On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii. They destroyed seven American battleships, and 121 aircraft, and killed 2,400 people. After the attack on Pearl Harbor President Roosevelt sent out a telegram letting everyone know what was happening and it stated “Washington, Dec. 7 (AP)-President Roosevelt said in a statement today that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from the air. The Attack of the Japanese also made on all naval and military “activities” on the island of Oahu.” The President’s brief statement was read to reporters by Stephen Early, presidential secretary. No further details were given immediately. At the time of the White House announcement, the Japanese Ambassadors Kiurisabora Nomura and Saburo Kurusu were at the State Department.” After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, America felt as if they couldn’t trust the Japanese Americans this is why they came up with the Japanese Internment Camps to protect themselves. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed order 9066; this ordered the Japanese Internment Camps. Ten internment camps were made where more than 110,000 Japanese Americans would be moved too. The camps were set up in blocks that contained fourteen barracks. The temperature of camps varied; most were located in deserts. The meals contained little food. The jobs were really bad, cheap laboring jobs. Children were expected to go to school and learn. The japanese were taken from their homes and put on buses and traveled that way to the camps. The camps were fenced in. Each fenced in camp was set up in blocks, the blocks contained fourteen barracks, one mess hall, and one recreational hall on the outside. The inside contained the ironing, laundry, and men and women’s bathr... ... middle of paper ... ...rbed wire fence that we were told not to go near. And I remember the sentry towers that had machine guns pointed at us. And I remember the search light that followed me when I made the night runs from our barrack to the latrine,” he said. “But a child is an amazingly adaptable person. All that became normality for me.” He and his family were sent to a high security camp in California after receiving a questionnaire form which was called The Loyalty Questionnaire. The first freed Japanese were not let go until 1944, and none were permitted to return home until after the war was over. Many people had nothing to call home when they left the camps, their homes and occupations were gone. Justice Frank Murphy (a politician) called it “one of the most sweeping and complete deprivations of constitutional rights in that history of this nation in the absence of martial law.”
Once Executive Order 9066 was signed, with no proof that sabotage or espionage had been committed by Japanese Americans, it allowed for the relocation and summary removal of “enemy aliens” from their homes to incarceration under guard in designated areas / camps. With just one pen and piece of paper, FDR suddenly made it possible for citizens of Japanese descent to be arrested without explanation.... ... middle of paper ... ... Eleanor Roosevelt, a strong supporter of civil rights, as noted in her memoirs, recalled being gob smacked by her husband’s decision in regards to EO9066.
The Battle of Pearl Harbor was one of the most atrocious events that happened in U.S. history. On December 7, 1941, Japan made a surprise aerial attack on the United States naval base and airfields at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. More than two thousand Americans died and a thousand two hundred were wounded. Eighteen ships were badly damaged, including five battleships. The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt with the support of the Congress, declared war on Japan. It led United States’ official involvement in World War II. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because of a deteriorating relationship with the U. S. The “New World Order”, expansion and resources, and economic sanctions were factors that conducted to another disaster on the Second World War.
December 7, 1941 was a day of great tragedy. At 07:48 in the morning the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. This attacked caused the destruction of seventeen ships and one hundred and eighty eight aircraft as well as killing two thousand four hundred and three Americans. The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt took to the microphone to address congress and the American people. This speech by President Roosevelt was effective in convincing congress to declare war on Japan by using ethos, pathos, and also logos.
What were the Japanese internment camps some might ask. The camps were caused by the attack of Pearl Harbor in 1942 by Japan. President Roosevelt signed a form to send all the Japanese into internment camps.(1) All the Japanese living along the coast were moved to other states like California, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona. The camps were located away from Japan and isolated so if a spy tried to communicate, word wouldn't get out. The camps were unfair to the Japanese but the US were trying to be cautious. Many even more than 66% or 2/3 of the Japanese-Americans sent to the internment camps in April of 1942 were born in the United States and many had never been to Japan. Their only crime was that they had Japanese ancestors and they were suspected of being spies to their homeland of Japan. Japanese-American World War I veterans that served for the United States were also sent to the internment camps.(2)
One of the reason Japanese were send to camps was because president FDR issue an executive order 9066. He believed it would prevent the J...
Japanese internment camps were located around the Western United States with the exception of Arkansas (which is located further east). On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. This sparked a period of war-time paranoia that led to the internment or incarceration of 110,000 Japanese Americans. Almost all of them were loyal citizens. Actually, many of them were not allowed to become citizens due to certain laws. Although these camps were nowhere close to as horrible as the concentration camps in Europe, the conditions were still pretty harsh for a while and caused internees to have various physical and psychological health effects and risks in the future.
December 7, 1941 was a military accomplishment for Japan. Japanese Bomber planes had flown over the island of Hawaii and bombed the American naval base Pearl Harbor. After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans believed that the Japanese Americans, were disloyal and were sabotaging the United States Government. There were rumors that most Japanese Americans exchanged military information and had hidden connections with Japanese military. None of these claims were ever proven to be true but believed by many at the time. The United States Government became concerned about National Security and demanded action. On Thursday, February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 9066, which called for an evacuation of Japanese Americans on the west coast with the excuse of a “military necessity.” The government’s enforcement of Executive Order 9066 in reaction to the public resulted in the creation of internment camps.
In 1945 Japanese-American citizens with undisrupted loyalty were allowed to return to the West Coast, but not until 1946 was the last camp closed. The government of the U.S. tried to blame the evacuations on the war, saying they were protecting the Japanese by moving them. The government made statements during this time that contradicted each other. For example, Japanese-Americans were being called “enemy aliens” but then they were encouraged by the government to be loyal Americans and enlist in the armed forces, move voluntarily, put up no fight and not question the forced relocation efforts (Conn, 1990). Stetson Conn (1990) wrote “For several decades the Japanese population had been the target of hostility and restrictive action.”
“A typical concentration camp consisted of barracks that were secured from escape by barbed wire, watchtowers and guards. The inmates usually lived in overcrowded barracks and slept in bunk “beds”. In the forced labour camps, for
However, the military officials were concerned about the loyalty of Japanese descendants. They were considered to be security risks. These concerns were based more on racial bias than on actual risk. There is a quote from the administrator of the internment program, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt. He testified to congress that "I don't want any of them persons here. They are a dangerous element. There is no way to determine their loyalty. It makes no difference whether or not he is an American citizen, he is still Japanese. American citizenship does not necessarily determine loyalty. But we must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map."
The internment camps were permanent detention camps that held internees from March, 1942 until their closing in 1945 and 1946. Although the camps held captive people of many different origins, the majority of the prisoners were Japanese-Americans. There were ten different relocation centers located across the United States during the war. These Japanese Americans, half of whom were children, were incarcerated for up to 4 years, without due process of law or any factual basis, in bleak, remote camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards.
The boy in When the Emperor was Devine describes them as "a city of tar-paper barracks behind a barbed-wire fence on a dusty alkaline plain" (Otsuka 49). In Professor Inouye’s lecture titled “World War II Internment of Japanese American Citizens,” she discussed what it was like to live in the camps. “Entire families shared one room with one light bulb, their possessions were searched by officials, they were kept behind barbed wire with armed guns pointed at them, and if anyone was seen outside of the fence, they were shot dead immediately” (Inouye, Feb 12). Professor Inouye also talked about the lack of medical care in the camps and that there was quite a bit of sickness that went around. In some cases people died due to not having sufficient medical treatment and because there were few or no doctors in the camps. They lived like this for almost three years, which were full of unnecessary torture and
On February 14, 1942 Lt. General J. L. DeWitt, “commanding general of the Fourth Army and the Western Defense Command[i]” recommended to the War Department, the “evacuation[ii]” of Japanese living along the Pacific coast, deemed a Military Zone. About 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, many of those people American citizens, living on the West Coast and Southern Arizona were removed from their homes to locations of the government’s choosing. The very term “evacuation” is misleading to say the least because it suggests that the Japanese were being relocated to protect their safety. The excuses cited by the military were to establish “broad civil control, anti-sabotage, and counter-espionage measures.[iii]” The reasons given to justify “evacuation” suggested that the Japanese were a threat to the nation and not the nation a threat to the Japanese.
At the internment camps, there were shacks which had beds and the necessary living needs. As I said earlier, they did have holes in them which allowed sand to come through and into the house. Even though they were small, they were way better than the concentration barracks. In the concentration camps, there was no insulation in the barracks. They slept on slabs of concrete with a sad excuse of a blanket. There was no room as well so you were squished between strangers. The concentration camps were very cold and cramped and no person should have to physically live like
Japanese internment camps began during WWII after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The U.S. government put a lot of Japanese-American citizens in the camps because they didn’t want them to turn out to be spies and help take down the U.S. in the war. The people in the cams could learn money but it was a very small amount if anything.