Was Japanese Internment Neessary?

Only those who experienced it told of the injustice and posed the question, “Was it necessary?” It is a question which deserves an answer. It was unnecessary to place the Japanese Canadians in internment camps during WWII as they weren’t a threat to other Canadians, but were victims of racism, and were just as patriotic and loyal as any other Canadian. The threat represented by the Japanese Canadians was largely exaggerated. Feelings of racism were magnified by the attack on Pearl Harbour which led people to draw false conclusions and make exaggerations about the Japanese Canadians. People generally believed that Japanese Canadians belonged to a fifth column and were therefore secretly helping out the enemy (ibid).

Peopling Canada. Mar 2000: 1-14. On-line. EBSCOhost. 03 Mar 2000.

16 March 2011. Ward, John. "Vimy Ridge A Watershed in Canada's History." CNews. 4 Nov. 1999.

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.

The government overturned the political freedom3 it was meant to promote and foster by threatening to deport anyone who opposed the status quo. Looking at the amendment carefully will reveal that the changes to the Immigration Act only allowed the deportation of ‘aliens’ and immigrant citizens, but not ‘true Canadians’. This particular change in the Immigration Act displayed bias towards foreigners. Although not on the government’s mind, this was extremely... ... middle of paper ... ...sary of the Winnipeg General Strike." In Defence of Marxism.

So, he changed his identity in attempt to stay out of the camps. However, he was arrested and accused of breaking the law. Although many Japanese-Americans were loyal citizens of America, they were still ostracized and locked away because many Americans feared they would attack.

Was the internment of Japanese Americans a compulsory act of justice or was it an unwarranted, redundant act of tyranny which breached upon the rights of Japanese Americans? During World War II thousands of Japanese Americans were told by government officials that they had twenty-four hours to pack their things, get rid of any belongings of theirs, and to sell their businesses away for less than retail value. Although many people thought the Japanese American internment was needed to ensure U.S. security during the war against Japan, these relocation centers were unnecessary violations of Japanese Americans’ rights. These concentration camps are unconstitutional because they infringed upon the Japanese Americans’ first, seventh, and eighth amendment rights. The argument for the opposing viewpoint states that these relocation centers were needed to ensure U.S. security during the war against Japan.

Dunn, Christopher. Canadian Political Debates. 1st ed Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1995. Filemyr, Anne. "Conflict and Mainstream Reporting."

(USA: Westview Press: 1986) 162. [15] John Serieux. Journeys Just Begun. (Canada: Renoult Publishing Co. Ltd., 2000) 29.

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