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Conclusion of japanese americans internment unjustified
In response to Executive Order 9066 analysis
Conclusion of japanese americans internment unjustified
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Japanese Internment
The decision to imprison Japanese Americans was a popular one in 1942. It was supported not only by the government, but it was also called for by the press and the people. In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, Japan was the enemy. Many Americans believed that people of Japanese Ancestry were potential spies and saboteurs, intent on helping their mother country to win World War II. “The Japanese race is an enemy race,” General John DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command wrote in February 1942. “And while many second and third generation Japanese born in the United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship, have become ‘Americanized,’ the racial strains are undiluted” (quoted in Smith, 1995: 83).
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066. The Order declared that “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.” In pursuit of this goal, the Secretary of War, or the military commander whom he might designate, was authorized “to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he…may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary…or the Military Commander may impose in his discretion.” The Secretary was also authorized “to provide for residents of any such areas who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations as may be necessary…until other arrangements are made, to accomplish the purpose of this order” (see Appendix 1).
Though the Order seems to be in violation of the Constitution at the time, the Supreme Court upheld it because of “military necessity.” “There was evidence of disloyalty on the part of some [Japanese Americans], the military authorities considered that the need for action was great, and time was short. We cannot – by availing ourselves of the calm perspective of hindsight – now say that at that time these actions were unjustified,” stated Justice Hugo Black on December 18, 1944 (quoted in Irons, 1989: 83).
The War Department oversaw the removal of people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast based upon wartime military necessity. Shortly ...
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...t and control of alien enemies, except as such duty and responsibility is superseded by the designation of military areas hereunder.
THE WHITE HOUSE, Franklin D. Roosevelt, February 19, 1942.
Works Cited
Davis, Daniel S. Behind Barbed Wire. New York, NY: E. P. Dutton, Inc., 1982.
Girdner and Loftis, The Great Betrayal, 148.
Irons, Peter, ed., Justice Delayed: The Record of the Japanese American Internment Cases. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989, 83.
Ng, Wendy. Japanese American Internment during World War II: A History and Refernce Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Smith, Page. Democracy on Trial. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995, 124.
Stanley, Jerry. I Am An American: A True Story of Japanese Interment. New York, NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1994.
tenBroek, Jacobus, Edward N. Barnhart, and Floyd W. Matson. Prejudice, War, and the Constitution. Berkeley and Lost Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1954.
Thomas, Dorothy Swaine, and Richard S. Nishimoto. The Spoilage. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1946, 27.
Yancey, Diane. The Internment of the Japanese. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 2001.
World War Two was one of the biggest militarized conflicts in all of human history, and like all wars it lead to the marginalization of many people around the world. We as Americans saw ourselves as the great righteous liberators of those interned into concentration camps under Nazi Germany, while in reality our horse was not that much higher than theirs. The fear and hysteria following the attacks on pearl harbour lead to the forced removal and internment of over 110,000 Japanese American residents (Benson). This internment indiscriminately applied to both first and second generation Japanese Americans, Similarly to those interned in concentration camps, they were forced to either sell, store or leave behind their belongings. Reshma Memon Yaqub in her article “You People Did This,” describes a similar story to that of the Japanese Americans. The counterpart event of pearl harbour being the attacks on the world trade
On December 8, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor which set off a series of chain reactions. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was concerned about Japanese spies hiding in the United states and his solution was to establish Executive Order 9066 which authorized military commanders to define “military areas” and to exclude anyone from those areas. Korematsu v. the United States was a result of Executive Order 9066 which relocated over 120,000 persons of Japanese descent. Fred Korematsu refused to be relocated and suffered consequences. About 62 years later, the case of Hamdi v. Rumsfeld arises and with it follows the question; has the government learned from their mistakes. Considering that Yaser Hamdi was captured and detained without proper rulings until 2 years after, the public would say that the government has forgotten their mistakes of mass incarceration and neglects the consequences of their actions. The government has forgotten the effects of Korematsu v. United states and has not learned the lesson of what became of the Executive Order 9066 and its effect on Japanese Americans as well as history.
What were the Japanese internment camps some might ask. The camps were caused by the attack of Pearl Harbor in 1942 by Japan. President Roosevelt signed a form to send all the Japanese into internment camps.(1) All the Japanese living along the coast were moved to other states like California, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona. The camps were located away from Japan and isolated so if a spy tried to communicate, word wouldn't get out. The camps were unfair to the Japanese but the US were trying to be cautious. Many even more than 66% or 2/3 of the Japanese-Americans sent to the internment camps in April of 1942 were born in the United States and many had never been to Japan. Their only crime was that they had Japanese ancestors and they were suspected of being spies to their homeland of Japan. Japanese-American World War I veterans that served for the United States were also sent to the internment camps.(2)
Marsh, James H. "Japanese Internment: Banished and Beyond Tears." The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. .
December 7, 1941 was a military accomplishment for Japan. Japanese Bomber planes had flown over the island of Hawaii and bombed the American naval base Pearl Harbor. After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans believed that the Japanese Americans, were disloyal and were sabotaging the United States Government. There were rumors that most Japanese Americans exchanged military information and had hidden connections with Japanese military. None of these claims were ever proven to be true but believed by many at the time. The United States Government became concerned about National Security and demanded action. On Thursday, February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 9066, which called for an evacuation of Japanese Americans on the west coast with the excuse of a “military necessity.” The government’s enforcement of Executive Order 9066 in reaction to the public resulted in the creation of internment camps.
In 1945 Japanese-American citizens with undisrupted loyalty were allowed to return to the West Coast, but not until 1946 was the last camp closed. The government of the U.S. tried to blame the evacuations on the war, saying they were protecting the Japanese by moving them. The government made statements during this time that contradicted each other. For example, Japanese-Americans were being called “enemy aliens” but then they were encouraged by the government to be loyal Americans and enlist in the armed forces, move voluntarily, put up no fight and not question the forced relocation efforts (Conn, 1990). Stetson Conn (1990) wrote “For several decades the Japanese population had been the target of hostility and restrictive action.”
On December 7,1941 Japan raided the airbases across the islands of Pearl Harbour. The “sneak attack” targeted the United States Navy. It left 2400 army personnel dead and over a thousand Americans wounded. U.S. Navy termed it as “one of the great defining moments in history”1 President Roosevelt called it as “A Day of Infamy”. 2 As this attack shook the nation and the Japanese Americans became the immediate ‘focal point’. At that moment approximately 112,000 Persons of Japanese descent resided in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and also in California and Arizona.3
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Many Americans were afraid of another attack, so the state representatives pressured President Roosevelt to do something about the Japanese who were living in the United States at the time. President Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066 which allowed local military commanders to designate military areas as exclusion zones, from which any or all persons may be excluded. Twelve days later, this was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire Pacific coast. This included all of California and most of Oregon and Washington.
Nevertheless, Japanese were resented and disliked by whites. Due to pressure from state leaders near the west coast, President Roosevelt, on February 19, 1942, signed Executive Order 9066. This resulted in the which resulted in the violent imprisonment of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry. When the government gave its internment order, whites rounded up, imprisoned, and exiled their Japanese neighbors. In 1942, 110,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast of the United States were relocated to ten internment camps. More than two thirds of those sent to internment camps, under the Executive Order, had never shown disloyalty and were also citizens of the United States. In April 1942, the War Relocation Authority was created to control the assembly centers, relocation centers, and internment camps, and oversee the relocation of Japanese-Americans. It took another forty years for the US government to recognize the violations of this population's constitutional rights.
American society, like that of Germany, was tainted with racial bigotry and prejudice. The Japanese were thought of as especially treacherous people for the attack on Pearl Harbor. The treachery was obviously thought to reside in ...
The Virtual Museum Of The City Of San Francisco has established a great source for those interested in studying the internment of Japanese during World War II. This topic is reflected very accurately and fairly in the archives of the museum because the archives consist of primary documents. Their archives of original newspaper articles are the basis of this research document. The content listed on the museum’s web site is very relevant to the topic of Japanese internment because it provides a wealth of primary documents including opinions of ordinary people writing to their newspaper to express a wide variety of viewpoints on the subject of Japanese internment during the Second World War. One question stands above all others and the virtual museum gives a good first-hand account of events to answer it - what happened to the Japanese and why were they forced to move? To answer this question, the archives of the Virtual Museum Of The City Of San Francisco should be consulted.
It was no secret that when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, countless Americans were frightened on what will happen next. The attack transpiring during WW2 only added to the hysteria of American citizens. According to the article “Betrayed by America” it expressed,”After the bombing many members of the public and media began calling for anyone of Japanese ancestry။citizens or not။to be removed from the West Coast.”(7) The corroboration supports the reason why America interned Japanese-Americans because it talks about Americans wanting to remove Japanese-Americans from the West Coast due to Japan bombing America. Japan bombing America led to Americans grow fear and hysteria. Fear due to the recent attack caused internment because Americans were afraid of what people with Japanese ancestry could do. In order to cease the hysteria, America turned to internment. American logic tells us that by getting the Japanese-Americans interned, many
It is not surprising that thinkers as diverse as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mahatma Gandhi have found inspiration in The Bhagavad Gita, the great HINDU religious poem. At first glance, this statement must seem odd to you: after all, The Bhagavad Gita describes a momentary surcease in a vast battle in which brothers fight brothers in bloody, historical technicolor. The principal character, Arjuna, sits in a chariot in the midst of the mass of soldiers who wait -- surprisingly patiently -- as Arjuna looks into his conscience and questions his divine charioteer, Krishna. Krishna's temporary job as charioteer is by no means accidental: this moment before the heat and horror of battle was chosen as precisely the right time to reflect on the nature of duty and devotion. The Bhagavad Gita, then, becomes a record of Arjuna's questions and Krishna's provocative responses.
This translation was very interested to read, especially for me, who never really have gotten the chance to read any literature that relates to myself. This book doesn’t necessarily relate to me, but it comes close in a way. My father is Indian, and my mother is Pakistani. That is about the only thing that comes close ethnic-wise to this epic. I am Muslim, so me being a monotheist logically doesn’t fully satisfy Hinduism requirements. Yet I understand the beliefs, and other than the polytheism aspect of the religion, along with some other beliefs, I agree and at times try to follow a number of the teachings that improve the human soul. For instance, on page 46, in the Third Teaching, Arjuna asks, “Krishna, what makes a person commit evil against his own will, as if compelled by force?” and Krishna answers, “It is desire and anger, arising from nature’s quality of passion; know it here as the enemy, voracious and very evil!” I generally agree with this idea, that passion really creates desire, which most of the time creates anger. A lot of people have obsession with things or people, and it is derived from their passion, which turns to desire, which becomes anger, especially when they don’t get what they really want. There are things in my life that I try to keep a distance from me. When at first I know it’s not good for me, and I find myself beginning to like it more, as if I’m developing a passion for it, I stray myself away from it. Most of the time, if it works, it helps me from a lot of possible danger in the future.
The Bhagavad Gita is a Hindu scripture which contains around 700 verses. It is a part of the ancient Sanskrit magnum opus the Mahabharata. It is also called “the Upanishad of Upanishads” because it is the summary of the Upanishads. The Gita emerges out of the conversation between Krishna and Arjun taking place in the midst of the battlefield of Kurukshetra when armies of both the sides are ready to fight. Arjun is in the moral dilemma about fighting his own brothers who have tyrannically usurped a disputed empire through a deceitful game of dice. Responding to his confusion, Krishna elaborates to Arjun about his duties as a prince and a warrior, as well as on Yoga, Samkhya Yoga, reincarnation, moksha, karma yoga and jnana yoga