How Did Franklin D Roosevelt's Effect On Japanese

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt (Roosevelt 1).

On December 7, 1941, the United States encountered a change that would be irreversible. Japanese empire fighter planes launched bombs on the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, destructing up to two hundred airplanes and twenty naval vessels. Two thousand were immediately killed, including military personnel and civilians, and another one thousand were wounded severely. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his “Infamy Speech” on December 8, 1941 addressed to Congress making clear

exactly what happened in Hawaii the day before. Roosevelt had previously sent a message to the Japanese Ambassador and the formal reply had no notion of war or hostility at all. Italy and Germany, being allies of Japan, declared war on the United States soon after on December 11 (History.com Staff 1). Roosevelt uses repetition to show that the Japanese Empire had been planning this for weeks and the United States was not the only victim.

“Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. This morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.” (Roosevelt 1). The attack on Pearl Harbor marked the United States’s entry into World War II. World War II is remembered for the devastation of millions of people’s lives; concentration camps, mistreatment, and Adolf Hitler come to mind. But rarely talked about is the effects on Japanese American lives. We condemn the Nazi Third Reich for their attempts to exterminate the Jewish population, but we fail to account for the fact that here in the United States we similarly rounded up an entire ethnic population and herded them into camps like animals. The reality is, the fear of Japanese Americans was probably more race related than founded in any credible fear. Directly after the attack of Pearl Harbor things changed immediately for everyone, especially Japanese Americans. Gradually Japanese Americans on the West coast

started fleeing because of fear of what would happen to them. They thought they could be sent away or not considered American citizens. Certain regulations or laws were implemented to make the hold on Japanese Americans more strict. Some examples of these laws included curfews and blackout regulations and the turn over of weapons, cameras, and radios (Showalter 1-6). On May 15, 1942, ten Japanese relocation camps were then set up across the West coast by the Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. (This order specifically told Japanese Americans to evacuate the West coast.) An internment camp, or relocation camp, was a “placeholder” for Japanese Americans at the start of World War II. The United States had a common fear of Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. There was a general paranoia across the country making Japanese Americans the ones to blame. The United States saw them as a threat. There was already a standing, hatred of Japanese Americans due to Japanese taking Americans’s opportunities, jobs, and land. After Pearl Harbor, white Americans thought that Japanese Americans could be spies and were going to sabotage the American war effort. It is complete prejudice. White Americans believed that the whole race was corrupt and responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese Americans were removed from their homes and experienced
One story specifically showed the inconvenience, inhumanity, and injustice of the whole situation. Mine Okubo was Citizen No. 13660 in an internment camp a few miles outside of San Francisco (Okubo 4).“I had a good home and many friends. Everything was going along fine.” - Mine Okubo (A Japanese American in 1941 about being taken away to a Japanese internment camp) Before Mine Okubo was hauled away with another 110,000 Japanese Americans, she had a normal life. She was a student at University of California at Berekely, pursuing a Master’s of Fine Arts. As soon as the news was out about the attack, fears across the West coast rose, including Okubo and her brother. Their fears became a reality when friends and peers worried for them. Not until March 31, did the evacuations start. On April 24, 1942, Okubo and her brother were forced to evacuate to the Tanforan Assembly Center relocation center (Okubo 4).
The conditions in the camp were far below par. The relocation camps were made in such haste that each room had nails and spikes sticking out of the walls, spider webs and dust everywhere, and they were only about twenty feet by nine feet. It was completely primitive compared to their previous lives. “Huge spikes and nails stuck out all over the walls. A two-inch layer of dust covered the floor…” (Okubo 6). It was indignant. The camps in general were simply uncomfortable for everyone. First, they were overflowing with people, too many to fit in the rapidly made barracks, mess halls, and meeting places. “We looked for an empty place but could find none.” (Okubo 7). For meal time they were shoved into mess halls too small to accommodate them. The lines ran all the way through the hall making it hard to get food in a orderly fashion. Second, at all times the camp was surrounded by military personnel making for a hostile environment. Last, there was little privacy for anyone. “…slightly partitioned and curtained compartments…” (Okubo 6). Each barrack was split into half by a swinging door. It was hard to sleep in this setting because the rooms were so close that you could hear anything going on through the whole building; any crying, talking, or moving about on top of the hay beds. The prisoner there were constantly distressed and worrisome. For these people that knew they were innocent they should not have been treated in any such way. The camps tried making living conditions to resemble their lives at home. They did not do such a great job. Lots of the internees had emotional troubles and medical problems. They did not have access to mental or medical help. So many of these Japanese Americans were innocent. Seeing how this is true, how could the United States do this to a whole race?
Mine Okubo was in the internment camp for about two years. She tried to keep her spirits high. That day finally came and she got to leave. She and her brother returned to their lives in California. Being in the internment camp effected Okubo long after she left and returned home. To help deal with all of the strong emotions she had about living in the camp, she made artistic masterpieces: paintings, drawings, and sketches. She won great awards for these and was even featured in famous magazines like Life Magazine and Time Magazine. White Americans throughout history have thought they could justify the placement of Japanese Americans. They have used the excuses saying it was “necessary,” Americans had “reasonable” anxieties, or military presence was thin, so they “had to.” When history looks back on any of these coverups it’s clear that we were just in the wrong. It wasn’t until 1988 that the United States offered a formal apology to the (however many) of Japanese Americans that were housed in internment camps. President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act to formally apologize to the more than 100,000 people of Japanese heritage, offering a written apology and 20,000 dollars in compensation to each living survivor of Japanese internment (NPR 1).
To conclude, the systematic placement of Japanese Americans in relocation camps was prejudiced and unjustified. At the end of World War II hatred for Japanese Americans still lingered. Japanese Americans feared leaving the camps and returning home. White Americans were hostile and were still in competition for jobs especially. Japanese Americans had a hard time getting a foot in the door again after coming back and the government offered no assistance. For years to come Japanese Americans were judged only by their heritage and suffered from harsh prejudice. Even in present day the world still faces prejudice surrounding the topics of terrorism, religion, and race. This is simply unnecessary. Americas, white Americans especially, should take note of this injustice in history to prevent the recurrence in the future. Do not get swept away in injustice.