What if you were stripped of all your rights in the a blink of an eye? The Japanese-Canadians experienced the horrid and life changing events of internment camps which were targeted specifically towards them. All Canadians of Japanese heritage residing only on the West coast of British Columbia had their homes, farms, businesses and personal property sold and completely liquidated. This was all due to the government 's quick actions against the Japanese. These actions were fuelled by the events of Pearl Harbour during WW2.
On December 7th, 1941,when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor there was a intense pressure of anti-Japanese feeling in Canada. They feared that the Japanese Canadians would help Japan to invade Canada 's West Coast. Anyone of Japanese origin in Canada were treated with suspicion, hatred and discrimination. Many spoke no Japanese and had little or no connection to Japan. But within a week the Japanese Canadian homes, businesses and boats were taken under the War Measures Act without any form of restitution.
Davis paints a clear picture of the events leading up to the Internment of Japanese Americans and describes their time during internment. To begin the book Davis, through events and quotes, explains the view that the Internment of Japanese Americans was not just caused by Pearl Harbor and World War 2 but stemmed from a racial tension between the Japanese Americans and white Americans. He then points his focus on how the Japanese Americans came to be interned, and how Japanese Americans in Hawaii and German and Italian Americans were not interned on a massive scale. Another point he makes is that the Japanese Americans that were forced to live in poor conditions with little to no furniture, privacy, and other basic living essentials. Many families were forced to live in one room buildings and single males and females had to live together in large barracks.
Additionally, during World War 2, Japanese Canadians were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in internment camps (Yarhi and Pellerin 23). This mass displacement had a profound and lasting impact on Japanese Canadians, their sense of identity, and their heritage. For many Japanese Canadians, the internment experience was a traumatic and disruptive event that forced them to leave everything they knew and loved. They were stripped of their dignity and right to move freely. As a result of internment camps, many were forced to abandon their cultural traditions, also the camps made it difficult for Japanese Canadians to maintain connections with their communities and cultural institutions.
Japanese Internment Camps- Rough Draft A nice day, Feb 20, 1942 then out of nowhere 20,000 Japanese Americans kicked out of there homes into horror camps, Internment Camps. At the time Japanese Internment camps where a good idea.
Overall, the Japanese were interned during World War one because they were seen as a hypothetical threat to U.S security. The U.S viewed the Japanese population as saboteurs and more specifically, a threat national security. In document B of the Japanese internment DBQ it describes how the U.S racistly generalized the Japanese as Saboteurs who would easily destroy anything in their sight. With the mass hysteria in regards to the stereotype, the U.S too more precaution in regards to the Japanese community and imprisoned them. Moreover, another reason the Japanese were interned is because the Japanese only posed a threat to American security on the West coast.
3) Japs keep on moving: WRITE UP: Immediately after the Pearl Harbour attack, the Canadian Federal Government overnment feared that the Japanese Canadians could I as spies for Japan. Prejudices against their culture grew due public pressure. Thus, Japanese Internment camps were created to house these citizens during World War 2. At the time, there was no human right legislation to protect people from discrimination.
Tony Robbins once said “A decision made from fear is always the wrong decision” which is a statement that fully encapsulates the government's treatment of Japanese Canadians in the 1940s. The Second World War was extremely important to Canada and therefore its citizens. Propaganda was a powerful weapon used to demonize all of the opposition, including the Japanese. However, the fear then extended to Japanese Canadian citizens who did not even have anything to do with the actions of people in Japan. The prejudices towards Japanese Canadians existed ever since they arrived in Canada but the propaganda heightened them to the point where the general public was worried they were a threat.
During the time of internment, the Japanese had most of their rights taken away such as education, fishing, freedom of expression, etc. Taking away rights from the Japanese Canadians made them suffer. The deportation and eventual internment of Japanese Canadians was led by racist undertones. Racist slurs from Canada affected them and they were not allowed to have a freedom a speech. The Japanese lost their jobs, homes and were separated from their families.
“The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States was the forced relocation and incarceration during World War II of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the Pacific coast in camps in the interior of the country.” (Crawford 1). After the attack, the government felt threatened by the Japanese. Therefore, they could not trust any, even the ones living in the United States. Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps or military camps where they were not allowed to leave.
These guys felt the blunt force of discrimination during this time. Japanese-Americans were forced into one of ten permanent camps. This was the result of Executive Order 9066 and Pearl Harbor. These camps were given the name internment camps. The point of internment was to test the loyalty of the Japanese-Americans.
Jayna Marie Lorenzo May 23, 2023 Historiography Paper Professor Kevin Murphy Historiography Final: Japanese Internment “A date which will live in infamy,” announced President Roosevelt during a press conference after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Due to the military threat by the Japanese on the West Coast, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ordering for the incarceration of all people of Japanese descent. The Order forced about 120,000 Japanese Americans into relocation centers across the United States where they remained in captivity until the war ended.
The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was not justified. After Pearl Harbor, many Americans were scared of the Japanese Americans because they could sabotage the U.S. military. To try and solve the fear President Franklin D Roosevelt told the army in Executive order 9066 to relocate all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. They were relocated to detention centers in the desert. Many of them were in the detention centers for three years.
How would you feel if one day you were told to leave your whole life behind to live in captivity just because people halfway across the world did something wrong? This horror story was all too true for the thousands of Japanese Americans alive during World War II. Almost overnight, thousands of proud Japanese Americans living on the west coast were forced to leave their homes and give up the life they knew. The United States government was not justified in the creation of Japanese internment camps because it stripped law-abiding American citizens of their rights out of unjustified fear.
To be stripped of freedom for the sake of accommodating those who are prejudiced against one’s heritage remains an unjustifiable action. Although oppression remains a sensitive issue in society, one must not silence the history of its existence as humanity must learn from its mistakes. Such silencing was experienced by the Japanese citizens of Canada as their freedoms were replaced with discrimination. Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7th, 1941 ¹, the Canadian government systematically removed over 21 000 Japanese Canadians from their businesses and homes and forced them into internment camps from 1941-1949 ². Thus, the methodical location of Japanese Canadians into internment camps during World War II was unjustified.
