Japanese Internment Essay

672 Words2 Pages

In Germany there were concentration camps for Jews, in Japan they were for Chinese, and in the United States, after WWII, there were internment camps for Japanese immigrants and citizens. To be clear, the difference between internment and concentration camps is that The internment wasn’t spread equally. All Japanese and Japanese Americans on the West Coast were relocated to internment camps, however in Hawaii only 1,200-1,800 of about 150,000 Japanese Americans were interned. In addition, 62% of those taken into internment were American citizens that had never even been to Japan. The internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans was a disgrace to America. After the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan, military and political leaders in the United States began to suspect a full scale attack on the West Coast. This was due to the fact that Japan had lead a massive campaign through parts of Asia and the Pacific from 1936 to 1942. At first American opinions favored Japanese immigrants and their children believing that their loyalties to the U.S. would never falter. However, six weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor many Americans became concerned about the loyalties of people who were ethnically Japanese. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor Presidential Proclamations 2525, 2526, and 2527 were issued. They declared Japanese, Italian, and German nationals were enemy aliens. On February 19, 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed authorized military commanders to create military areas from which any people could be excluded from. This applied to anyone that the military commander chose, citizen or not. Over the course of the next several months many more Acts and Proclamations w... ... middle of paper ... .... If they passed the test they were allowed to leave the camp, not to their West Coast homes, but to other cities to create new lives. If they failed the test they were considered disloyal and sent to Tule Lake Relocation Center in California. On January 2, 1945 the exclusion process was entirely rescinded and anyone who was left in camps were freed and given $25 and a train ticket to their former homes. The internment of those of Japanese heritage during WWII was a disgrace to America. People were treated badly and were forced to live in structures with no heating or plumbing. Many of those interned were American citizens who had no loyalty to Japan, but they were forced to suffer because they were related to were from Japan. It is horrible that anyone should be forced to leave their homes and lives to be treated like they are the ones who did something wrong.

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