The Internment Of Japanese Americans During WWII

The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was a clear example of mass hysteria that permeated the United States during the dark days of WWII. After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor many Americans believed that the Japanese were disloyal and were associated with the enemy. There were rumors that the Japanese Americans were exchanging military information and had hidden connections. The U.S became increasingly paranoid causing a question to arise, is this really because the Japanese were truly spies or is it mass hysteria? In the process of war the public skipped to the conclusion that all Japanese Americans were out to get them. The suspicion of a government takeover was on everyones mind. Paranoia led people into to thinking every single Japanese American was guilty, no matter if it was a child, a WWI veteran, or if they had ever even been to Japan. The suspicion did not end there, inducing temporary segregation, and the exploitation of japanese american’s human rights. Mass hysteria and racism influenced the government's actions towards the Japanese. After WWI when everyone was tired of war and thought it was done with, foreign warfare started bubbling up again. A sudden attack by the japanese would have any average american suspicious of any japanese they came across. Especially in the 1940s. So the hysteria was understable. The question was whether or not to do anything about it, and for an angry, grief stricken America, internment camps were the answer. Mass hysteria of the Japanese caused the urge for government issue of executive order 9066 to satisfy the anti-Japanese groups and to rid of all the fear. The order was based on a false claim. The day of, Japanese Americans were given 48 hours to leave their homes a... ... middle of paper ... ...f American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan.The Japanese attempted to fight back and prove their innocence.The most famous case, Korematsu v. United States shows that. According to Kelly “The Korematsu case was significant because it ruled that the United States government had the right to exclude and force people from designated areas based on their race.” The decision was 6-3 that the need to protect the United States from spying and other wartime acts was more important than Korematsu's individual rights,better yet any Japanese-American’s rights. To cover up the fact that it was mass hysteria the paranoid Americans claimed it was justified by the Army’s claims that Japanese Americans were radio-signaling enemy ships from shore and were most likely disloyal. The court called the incarceration a “military necessity”(Korematsu Institute).