Essay On Japanese Internment Camps

What if you were taken away from your home, had your freedom stripped from you, and

were put in a prison for no crimes. If you are of Japanese, German, or Italian descent living in the

United states during WWII you could have had to face this struggle. Your grandparents or great

grandparents could have been put in the camps from 1942-1946 (Ushistory.org, 2015). These

camps were atrocities and the people within faced many hardships.

In 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 (Ina, 1999), Farmers found

across the eastern side of the United States (History.com Staff, 2009) pressured the government

to relocate all possible US traitors of Japanese blood. This also led to including German or

Italian heritage (InfoPlease, 2007). The

Japanese-Americans faced 127,000 relocated with even

more pouring in from Canada and Latin America (Ushistory.org, 2015).

Other enemy aliens had

been sent from Latin-America added over 6,600 aliens and ended up having the American total

non-Japanese interned at 31,000 (Archives.gov, n.d.). President Roosevelt signed the executive

order 9066 in 1942 which led to the relocation and camps being built (Ushistory.org, 2015). The

ten camps in The United States had been spread out over seven states, including California,

Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas (Ina, 1999). After Japan’s surrender in

1945 the camps started to get shut down (Calisphere, n.d.). The last camp shut down in 1946(Ina,

The Japanese families sold their homes and stores for much less than what they were

worth before being moved, not knowing if their owned items would be there when they were

released. Many of the moved had never left the US. Through their containment the Japan born

were treated worse than the American born, Nisei (Ushistory.org, 2015). Any leadership jobs in

the camps community were led by the Nisei leaving the older Japanese born out of power. Two

Thirds of the Japanese population in the camps were American born. Until camps

were

completed Internees were kept in temporary homes like stables (Ushistory.org, 2015). In the

camps you would find the homes for the prisoners were "tarpaper-covered barracks of simple

frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind." (InfoPlease, 2007). The

camps had hoped to be self sufficient so they tried to farm, but the soil in the areas of the camps

was not good soil (Ushistory.org, 2015).

Fred Korematsu, a Japanese man, decided to challenge executive order 9066 and the

relocation acts but found it was to no avail (Ushistory.org, 2015). The supreme court addressed

the order as a wartime necessity in the Korematsu vs. The United States court case. Post war

hatred had a large effect on the internees and they were no longer wanted in their own

communities and were spread out across the United States. In 1988 Fred Korematsu was

awarded with the presidential medal of freedom. Later in 1988 President Reagan signed the Civil

Liberties Act, sending an apology to the Japanese American internees and offering $20,000 to

any still surviving internees (Calisphere, n.d.).

World War Two led to dark unacceptable ways to treat American citizens. With the few

people like Fred Korematsu standing up for the 127,000+ Americans who shouldn’t had have to

be put through that. To put innocent citizens into prisons just based on their race is a crime

against humanity. Although we cannot change the past we can remember it.