Did the U.S. government and President Franklin D. Roosevelt make the right decision when they signed Executive Order 9066? In December of 1941, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by Japan. In response to that attack, Executive Order 9066 put 110,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps. Farewell to Manzanar, written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston, shares the story of Jeannie Wakatsuki and how her life was changed in an internment camp in California.
In the court case, they stated, “the Court nonetheless felt “that in time of war residents having ethnic affiliation with an invading enemy may be greater source of danger than those of a different ancestor.”’ (Rothenberg & Mayhew, 2014, pg. 551). They used the concept of “one bad apple spoils the whole bunch” to deal with the issues that were going on at the time. They disregard any personalities and qualities of every Japanese American. They removed the American and used only the Japanese of the term to “protection against espionage and against sabotage.”
Roosevelt hastily signed Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942. The Order the President signed gave the Secretary of War the permission to “…prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion.” What he really meant was that he was giving his permission to intern all Japanese Americans living on the west coast into internment camps, or in other words, to “…relocate [Japanese Americans] into designated military areas…”. Meanwhile, to try and hinder the Japanese, the USA banned trading some materials, like oil, with Japan. The notice that Japanese Americans were to be relocated went up on May 15,
World War Two was an extremely harsh and brutal for everyone involved. As many as fifty to eighty million people lost their lives in this time period, for the simple reason that they wanted others to be happy, healthy, and free; or more commonly, they were discriminated against for things they could not control. Soon after the war started, America swooped in with the intent and purpose to distribute equality, freedom, and justice throughout the world where it was not currently readily available (due to the repercussions and new worldviews caused by the war.) At least, that’s what most people think. Much like the cruel and horrific ongoings of what happened in Jewish Concentration Camps created for the Christians, Jews, Homosexuals, and their supporters; America had practiced similar ideals and treatment towards the Native Americans in our country long before this time.
Are Internment Camps the same thing as Concentration camps? Concentration Camps were cruel and horrible. A slow way to die. Internment camps didn't the same group as the people placed in Concentration Camps. It was groups of Japanese people taken away from their homes and sent to the U.S Internment Camps.
World War II brought many things to the United States: an end to the Great Depression, a strong sense of nationalism, and a large economic boom. However, it also brought the Japanese American Internment Camps, a dark piece of America’s history. Japanese American Internment Camps relocated many people of Japanese descent to enclosed camps. Immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, any and all Japanese Americans were viewed as suspicious and untrustworthy. Americans were paranoid during this time period, and would do anything to keep their country safe from foreign powers.
The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II is an embarrassing moment in United States history. Fear contributed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the federal government’s unlawful detainment of American citizens without proper cause and justification. The United States failed to take full responsibility and accountability for the illegal detainment of American citizens. These actions impacted several generations of Japanese Americans through the internment, postwar, and redress
Due to the increasing fear of a Japanese attack on the West Coast, Lt. General John L. Dewitt recommended that all people of Japanese descent living in America be removed to the interior of the country. In the article “An American Tragedy: The Internment of Japanese-Americans During World War II” by Norman Y. Mineta, former US Secretary of Transportation, Dewitt backed up his suggestion with rumors that “ethnic Japanese on the West Coast were signaling Japanese ships out in the Pacific ocean” and they “had stockpiled numerous rounds of ammunition and weapons” (Mineta 161). In order to combat this threat in case of enemy invasion, the camps would detain the Japanese Americans so they cannot aid the enemy. The warped logic used to imprison 110,000 people purely based on ethnic background was convincing enough to the American people that they didn’t even question
Many individuals came to America for a better chance at life, for themselves or their families. Even though most Japanese-American citizens worked as farmers, and provided food and great resources for other American citizens, Japanese-Americans were always seen as inferior to the rest of America’s white population. After the passing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 as well as $20,000 paid to each individual who was incarcerated, Japanese Americans still had to live with the cultural baggage of being a minority in the U.S. during this period. Generations of Japanese-Americans will still experience racism and prejudice against their own culture and identity for not fitting into the standards of an American citizen. Japanese-Americans were not killed in the internment camps without proper reasoning, but their memories will pass on to future generations as time passes
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.
December 7th of 1941 America would face a horrific scene in their own homeland, the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor with their Air Force not once but twice. That same day President John F. Kennedy would decide to place the Japanese Americans, living in the country at the time, in internment camps. The civilians would not have a clue what they would be put up against, now they would have to encounter various obstacles to make sure they would be able to survive. “The camps were prisons, with armed soldiers around the perimeters, barbed wire. and controls over every aspect of life”(Chang).
Rough Draft Japanese POW Camps The Japanese prisoner of war camps were prisons ran by savages, with no rules. These camps were built for soldiers that surrendered in World War Two, and lasted until the end of the war. These camps were ran by savages that saw us less than dogs, and treated people worse than the Germans did. "There were many indeed who became so demoralized that they abandoned every tenet of personal integrity, honor, loyalty, and the accepted standards of human behavior.”
On December 11, 1941 Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese, more than 360 Japanese warplanes. They came and bombed our harbor killing more than 5,000 people. After the bombing America had a suspicion that maybe there was a spy, so they put more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans in an internment camps. I feel that internment camps were not necessary though because of that action we were thought of as racist, harsh, and dis loyal. I feel that because of those internment camps we were looked at as racist because we put humans in a internment camp just because they were of a different race.
During the time of the World War II and because of the surprise attack by Japan towards the US naval base Pearl Harbor, located on the island of Hawaii, the enmity between these two countries was declared. The situation that caused a lot of controversy was the decision taken by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sign the executive order 9066 in May 1942. This order was to internalize Japanese and even entire families in remote areas of the cities to be able to avoid any type of espionage by Japan, since there was no way to ensure that the Japanese Americans and their families were loyal to the nation of the United States. The internees began one month after the signature of the new order. Buses and trains were used to transport the japanese in the fields of California which were under military guard.
