Japanese Internment Dbq Essay

1068 Words3 Pages

During the 1900’s, it was common for people to immigrate to America. They saw it as a land of freedom and opportunity. Some thought that this was a great way for the US’ economy to boom, but some thought otherwise. With the shortage of jobs, many believed that the immigrants were stealing their precious jobs. Because of the competition over jobs, immigrants became the new public enemy to many. Immigrants such as the Japanese. The Japanese had already been through some racial discrimination, but it wasn’t until World War II that it got much worse. During the war the US decided it was best to be neutral, but the longer the war went on for, The more the US’ neutrality was on the verge of breaking. It wasn’t until December 7, 1941, that the US …show more content…

One example is that many Americans believed that if the Japanese were kicked out of America, it would give more job opportunities to them (Source 1). Since the boom of immigration and cheap labor caused the increase of jobs taken by the Japanese, there wasn’t enough jobs for Americans. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, many saw Japanese American internment as a good idea because it would make more jobs available for Americans. This led to many unemployed Americans to take sides with those who wanted the Japanese gone. Another example is that Americans would form anti-Asian associations to fight against cheap Japanese labor (Gale). With the shortage of jobs for Americans, many began to form associations that fought against cheap Asian labor so that they could get more jobs for Americans. This stemmed from the belief that cheap labor prevented American men to find work. Like most Americans, they believed that they could completely replace the Japanese in the economy. Even though some may think that kicking out the Japanese Americans to increase the amount of jobs for Americans is a good thing, the Americans relied on the Japanese Americans so much for their labor market that it severely suffered because of it. The need for more jobs greatly influenced the internment of Japanese

Open Document