The Japanese attack against the United States in Pearl Harbor happened so quickly that most Americans were captured in the opening weeks of World War II. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, President Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066. This order authorized the evacuation of all Japanese Americans on the west coast to be placed into relocation centers. After this, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were taken out of their homes, piled into buses and cars, and forced into internment camps. With ten camps in all, they were located in California, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Arkansas. It is recognized, then, by all that even wars must have limits. The limits that must be applied are essentially in the Geneva Conventions plus other treaties of international humanitarian law. All the countries participation in WWII accepted these terms, however Japan failed to follow through and ignored the laws. The Japanese captured thousands of American soldiers and held them in Japanese camps. The Japanese held prisoners of war in horrible camps throughout Japan, forced them to work in horrendous conditions, and treated them inhumanely. The living For one, they were both relocation centers for groups of people during WWII. Also, campers were in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions where they were being mistreated for beliefs of nationality. However, the camps in Japan were much more brutal than the Internment camps in the US. In the Japanese relocation camps prisoners were not there for final execution like Americans seemed to be in the pacific. Nearly half were forced to work as slave laborers, and about forty percent of American POWs died in Japanese captivity. In America, after the war was over compensations were made to Japanese Americans and government officials apologized for what they put them through; however, no apologies or compensations were made to
During World War II American soldiers who were caught by the Japanese were sent to camps where they were kept under harsh conditions. These men were called the prisoners of war, also known as the POWs. The Japanese who were captured by the American lived a simple life. They were the Japanese internees of World War II. The POWs had more of a harsh time during World War II than the internees. While the internees did physically stay in the camps longer, the POWs had it worse mentally.
It is not a well known fact that around the time the Holocaust took place in Europe, another internment (less extreme) was taking place in the United States. “Betrayed by America” by Kristin Lewis gives readers an insight on what happened to Japanese-Americans in America. The article tells us about Hiroshi Shishima, Japanese-Americans internment, and what was going on during the regime. During WW2, America went into a frenzy after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Many Americans believed what was being said about Japanese-Americans even though it was proven to be false. Since the whole fiasco with Japan took place, many Japanese-Americans were forced into internment in certain parts of the United States. The reason for the internment of Japanese-Americans was due to fear & hysteria, racial
The conditions the Japanese Americans were put through were horrible and everyone deserves to be treated equally. The worst part was the persecution of numerous innocent people because they did nothing wrong. The outbreak of hysteria was a big part of them being thrown into camps because the government thought they were working with Japan. In the Internment Camps and Salem Witch Trials people had no evidence and were treated unfairly, making them similar even though it was two different time
The racial conflict with Japanese-Americans began when the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, a military naval base located in the state of Hawaii. “Behind them they left chaos, 2,403 dead, 188 destroyed planes, and a crippled Pacific Fleet that included 8 damaged or destroyed battleships” (“Attack” 1). The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on the Empire of Japan. The fear that resulted from the attack on Pearl Harbor caused many white Americans to hate the Japanese-Americans. Many Japanese were accused of being spies and were arrested without proof. “Rabid anti-Japanese American racism surfaced the first days after Pearl Harbor. The FBI and the military had been compiling lists of "potentially dangerous" Japanese Americans since 1932, but most were merely teachers, businessmen or journalists” (Thistlethwaite 1). In February of 1942, all of the Japanese on the West Coast of the United States were sent to internment camps.
This caused the Japanese to become a scapegoat of America’s fear and anger. The Issei and Nisei who once moved to this country to find new opportunities and jobs were now stripped of their homes and businesses and were forced to live in poor living conditions (DISCovering). Although many Americans believed that Japanese American internment was justified because it was used to protect us from attacks by Japanese Americans, it was very unlikely that they were ever going to attack us in the first place. For example, in Dr. Seuss’ political cartoon, many Japanese Americans are lined up to get TNT and waiting for a signal from Japan to attack (Seuss).
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)
military was awakened in full force, a direct attack that filled Americans both with fear and anger. This attack sparked racial hysteria with the then current media outlets pushing propaganda antagonising the Japanese. Building on pre-existing bigotry, tens of thousands of Japanese Americans were interned despite some being American citizens, a clear violation of their promised civil rights (Takagi). The prisoners were forced to stay in these camps until the conclusion of the war. This blanket internernment affected all ethnic Japanese Americans whether they were loyal or not, this upheld the “Us vs. Them” mentality. It took the government a staggering thirty years to acknowledge the wrongdoing and issue an apology, ten years after the apology the government took to paying the amount of 20,000 to each surviving victim from a fund of $1.25 billion (Benson). The war hysteria divided the Japanese American community from the mainstream Americans and lead to the loss of moral and civil
Japanese Internment Camps Ten weeks after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) singed an Executive Order of 9066 that authorized the removal of any people from military areas “as deemed necessary or desirable”(FDR). The west coast was home of majority of Japanese Americans was considered as military areas. More than 100,000 Japanese Americans was sent and were relocated to the internment camps that were built by the United States. Of the Japanese that were interned, 62 percent were Nisei (American born, second generation) or Sansei (third-generation Japanese) the rest of them were Issai Japanese immigrants. Americans of Japanese ancestry were far the most widely affected.
Now their is always the no one died in internment camps. First off the government controlled the food and caused just the fear of death. Second off they gave them medicine, only if they passed the liberty test. While the internment camps did not force you to make items for war, it could have reflected badly and send you to a worse camp. So in the end, just because not alot of people died does not make it different.
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.
The Japanese internment camps started in February, around two months after the Pearl Harbor bombing, which was also the reason America decided to enter the war. People’s suspicions of Japanese led the government, passing an order to uproot 120,000 people from their homes, lives, families, everything they knew. WWII brought lots of change, although their families were being contained, many young Japanese joined the U.S. army in the fight against Germany and Japan. It’s important for people to learn and remember who the really is against. “Sure enough, 40 days later January 20, 1942, came a letter that said, greeting from the President of the United States you are now in the army, and that was my draft notice.”( Interview with Norman Saburo
Much controversy has been sparked due to the internment of the Japanese people. Many ask whether it was justified to internment them. It is a very delicate issue that has two sides, those who are against the internment of the Japanese-Americans and those who are for it. With World War II raging in the East, America was still, for the most part, very inactive in the war. When America took a stand against Japan by not shipping them supplies, Japan became very upset. Japan, being a big island that is very overpopulated with little natural resources, depended on America to provide them with an assortment of supplies including scrap metal and oil, vital items that are needed in a time of war. Japan retaliated by declaring war on America and attacking Pearl Harbor. This surprise act led to many soldiers deaths and millions of dollars of damaged army equipment, including air craft carriers and planes. As a result to Japan declaring war, the Japanese-Americans were asked to and eventually forced to do their duty to the country and report to internment camps until the war conflict was over. Many opposed this act for a couple of reasons. One reason was that people felt that it was a huge hypocrisy that the Japanese were being interned while the Italians and Germans, also our enemies, were still walking around free in America. Another reason why many were against the internment was because many of the Japanese had already been in America for some time now. The Issei, the first generation of Japanese people that immigrated from Japan, had immigrated many years ago. A whole another generation of Japanese children had already began growing up in America called the Nissei. They were automatically U.S. citizens for they were born in America and for the most part were like other American children. Anti-Internment activists also said that the Japanese were being robbed of their rights as U.S. citizens. However, there are two sides to everything.
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.”
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.