Was the Japanese Internment Eithical?

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“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. The main reasons that the internment of the Japanese was so unethical was because it violated their human rights on a basic level. Many people believed all or most of the Japanese that were interned were immigrants, but in fact, as Jane O. Reilly wrote in Time magazine, “only one-third of internees were immigrants. The rest of them were American citizens, by law and by birth (par. 2).” These American citizens should have been protected by the amendments laid down over 150 years before. Unfortunately, this was not the case. We, as Americans, by interning the Japanese violated amendments four, six, and fourteen. Amendment number four, as stated in the U.S. Constitution, claims “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon pr... ... middle of paper ... ...evidence, and then act and intern the people that were responsible. The key word here is responsible. The Japanese-Americans were not responsible for the acts of Pearl Harbor that were committed against American civilians and soldiers. This is what we need to realize. We need to take the mistakes of history and for once, learn from them. It is not a question of a violation of rights for the greater good; an argument that has been going on for centuries. It’s there was no proof and the U.S. contradicted itself in every way possible, proving that the Japanese were no threat. Someone should have acted as the voice of reason and declared that the U.S. cease all acts against the Japanese and return them to their homes immediately; or obviously not intern them at all. We must learn to exercise our power with caution and restraint. That is our duty to our American citizens.

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