Japanese Internment Camps “I sometimes wonder if anyone will ever understand what I mean, if anyone will ever overlook my ingratitude and not worry about whether or not I’m Jewish and merely see me as a teenager badly in need of some good, plain fun.” (p. 153-154) or page 124? Website? There is a strong similarity between the German government who used concentration camps to imprison Jewish people and the U.S. government who interned Japanese Americans. For the Americans, it was thought that any and all Japanese citizens could be potential spies and attack the U.S. In the U.S., the U.S. created internment camps and held Japanese families captive. In Germany, it was believed that Germans were elite and the Jewish people caused them to lose the First World War. Germans created concentration camps and held the Jewish, and Polish people hostage. Both governments not only imprisoned those they deemed a threat to their causes but more importantly governments oppressed the rights of specific targeted group of citizens (Kent). This oppression is best illustrated by reading a first hand account so that people can understand the real life circumstances surrounding people who were imprisoned by the government during wartime, such as the Diary of Anne Frank. Before the World War II, in Holland and the U.S., the Jewish population in Holland and the Japanese Americans had equal rights as those of other citizens from other nationalities living in their respective countries. Both nationalities had families, had paid jobs, and had places to live. They were able to vote and had government representation and were integral members of society (Cooper). During the War, the governments were detaining and imprisoning these same citizens. Hi... ... middle of paper ... ...mprison, intern or execute thousands of innocent people in the name of War. Make sure all of your sources are cited Add 1 quote to each paragraph, 3 body paragraphs need more than 1 source http://www.holocausthistory.net/ Bibliography Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki., and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2000. Print. Alonso, Karen. Korematsu v. United States: Japanese-American Internment Camps. Springfield, NJ: Enslow, 1998. Print. Cooper, Michael L. Fighting for Honor: Japanese Americans and World War II. New York: Clarion, 2000. Print. Sinnott, Susan. Our Burden of Shame: Japanese-American Internment during World War II. New York: F. Watts, 1995. Print. Kent, Deborah. The Tragic History of the Japanese-American Internment Camps. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Pub., 2008. Print.
In a portion of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s memoir titled Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne’s Japanese family, living in California, is ordered to move to an internment camp called Manzanar. Society impacts the family in many ways, but in this segment of the story we primarily see its effects on Jeanne. The context and setting are as follows: the Pearl Harbor bombing was a very recent happening, the United States was entering into war with Japan, and President Roosevelt had signed Executive Order 9066, allowing internment. Anyone who might threaten the war effort was moved inland into defined military areas. Essentially, the Japanese immigrants were imprisoned and considered a threat; nevertheless, many managed to remain positive and compliant. Jeanne’s family heard “the older heads, the Issei, telling others very quietly ‘Shikata ga nai’” (604), meaning it cannot be helped, or it must be done, even though the world surrounding them had become aggressive and frigid. The society had a noticeable effect on Jeanne, as it impacted her view of racial divides, her family relations, and her health.
Soon after Pearl Harbor was bombed, the government made the decision to place Japanese-Americans in internment camps. When Jeanne and her family were shipped to Manzanar, they all remained together, except her father who was taken for questioning. After a year he was reunited with them at the camp. On the first night that they had arrived at there, the cam...
As Inada points out with his analogy to a constellation, the United States government had constructed many camps and scattered them all over the country. In other words, the internment of Japanese-Americans was not merely a blip in American history; it was instead a catastrophic and appalling forced remov...
Myer, Dillon S. Uprooted Americans: The Japanese Americans and the War Relocation Authority During World War II. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1970. Print
Taylor, Sandra C. Jewel of the Desert: Japanese American Internment at Topaz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
During World War II, countless Japanese Canadians, and Americans, were relocated to internment camps out of fear of where their loyalties would lie. Because of this, those people were stricken from their homes and had their lives altered forever. Joy Kogawa’s Obasan highlights this traumatic event. In this excerpt, Kogawa uses shifts in point of view and style to depict her complex attitude and perception of the past.
Stanley, Jerry. I Am An American: A True Story of Japanese Internment. New York: Crown Publishers, 1996. Print.
The bombing on Pearl Harbor impaired America, which brought an increase to racial tension. However, this impairment brought all nationalities together. “Thirty-three thousand Japanese Americans enlisted in the United States Armed Forces. They believed participation in the defense of their country was the best way to express their loyalty and fulfill their obligation as citizens” (Takaki 348). Takaki proves to us that the battle for independence was grappled on the ends of enslaved races. The deception of discrimination within the military force didn’t only bewilder Americans that sensed the agony of segregation, but also to the rest of world who honored and idolized America as a beam of freedom for
Marsh, James H. "Japanese Internment: Banished and Beyond Tears." The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. .
... group of citizens was treated during this time. Unfortunately, this is most likely due to the fact that it exposes the worst of the United States government. This treatment is treated as a blemish in the history of the United States to the United States citizens who learn about it. This is not the case at all for the Japanese-American people who experienced this, as well as the relatives of these people. The management of these people was a cruel and unjust act that was never shown for the harshness that it truly is. In Germany, it was called concentration camps, and it is known around the world as the worst time in history. In the United States, people brush the subject away, not showing any concern. In any other country, the United States would have been horrified, but it happened in our country. Thus, since the country is always right, this cruelty is ignored.
21 . Robinson, Greg By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans,2003, Harvard University Press
[4] Ann G. Sunahara, The Politics of Racism: The Uprooting of Japanese Canadians during World War II(Toronto: James Lorimer & Co., 1981), 161.
The internment camps was a calamitous experience for many Japanese Americans. The Japanese American’s struggle was divided into evacuation, the camps, and life afterwards. Many will never forget the great injustice wrought upon them from the United States government.
Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor, there was still tension between Japanese-Americans and other United States citizens. Laws like the “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” a way of restricting Japanese immigration, was put into place in 1908 in fear of a “future Japanese ‘takeover’” (Hata and Hata, 7). After the attack on Pearl Harbor, growing hysteria filled the country and Japanese-Americans feared for their future. About a year later, Franklin D. R...
Dundes Renteln, Alison. "A Psychohistorical Analysis of the Japanese American Internment." Human Rights Quarterly 17, no. 4 (1995): 618-48. doi:10.1353/hrq.1995.0039.