...erties from the Japanese Americans. The Anglos wanted the Japanese Americans to be interned so they could take the property left behind. This was a sign of greed, not an applicable explanation for interning them. There was no rationalization that Japanese Americans needed to be sent to internment camps for their own protection as well. There were never reports of Japanese Americans being attacked due to the war. Finally, there was the motivation of racial prejudice, which was absolutely ridiculous. Just because they had Japanese ancestry, one could not say that they were spies and fifth columnists. In all races of people, there could be good and bad characteristics. A human could not control their race, but he could make himself trustworthy. As has been indicated, there were no valid reasons for the government to intern the Japanese Americans during World War II.
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.
Before World War II there were many japanese immigrants moving into the United States of America. Many of them lived on the west coast to become farmers. Then on December 7, 1941 every Americans view towards the Japanese changed. After the Pearl Harbor bombings, many Americans believed that the Japanese living in America had something to do with the bombings, this led to the Japanese living on the west coast to be moved into Japanese American Internment Camps. The residents in these camps lost many of their human rights while living in these camps.
Internment was brought about by a justifiable fear for the security of the nation. Japan had pulled off an attack on Pearl Harbor, which no one had thought was conceivable. With the thought that Japan may attack the West Coast of the United States, while the US military was in shock, was on everyone’s mind.
The internment of Japanese Americans was a forced relocation of between 110,000 and 120,000 Japanese Americans who lived on the Pacific coast to interment camps across the country. The crime of these American citizens was being of Japanese descent. Without any evidence or trial hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans were suspected of being loyal to their native land. Anti-Japanese paranoia was rising because of the amount of
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.
“On February 19th, 1942 President Roosevelt signed into effect Executive Order 9066: an authorization for military authorities to exclude any and all persons from designated areas of the country as necessary for national defense (Jones, Par. 11).” This was the first strike in a round of racial exclusion that violated the Japanese's rights, abolished their faith in the American government, and interned them in a camp for up to four years. The Japanese internment camps were unethical and completely barbaric because they violated the Japanese's rights as individuals and as citizens of the United States, it was a violation of the justice system as well, they had no evidence to prove any of the Japanese were plotting against the United States, and finally, the internment played upon the racial prejudices aimed at the Japanese that were already ingrained in American society.
Article two of the constitution states that everyone is entitled to all rights and, “freedoms… without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin…birth of status.” Because of the many articles similar to this in the constitution, the United States has a reputation for being a nation of democracy, justice and freedom, which is why it is one of the most sought out nations to live in. Therefore, The United States has been flooded and with a spectrum of races from literally all over the world. However, The United States has not always lived up to the principles on which the constitution has founded. There have been several periods in America’s history where racial discrimination and oppression have run amuck. For example, America was very racist toward African Americans before integration and The Civil Movement. Although The Civil Rights Movement was a pivotal change in history and caused Americans to be more open and accepting of other races, it did not change America enough to prevent the creation of Japanese internment camps during World War II. Although America claims to be the land of equity, it is not exempt from prejudice, oppression, and discrimination as made evident through the Japanese internment camps. By learning about what happened in the Japanese internment camps and looking at what they resulted in, America can avoid making the same mistake during times of war when a certain racial group looks suspicious.
During the early 1940’s, World War II was upon the United States of America. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. was ready to go to war with The Empire of Japan. During this time, many U.S. citizens grew great hatred toward anyone of Japanese ancestry. People began to become paranoid and treated any Japanese person with great disrespect. All of this started with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After the attack, many Japanese people were sent to concentration camps. Many of them were either put in jail because of their race, or just because they refused to go to the concentration camps. This also happened in David Guterson’s fiction book, Snow Falling on Cedars. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese citizens were looked upon as traders, taken to concentration camps, and many were accused of crimes that they did not commit.
On February 19, 1942 an Executive Order was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This order is now remembered to be one of the biggest violations of civil justice in American history. Over 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced to leave their everyday lives and commute to internment camps in many different locations with extremely neglected conditions. Though most were United States citizens, those with Japanese heritage were forced to abandon their homes. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, suspicions arose in the United States and many were uncomfortable with the large Japanese American population. Many citizens believed they may be spies planning the next attack or gathering information for the Japanese government.