Essay On Japanese Internment

1154 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of WW 2 on Canada

During a state of total war, is it necessary to sacrifice the rights of individuals to protect the nation? This was the difficult question that Canada answered during World War 2. After the Empire of Japan formally entered the war, Japanese citizens were detained for the sake of national safety. They were taken from their homes, and put into internment camps for the duration of the war. This action has been criticized as being unjust and unethical. However, the Canadian government was justified in its policy of Japanese internment. It was a necessary action for punishing Japanese actions, fulfilling the government’s duty to represent its citizenry, and legally protecting the nation’s safety. First of all, the Empire of Japan committed …show more content…

Due to the public disdain for Japanese immigrants, the government was justified in its actions against them. In the view of many Canadians at the time, the Japanese were dangerous and evil. They saw them as “...robots, operating with cheap machine-like efficiency [...] posing a threat to the future of the white race.” (Source H). With the pressure of a world war and enemy nationals right at their doorsteps, it is reasonable that many Canadians were hostile towards the Japanese. Many wholehearted supported Japanese internment, as they believed it would help maintain public order. This antagonization can also be seen in propaganda posters of the time. One such poster depicts the Empire of Japan as one of the shadowy figures threatening a woman and child (Source B). While propaganda posters are not fully reliable, they can still give a glimpse of how the public felt about the topic. In this case, it is clear that they were very much against the Japanese. Even if an action is ethically questionable, the government should first and foremost represent the will of the people. Overall, it is clear that Canadians were apprehensive of Japanese immigrants, and would have supported their internment. As a representative of the people, it is entirely justified for the government to take the appropriate

Show More
Related

  • Japanese Internment Dbq Essay

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the 1900’s, it was common for people to immigrate to America. They saw it as a land of freedom and opportunity. Some thought that this was a great way for the US’ economy to boom, but some thought otherwise. With the shortage of jobs, many believed that the immigrants were stealing their precious jobs. Because of the competition over jobs, immigrants became the new public enemy to many. Immigrants such as the Japanese. The Japanese had already been through some racial discrimination, but it wasn’t until World War II that it got much worse. During the war the US decided it was best to be neutral, but the longer the war went on for, The more the US’ neutrality was on the verge of breaking. It wasn’t until December 7, 1941, that the US

    Read More

  • Canada's Homefront During WWI

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    The discrimination suffered by the “ethnic Canadians” increased during the war was inflicted by both society and the government. An example of the discrimination suffered by “ethnic Canadians” is Sarah Mann, a Canadian-German living though World War 1. Before the people of the town knew she was of German descent, she lived a normal life. But, that all changed when they found out; they vandalized her house by breaking the windows, painting harsh words in red paint or blood, which is overall person to person discrimination. However, throughout the war, it was not just the Canadian-Germans who suffered from discrimination, all ethnicities either than English-Canadian or French-Canadian. Also, they did not only receive discrimination through vandalism, and other person to person discrimination, “ethnic Canadians” faced discrimination by the Canadian government. The governments’ discrimination was caused by the pressure of frightened public experiencing panic because of the Great War. Therefore, the government took action by passing the Wartime Elections Act and the Wartime Measures Act. The Wartime Elections act meant the “ethnic Canadians” would lose their right to vote. The “ethnic Canadians” would also be put into concentration camps or have to register to the police on a regular basis. The historical significance...

    Read More

  • The Canadian War Measures Act

    1582 Words  | 4 Pages

    The War Measures Act was a law passed in 1914 by the Canadian Government in Canada during WWI, amongst many others that the government had passed that allowed the government to take control of communications, establish censorship of transatlantic cables, and organize the militia (Bolotta, Angelo et al. 39). The War Measures Act itself allowed the government to: censor and suppress publications, writing, maps, plans, photographs, communications, and means of communication, arrest, detain, exclude, and deport persons, control harbours, ports, and territorial waters of Canada and the movements of vessels, control the transport of persons and things by land, air, or water control trade, production, and manufacturing, and appropriate and dispose of property and of the use thereof (Bolotta, Angelo et al. 39). It gave the government emergency powers “allowing it to govern by decree” while Canada was in war (War). In World War I (1914-1920), it had been used to imprison those who were of German, Ukrainian, and Slavic decent, and was used in the same way again in WWII (1939-1945) to imprison Japanese-Canadians, and to seize all of their belongings. They were then relocated into internment camps and concentration camps (Bolotta, Angelo et al. 171). Both times, those that were persecuted did not have the right to object (War). Those these laws had been created for the purpose of protecting Canadians from threats or wars for security, defense, peace order and welfare of Canada it instead greatly limited the rights and freedoms of Canadian citizens and debasing immigrants of enemy countries both in WWI and WWII (Bolotta, Angelo et. Al 39).

    Read More

  • Japanese Internment Camps Research Paper

    538 Words  | 2 Pages

    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)

    Read More

  • Japanese Internment Camps Essay

    614 Words  | 2 Pages

    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. The Japanese internment camps were wrong because the Japanese were accused as spies, it was racism, and it was a violation to the United States constitution laws.

    Read More

  • Japanese Canadians

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    “They spoke of the Japanese Canadians,'; Escott Reid, a special assistant at External Affairs, would recall, “in the way that the Nazi’s would have spoken about Jewish Germans.'; Just like in that statement, I intend to expose you to the ways that the Japanese were wronged by Canadians throughout the Second World War. As well, I intend to prove what I have stated in my thesis statement: After the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the Japanese in Canada were wronged by being torn from their homes to be put into internment camps to serve Canadians through hard labour.

    Read More

  • Japanese Internment In Canada Essay

    1515 Words  | 4 Pages

    The fact that there was a need for the Canadian government to seize all of their property, itself shows how terribly they were treated and cared about. Likewise, if the Canadian government was suspecting Japanese-Canadians of being spies and reporting back to Japan for the war, the need to seize their property would be irrelevant and just another excuse to confiscate all of their property and torment them, which left them distraught. For this reason, the Canadian government may have purposely not revealed all of the information to the media. It is evident that Canadians did not want Japanese-Canadians in their midst since they were in a constant fear of disloyalty and fear as they were afraid of being sabotaged by Japanese-Canadians. The abolishment of possessions left Japanese-Canadians with little to no money to support their family.

    Read More

  • The Crucible Hate Quotes

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    The quote stated earlier also defines the Japanese Internment camps because the people turned on the Japanese citizens, from political figures to their next door neighbours, with media and word of mouth, all of North American citizens were scared of the minority.

    Read More

  • Internment of Japanese Canadians

    1973 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...panese Canadian Interment and Racism During World War II." IMAGINATIONS. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Jan. 2014.

    Read More

  • The Necessity Of Japanese Internment

    1429 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are a number of reasons why the internment of the Japanese people had to take place. Japan was a major threat to the United States which made anyone of Japanese descendent a potential traitor and threat to America’s security. No one was quite sure what they were capable of.

    Read More

  • Japanese Canadian Internment In Canada

    2153 Words  | 5 Pages

    was the driving factor that ultimately resulted in the internment of the Japanese Canadians. Racial prejudice against Orientals had been around in B.C. since the 1850s when Chinese immigrants came to Canada to help with the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. A newspaper article described the Chinese as a “marvelous human machine, competent to perform the maximum of labour on the minimum of sustenance” (Adachi 42). While they were beneficial for contractors, they posed a threat to the white population (Figure 3). The cartoon suggests that the low living standards of the Chinese allowed them to endure the harshest conditions, while being satisfied with the lowest wages. In contrast, the typical European is portrayed as a civilized human being who cannot compete with the Chinese workers without sacrificing his dignity. As a result, when the Japanese started immigrating to Canada later on, the British Columbian population only saw them as another threat to their culture due to the similarities they shared with the Chinese. However, the Japanese proved to be a greater problem since they were not affected by the Head Tax imposed on the Chinese (Hickman, 33; Morton). The attack on Pearl Harbour was an excuse that finally allowed British Columbians to release the anti-Japanese sentiment that they had been suppressing for years. In addition, when the final decision to intern the Japanese Canadians was passed, the government considered them all as potential threats (Figure 4). There was no effort made to distinguish those who posed potential threats and those who did not; most of them had no connection with Japan besides for their ancestry. This can only be attributed to racism, as there are only 38 suspects out of the 22,000 internees. Similarly, selling of Japanese property was another racist act that the government claimed to be necessary for the war effort and to increase national security (Sunahara 90; “The War Years”).

    Read More

  • The Japanese Internment Camps

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the Second World War, the Japanese suffered great embarrassments because of their race. A law in 1948 provided reimbursement for property losses by those imprisoned, and in 1988 Congress awarded compensation payments of twenty thousand dollars to each survivor of the camps; it is estimated that about 73,000 people will receive this compensation for the violation of their liberties (2009). This topic is of significance in today’s society because of the War on Terrorism in Iraq. The same topics have come up in discussion during present day, making these past events significant when terrorism and counter-terrorism tactics are topics of national-security issues. The only difference is that Arab-Americans are not forced into concentration camps.

    Read More

  • Japanese Internment

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States was filled with panic. Along the Pacific coast of the U.S., where residents feared more Japanese attacks on their cities, homes, and businesses, this feeling was especially great. During the time preceding World War II, there were approximately 112,000 persons of Japanese descent living in California, Arizona, and coastal Oregon and Washington. These immigrants traveled to American hoping to be free, acquire jobs, and for some a chance to start a new life. Some immigrants worked in mines, others helped to develop the United States Railroad, many were fishermen, farmers, and some agricultural laborers.

    Read More

  • Canadian Immigration Policies

    1145 Words  | 3 Pages

    Canada's immigration policies changed many times after the end of WWII. Before WWII the immigration policies were "picky" on the people who wanted to come to Canada, but after, it was fair and equal to everyone. Canada's immigration policies changed drastically from being discriminative to being fair and equal to everyone, every country and race after WWII. This act to eliminating discrimination was successful because of; the introduction of the Point System, the introduction of New Immigration acts/policies, and finally the changes made in accepting Refugees. These action completely changed the immigration policies.

    Read More

  • Essay On Minorities In Canada

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    Minorities have changed the face of Canada today as there is nearly one-fifth of the total population. The treatment of minorities has refined substantially over time periods, starting with inequality, creating a drastic change in society and its way of life. This evolution influenced the Canadian government on human rights later on as people were starting to be accepting rather than rejecting. The treatment of minorities is significant to Canadian history because at first, Canada denied certain Canadians rights, evolving to evoke the first nationality law to define people as Canadian, and ending with a diverse nation. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, a surprise military strike during World War 2, Japanese Canadians was discriminated and were perceived as enemies by the government.

    Read More

More about Essay On Japanese Internment

Open Document