Japanese Concentration Camps in America, WW2

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After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans thought that the Japanese Americans were associated with the surprise attack. The United States government decided to create concentration camps to hold them in. These concentration camps denied the Japanese Americans the American dream by excluding their freedom, the conditions of the camps, and how they were treated in the camps. Japanese Americans had lost their freedom after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor because the American government was suspicious of the Japanese currently living in America. In the story “Japanese Internment” the author states “They feared they were spies, and made the Japanese hand over all of the electronics they owned, their rights to own guns, and they had to live under a curfew with travel limitations”(1). They lived by those rules until February 20th 1942, when President Roosevelt established a civilian agency to relocate the Japanese Americans into concentration camps. There were 10 camps to hold over 110,000 Japanese Americans, they would take them from their homes and forced them into the camps. The conditions of the camps were not helping the Japanese reach the American dream. In the story “Eyewitness to History”, a Japanese boy staying at a camp wrote a letter to his English teacher back home in Seattle. The boy writes; “In each room, there is a woodstove, which takes care of the heating problem, for in the morning and night, it gets quite cold.” He is telling his teacher how he is being treated, how the camps are like and the camps surroundings. The boy also states “Everything is a little crude, for a little crudeness fits into the picture.” The camps were unrefined, full of impurities. “There are six mess halls, and when it’s tim... ... middle of paper ... ...morning and night, it gets quite cold.” He is telling his teacher how he is being treated, how the camps are like and the camps surroundings. The boy also states “Everything is a little crude, for a little crudeness fits into the picture.” The camps were unrefined, full of impurities. “There are six mess halls, and when it’s time to eat, we line up outside. By the time the doors open, there is a very long line, so the early birds eat first” (1). When the boy mentions “early birds eat first” he means that the people who wake up first, they get in line and get to eat first. Although the food is nothing great, it is alright, but the boy could stand a little more. Works Cited Nickles, Greg, “We Came to North America: The Japanese” Web – May 6, 20124. Tamura, Eileen H., “Journal of American Ethnic History”. 02785927, Summer2001, Vol. 20, Issue 4 – web- May, 6 2014.

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