Executive Order 9006 Japanese Internment

Over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II. Their crime? Being of Japanese ancestry. In 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor close to Honolulu, Hawaii This then caused World War II. The United State’s government then built isolation camps and made the japanese citizens stay in these camps.

February 19, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. This executive order, misplaced thousands of American citizens all because they had a Japanese background. This order gave local authorities, the right to relocate Japanese American citizens to local camps. They were also given the authority to run these camps in the best way they saw fit (Executive Order 9066). Japanese Americans were given orders and a report date as well as a location to where they would report.

Executive Order 9066 (Feb. 19, 1942) Due to World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave permission to the confinement of “tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and residents from Japan.” This executive order gave the military the power to “ban any citizen from a 50-60 mile wide coastal area from Washington State to California.” This order also gave the military permission to transport these citizens to centers that they ran in California, Arizona, Washington, and Oregon. This same order was also applied to residents of the U.S. who were of German or Italian descent; however, it was much worse for the Japanese Americans. This executive order destroyed communities and was aimed towards citizens and aliens. (Executive

There were between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of whom lived on the Pacific coast in these camps, as well as 62 percent of the internees were United States citizens. These actions were ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly after Japan’s attack on pearl harbor. On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed an Executive Order , which forced all Japanese-Americans, regardless of devotion or nationality, to evacuate the West Coast. This rule did not apply to just Hawaii, however, one-third of whose population was Japanese-American, or to Americans of German and Italian ancestry. Ten internment camps were established in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas, eventually holding 120,000 persons.

When trying to support my argument about legal doctrines being shaped by race during this time period the case of Korematsu v. United States has to be talked about. At the beginning of WWII President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, giving the U.S. military the right to ban thousands of Japanese-American citizens from areas thought of as critical to homeland security. Thus, setting up ‘interment camps’ to hold the Japanese for the duration of the war. Mr. Korematsu did not follow suit and decided to stay home in the state of California. The upholding of Korematsu’s conviction by the Supreme Court showed not only how threatened the country felt about Japanese immigrants but also put into question how equal everyone truly was in America.

Many Americans were scared of another attack. Henceforth, people forced President Roosevelt to take action against the Japanese who were living in the United States at that time. President Roosevelt endorsed the internment, which allowed the military to designate certain zones. They were allowed exclude Japanese from this area. All the Japanese were excluded from the Pacific Coast.

In 1942, two months after the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, requiring all Japanese Americans, or Nisei, to evacuate the west coast (Ikeda, Tom, and Ellen Kuwana. "Sites of Shame, Background." Densho.org.) This order resulted in the movement of 120,000 people to ten internment camps across the United States (Steven, Heather , Glen Burnie High, and Anne Arundel County Public Schools Umbc.edu). In fact, over two thirds of the relocated Japanese were actually American citizens (Tom Ikeda and Ellen Kuwana, Densho.org)!

The Liberal Era was a time period in the history of the United States that, like the many other important periods in history, had both its ups and downs. It ran from the 1930s to the 1970s and was an age of golden economic equality. However, what was not equal was the way that the people who were not straight, white men were treated according to information from Dr. Barrett. One of the most unfair moments in history is the relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans in concentration camps throughout the United States during World War II. Someone who experienced this firsthand is Masao Takahashi, a man who worked at the Alaska Fishery Company according to the document Masao Takahashi, 1981.

I believe that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was not a terrorist attack, but an act of war.This killed 2000 people and left 1000 wounded. According, Attack on Pearl Harbor.USA People, Pearl Harbor was the deadliest attack on American soil until the September 11 attack. Japan sent a message saying that they declared war 30 minutes before the attack, but the message was hard to decode and it took about 2 hours (The Glider Institution of American History, 2009). Japan wanted to send the message saying that they have declared war on the US, before the attack. This attack reminds me a lot of the terrorist attack in New York, 9/11.

The American government used the attack on Pearl Harbour to demonise the Japanese in various different ways, creating a common hatred for their enemy nationwide. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, December 7th 1941, killed over 2300 Americans. The attack by

Lastly with so many Americans losing their lives America officially joined World War II. After Japan had all but openly declared war on America, American citizens and military personnel were in an uproar. To add on to that unquenchable fury not only did Japanese Imperial Navy attack Pearl Harbor it also attacked all of the american outposts in the Pacific. After the japanese attacks on the american outposts Japan occupied all of the formerly american protected territory. Even more anger formed from the fact that japanese prison camps were notoriously cruel to the prisoners incarcerated therein.

The American soldiers brought home Korean brides, arranged adoption of war orphans and sponsored students to come to the U.S. About 6,000 Students, 6,500 Brides, and 6,300 Adopted children arrived between the years of 1951 to 1954. This is just the beginning of how many have immigrated here. More than 100,000 adopted children and 100,000 brides for Americans, have immigrated here since than the Korean War. (Chang, Lai, Arguelles, 2003) 778,899 Korean immigrants were admitted between the years of 1941-1998. Korean immigration peaked in the 1980’s and admittance has steadily declined since 1987.