How Did President Roosevelt's Impact On Japanese Americans

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“Most of the 110,000 persons removed for reasons of national security were school-age children, infants, and young adults not yet of voting age.”(Years of Infamy, Michi Weglyn: (www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/ ) Roosevelt made the decision that truly hurt the Japanese leaving them to wonder. However, that didn’t stop President Roosevelt’s decision on what he wanted. Japanese ancestors lived on the West surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. Families were broken up into a section, which Roosevelt better yet called it concentration camps. Many families had already sold their farms and lands to others. Spending years living in that environment not knowing if you may not have a home when or if you return. August 18, 1941 in a letter to President Roosevelt, Representative John Dingell of Michigan suggests incarcerating 10,000 Hawaiian Japanese Americans as hostages to ensure "good behavior" on the part of …show more content…

Several were killed by military guards posted for resisting order of their command. Their cultural and economic growth was ruined within a blink of an eye. They were only allowed to bring one luggage to wherever they were going and leave the rest behind for someone else to sell or take over. I was one of the many children interned at Heart Mountain camp in September 1942. After being interned first at Santa Anita racetrack — yes, the horse racing track in Arcadia —-I was removed by train to Heart Mountain. I still remember the soldiers with fixed bayonets standing between each car to discourage prisoners from moving from car to car. (Debra

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