hiroshima bombing whether people agree or disagree. In the article America’s Hiroshima, Peter Schwenger describes how the United States was affected by Hiroshima, and what followed after the event.
Japanese-American internment camps were a dark time in America’s history, often compared to the concentration camps in Germany (Hane, 572). The internment camps were essentially prisons in which all Japanese-Americans living on the west coast were forced to live during World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor Naval base in Hawaii. They were located in inland western states due to the mass hysteria that Japanese-Americans were conspiring with Japan to invade and/or attack the United States. At the time the general consensus was that these camps were a good way to protect the country, but after the war many realized that the camps were not the best option. Textbooks did not usually mention the internment camps at all, as it is not a subject most Americans want to talk about, much less remember. Recently more textbooks and historians talk about the camps, even life inside them. Some Japanese-Americans say that their experiences after being released from the internment camps were not as negative as most people may think. Although the Japanese-American internment camps were brutal to go through, in the long run it led to Japanese-Americans’ movement from the west coast and their upward movement in society through opportunities found in a new urban environment such as Chicago and St. Louis.
In the middle of WW II, many Americans were worrying about their next meal or about the house payments; however, this wasn’t the case for Japanese Americans. Instead, they were worrying about if they were going to eat and if they were going to have a house due to internment camps. These camps were designed to protect and nurture the Japanese from the American people who were persecuting them. However, these camps did little good beyond that. Many Japanese Americans faced starvation, horrible living quality, and a large distance away from what they knew as home. These Japanese immigrants were always treated with discrimination in America; however, after Pearl Harbor they were forced to leave their homes, live in internment camps, and face prejudice for the years following.
Throughout the entire United States in 1942, the nation incarcerated over 100,000 Japanese immigrants to internment camps (“Internment History.”). At this time, the United States just began their involvement in World War II against the Nazis and the Japanese. Panic and chaos struck the country when a bomb, now famous today, detonated in Pearl Harbor, HI. Although many envisage freedom when entering the United States, the Japanese received the opposite. Due to the racism afflicted by United States’ citizens during World War II, Japanese Americans, along with their future generations, suffered and still suffer from many physical and psychological hardships.
December 7, 1941 was the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was a American naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii. Concerned over Japan’s actions, the US, Netherlands and Great Britain froze Japanese assets in their countries cutting off 90% of raw materials. By December, 194l the Japanese Army had a force of 2,400,000 trained ground troops and an air fleet of 7,500 planes. The US had a force of 1,500,000 of which 1,000,000 were not completely trained, 1,157 combat aircraft and 347 war ships. Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. After the infamous event on December 7, 1941, President Harry S. Truman had to make the toughest decision ever in his presidential career and life. Should the U.S. use the Atomic Bomb on Japan. There were many opinions from President Truman’s advisers, some suggested that the Atomic Bomb would bring the ...
Between the years of 1942- 1945, the lives of many Japanese Americans were changed. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese military made the United States concerned about national security. The US was also made wary of Japanese people living in America, even though they were legal citizens. This fear of the Japanese immigrants put into motion the document that would forever leave an impact on the unsuspecting Asian foreigners. The Japanese were often lead away from their homes, mistreated, and in the end they were released after years of imprisonment, but the effects of the tragedy were too great to ignore.
Over one hundred thousand United States citizens were imprisoned and relocated during World War II because they were of Japanese ancestry. Because of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the resulting declaration of war against Japan, many Americans worried that Americans of Japanese descent would act as spies, allowing another attack or, even worse, an invasion to occur on American soil. This fear and paranoia drove President Franklin D. Roosevelt into signing the Executive Order 9066 and Congress into issuing statues that allowed the relocation, exclusion, and limiting of rights for Japanese Americans throughout the duration of WWII. Questions over the legality of these acts would be brought up and decided upon in a series of court cases two of which were: Hirabayashi v. United States 1943 and Korematsu v. United States 1944. By looking at these court opinions we can learn the reasoning for certain rulings and how these rulings could show the fear and paranoia that ran rampant in American during the 1940s.
Some regard the atomic bomb as “the thank God for the atom bomb”. This places God on the U.S. side and regards the bombs as our saving grace. This bomb forced the Japanese to surrender which in turn proved the U.S. to be the heroes who saved the American’s lives.1 The Americans intended on ending the war but did not expect to end it with such a large number of casualties. The results of the atomic bomb and how it effected the Japanese people both emotionally and physically will be addressed. “The bombs marked both an end and a beginning—the end of an appalling global conflagration in which more than 50 million people were killed and the beginning of the nuclear arms race and a new world in which security was forever a step away and enormous resources had to be diverted to military pursuits”.2
The purpose of this investigation is to analyze the extent to which the US's economic sanction and trade embargo on Japan was responsible for the cause of Pearl Harbor which occurred in December 7, 1941. The analysis will inspect U.S's role in the cause of Pearl Harbor as well as look at other reasons that contributed a role to the cause of Pearl Harbor. It will observe the effect of the Pearl Harbor on the U.S, as well as how it affected Japanese Americans. This investigation will include an evaluation of the origin, purpose, value, and limitation of two documents used for research: Storyline of Pearl Harbor event written by United States Government and Malcom Darien S., collected documents of events leading up to pearl harbor specifically focus on US involvement.
“Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy”, are the famous words that left former president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s mouth and unto the American citizens the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The world was in a state of war during the 1940s, and it only seemed inevitable that the United States was to take action and fight in the war as well. Diplomatic relations between the Japanese and the United States were extremely tense, almost upon the brink of war. The U.S. government and the Japanese empire were negotiating terms here and there, but nothing significant or helpful was ever settled. The Japanese broke off diplomatic relations with the United States, but no one foresaw it as an overture to war. Before the Japanese attack, a majority of Americans were in agreement to stay out of the Second World War, as the first war was believed to have caused the Great Depression that ravaged the citizens and put thousands of people on the street. However, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th of 1941, the American perspective on war had changed. Although the attack on Pearl Harbor lasted only a few hours, it left an impact on the United States and its people that would live on forever.
Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration the atomic bomb was being developed. After Roosevelt died, his vice president Harry Truman was appointed President of the United States. Truman was never informed about the bombs development until an emergency cabinet meeting (Kuznick 9). Truman had to make the fatal decision on whether the bomb was to be dropped on Japan. With the idea of going to war, Truman had to think about the lives of the thousand American soldiers. The American soldiers had begun using the method of island hopping, because the bomb was not available. The idea of dropping a bomb was that the war itself could possibly end in its earliest points. The dropping of the atomic bomb could also justify the money spent on the Manhattan Project (Donohue 1). With a quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt “This will be a day that will live in infamy”, Pearl Harbor was a tragic day for Americans. The United States had lost many soldiers, which they had claimed that they will eventually get revenge. The alternates of dropping the bomb was also discussed at the Interim Committee. The American government was trying to get an invitation response from the Japanese government. If the United States did not drop the bomb and ‘Operation Downfall’ ha...
In conclusion, Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1945 had unexpectedly days that changed America and everybody remember in their mind forever in U.S. history. It days that brought the U.S. enter WWII impacted on America economy and society, Japanese American life, and ended of the WW by Atomic bomb. Also, all these events weren't happen if Japanese would not attacked Pearl Harbor. Finally, it is not the U.S's fault to dropped Atomic bomb on Japanese because the U.S. try to speed up to end the war and save many lives.