Japanese Internment

Since its establishment in 1775, the term “freedom” has been the rallying cry of the people of the United States; however, “freedom” was not by definition equal to all persons of the United States. We have made much progress in the area of freedom but one could argue that the term “freedom” was only for the white male/female population of the United States. We made our first step with Abraham Lincoln and the abolition of slavery, then with the Progressive Era and women’s rights, however, anyone who was not of American or “white” decent, have been persecuted in one way or another. In 1942 President Roosevelt, under the negative influence of a fear of the general population and much of his adversaries signed the executive order, which ordered the relocation of about 120,000 Japanese-American citizens to internment camps in order to “protect” our country from its “enemies.”
With the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 by the Empire of Japan, a panic swept across the United States and many Americans, to include government officials, became paranoid that anyone of Japanese descent would in fact be loyal to their mother country instead of the United States of America. General DeWitt said specifically in a conference on 4 January 1942 to Mr. Rowe who worked for the Attorney General at the time, “The threat is a constant one, and it is getting more dangerous all the time. I have little confidence that the enemy aliens (referring to the immigrants from Japan, Germany and Italy or anyone of those descents) are law-abiding or loyal in any sense of the word. Some of them, yes; many, no. Particularly the Japanese. I have no confidence in their loyalty whatsoever.” In this conference, General DeWitt, requested that he be granted by the...

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... the Constitution it talks states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States…are citizens of the United States…No State shall make or enforce any law which shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”, however, they were not afforded equal protection because the government acted solely on the fact that they were Japanese and of Japanese ancestry. Also, while some were able to sell their homes and business, many did not have time and left whatever they had behind, they were not paid for the loss in property or personal possessions after they were released from the internment camps. When the government forced the Americans of Japanese descent to leave their homes, businesses and jobs they were deprived of their liberty and property.