It’s WWII; a country is divided. At first, it is just a general distrust of a certain people, but soon it becomes outright hatred. There are signs that tell them to leave the country lining the streets; they are fired from their jobs and kicked out of the neighborhoods they have lived in since birth. Eventually, the government begins to round these people up, first holding them like cattle in horse stables before finally taking them to the work camp. This is America, circa 1942. While the holocaust was occurring in Germany, the United States was also stripping its citizens of their rights and immorally imprisoning them. According to Julie Jardins from the Gilderman Lehrman Institute of American History, two months after the attack on Pearl …show more content…
According to Sean Callery, author of World War II, starting in 1942, several concentration camps were set up in Eastern Europe in order to kill the continent’s Jews and the other minority groups the Nazis thought deserved to die. In an NPR article by Edward Schumacher-Matos and Lori Grisham, they state that today, people argue whether it is acceptable to refer to the Japanese internment camps as “concentration camps”. Furthermore, Steven Koji, an author for 8 Asians, expands on this by discussing why it is that we refer to the Japanese American camps as internment camps and how this takes away from the gravity of the situation. Overall, the internment of the Japanese Americans is more disgraceful to America than the Nazi concentration camps to the Germans because American internment camps were similar to the Nazis, but America pretended that they were in the best interest of freedom, and because America tries to cover up its dark history rather than accept and move on from …show more content…
To begin, we call these camps “internment camps”; it sounds nice, internment, internment sounds like a place something goes for a little while to stay safe, not a camp to isolate a minority race from the rest of the country. Lachman defines internment as, “the confinement or impounding of “enemy aliens” during a time of war.” Therefore, the term internment does not apply to the camps that the Japanese Americans were placed in; the prisoners there had committed no crimes against the United States and they were American citizens. Furthermore, Schumacher-Matos and Grisham define concentration camps as a, “prison camp in which political dissidents, members of minority ethnic groups, etc. are confined." This makes the term concentration camp a more fitting choice to describe the camps that Japanese Americans were detained in, so why do we call them internment camps? Koji points out the fact that internment is used to make the camps seem better than they were. The words, “concentration camps” and “internment camps” bring up vastly different mental imagery and emotions while in reality they are quite similar. This word choice is used to erase the magnitude of what really went on in these camps and it is just a way that America attempts to hide the deplorable parts of its
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.
The Jews were taken from their homes and lost many of their possessions too. In both instances, these people lost many things but the worst part was they were stripped of their rights, although they were stripped of different rights the Jews lost the freedom of speech and religion. While the Japanese lost the right of freedom, to choose where to live. The Japanese not only had a rough life in the camps, but also had a long, rough road ahead of them to come out in the real world. “The truth was, at this point Papa did not know which way to turn.In the government’s eyes a free man now,he sat, like those black slaves you hear about who,when they got their freedom at the end of the Civil War, just did not know where else to go or what else to do and ended up back on the plantation, rooted their out of habit or lethargy or fear”(Houston
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
Fear is the typical human emotion. Some people live their lives full of satisfaction, hope, happiness, but no one escapes the struggle of fear and fears torture. After the Pearl Harbor bombing, President Roosevelt declared war on Japan. He then signed the Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, and called for the removal and incarceration of all Japanese Americans. The way people were treated in Japanese Internment Camps and in the Salem Witch Trials are similar because of the conditions they were put through, persecution of numerous innocent people, and outbreak of hysteria. The way people were treated in Japanese Internment Camps and in Salem Witch Trials are similar because of the conditions they were put through, persecution of numerous
Roosevelt would issue Executive Order 9066, giving the United States government power to imprison anyone considered a threat to the safety and America’s national security. Although Italian and German-Americans fell under this Executive Order, the largest population affected, would be Japanese-Americans. With quick enforcement, without trial or justification, Japanese-Americans would be singled out, simply because of their race. America’s hatred of the Japanese and anger over the attack in Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941), would demonize over 110,000 Japanese-Americans, to include men, women and
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)
World War Two was one of the biggest militarized conflicts in all of human history, and like all wars it lead to the marginalization of many people around the world. We as Americans saw ourselves as the great righteous liberators of those interned into concentration camps under Nazi Germany, while in reality our horse was not that much higher than theirs. The fear and hysteria following the attacks on pearl harbour lead to the forced removal and internment of over 110,000 Japanese American residents (Benson). This internment indiscriminately applied to both first and second generation Japanese Americans, Similarly to those interned in concentration camps, they were forced to either sell, store or leave behind their belongings. Reshma Memon Yaqub in her article “You People Did This,” describes a similar story to that of the Japanese Americans. The counterpart event of pearl harbour being the attacks on the world trade
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. One of the reason Japanese were send to camps was because president FDR issue an executive order 9066. He believed it would prevent the J...
Over 12 million people alone were killed in the holocaust alone. Internment camps and concentration camps were designed to oppress one group of people by the government. Both of these tragic events happened during ww2. our goal was to suppress one race theirs was to destroy theirs. The concentration and internment camps were essentially the same thing because, they put a economic burden on them, then they were forced to do unreasonable task, and finally they were both suppressed by the government.
How would you feel if you were forced out of your home to go to a camp where you shall be incarcerated for an unknown amount of time in an unknown location. You have no idea what will happen to you and your family. Why were you forced into the camps? Because of your ethnicity or beliefs. Japanese internment camps and Holocaust concentration camps both left their hateful marks in the fabric of history. During World War II, the Holocaust concentration camps were located around Central or Eastern Europe while the Japanese internment camps were located in the Western United States. Both types of camps have interesting similarities. However, one must realize that despite this similarities, these camps were very different in many ways. Yet, one thing is certain. We must learn more about this dark time in history in order to prevent such acts of hatred and paranoia from ever happening again.
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 1942 Roosevelt signed the Executive order 9066 which forced all Japanese-Americans to evacuate the West Coast. They were forced out no matter their loyalty or their citizenship. These Japanese-Americans were sent to Internment camps which were located in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. There were ten camps all-together and 120,000 people filled them (2009). The immigrants were deprived of their traditional respect when their children who were American-born were indorsed authority positions within the camps. 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.
On December 7,1941 Japan raided the airbases across the islands of Pearl Harbour. The “sneak attack” targeted the United States Navy. It left 2400 army personnel dead and over a thousand Americans wounded. U.S. Navy termed it as “one of the great defining moments in history”1 President Roosevelt called it as “A Day of Infamy”. 2 As this attack shook the nation and the Japanese Americans became the immediate ‘focal point’. At that moment approximately 112,000 Persons of Japanese descent resided in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and also in California and Arizona.3
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.
American society, like that of Germany, was tainted with racial bigotry and prejudice. The Japanese were thought of as especially treacherous people for the attack on Pearl Harbor. The treachery was obviously thought to reside in ...