“If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don't be afraid to speak up ”(Fred Korematsu). In 1941 The Pearl Harbor was bombed, America was in fear. A year later, February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066 which brought out the internment camps for Japanese Americans. In 1944, Korematsu spoke up for his rights as a Japanese- American citizen and he fought against the government. Fred Korematsu took a stand against the United States government for his rights by resisting arrest and placement into internment camps, and these actions resulted in a huge court case where he was accused guilty, though Korematsu lost, he should have been justified to evade the executive order. During the time period, “Japanese planes …show more content…
However he was arrested on May 30,1942 when he was recognized as a “jap” (“ Fred Korematsu”). Therefore, Fred Korematsu was taken into the internment camps where he asked the military “I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any american citizen of any race, creed or color”(Supreme Court). As a result the court case was started to prevent any other races from being treated badly as well as to see if it was justified for the government to bring out this order. In doing so, Korematsu group of lawyers during the case stated “Korematsu was born on our soil, of parents born in Japan.The Constitution makes him a citizen of the United States by nativity and a citizen of California by 243*243 residence”(Google Scholar). Fred Korematsu was standing up for all the Japanese - american who were in the camps and suffered too much. Korematsu lawyers pleaded that “Korematsu has been convicted of an act not commonly a crime. It consists merely of being present in the states where of he is a citizen, near the place he was born, and where all his life has lived” (Google Scholar)In addition the case was taken all the way to the supreme court where he was accused to be guilty for standing up for his right to not got to the internment camp. Korematsu pleaded not guilty but the court did not acknowledge his
Most of the people sent to internment camps were either born in the United States to legal immigrants, or people who had already become citizens. Fred Korematsu was born in the United States to a Japanese family who had been legal citizens for many years. Holding: Korematsu was convicted of being in a military exclusion area after the date of his transfer. However, it has been argued that there were conflicting portions of Executive Order 9066.
Miné Okubo was sent to a camp in America because she was seen a threat to America because of Minés Japanese heritage. It didn't matter that she was an American citizen. Miné and Louie were sent to these camps to be isolated from the public and the guads tried to dehumanize them. They tried to dehumanize Miné and Louie in many ways but Miné and Louie resisted feeling invisible and survived. Japanese-Americans and prisoners of war were sent to camps
As opposed to righteous view that America was safeguarding its position in the war, the Japanese American internments were created out of resentment and racial prejudice fostered by other Americans. As the article “Personal Justice Denied” stated, the internments were led by “widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan” (Doc E, 1983). It may seem like a precautionary cause to make internments but there aren’t any other extreme measures for other fronts. Caused by a hatred stirred by media and society’s view, many people disdain the Japanese.
One of the judges named Hugo Black stated that, "Korematsu was not excluded from the military area because of hostility to him or his race. He was excluded because we are at war with the Japanese Empire, because they decided that the military urgency of the situation demanded that all citizens of Japanese ancestry be segregated from the West Coast temporarily. " At that fact, there was no way the judges could’ve refused the order and decided to move forward with the rule given. Years after the incident, The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was
On the date of Feb 19, 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order. This executive order forced all Japanese American citizens, regardless of their loyalty to the country. It forced them to evacuate their homes and not just the Japanese Americans in a particular part of the country all Japanese Americans would be put into internment camps. At one point in time all of the camps combined held 120,000 Japanese Americans. This was all cause due to the fact that the Japanese Military at the time bombed Pearl Harbor an American Naval base in Hawaii.
The internment of Japanese-Americans was justified because there were Japanese suspects. Between ten internment camps in Arizona, California, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas, about 250-300 people in each camp were suspects under surveillance. Only around 50-60 people were actually considered dangerous. “It is easy to get on the suspect list, merely a speech in favor of Japan being sufficient to land one there” (Munson 2). Clearly, America was taking extreme precautions.
Hirabayashi refused to register for evacuation and disobeyed the curfew where he was found guilty for both counts. The most famous case is Fred Korematsu, a Japanese American man born in Oakland, California. He received plastic surgery to change his
As a kid, I’ve heard about Japanese internment and it captivated me. My grandma would tell me how life was like in the internment camp. My fascination with Japanese internment lead me to choose it for National History Day. I wanted to learn more about this important mark in US History. My grandparents, Tom Inouye and Jane Hideko Inouye were put through this
Their civil rights were violated because they took away everything that they had and they were an American citizens. Even though they were born in the U.S. they were still put into camps as American citizens. Even though this violated their civil rights they still did what they were told because most of the were truly American citizens. “The internment of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II sparked constitutional and political debate” (national archives). When they were sent to the camps many Nisei’s had lost their homes, their pets, some even lost family, and businesses.
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.
During World War II, the German Reich marched across the entire continent of Europe. During the Holocaust, many people became discouraged and lost hope in the future of society. However, the excerpts from “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,” written by herself, and “Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, prove that being positive and persevering is the best thing that someone can do. Whether hiding from the Nazis or already taken by them, the best response to have during conflict and chaos is maintaining a positive outlook on life and to persist through difficult times.
Japanese Americans were imprisoned in Internment camps, but they were held reasonably, which is why this event is not an atrocity. During wars it is common to hold
When he was captured, they put him in a prison of war camp. He lost his freedom because he was an enemy military and could have been a spy for America. In the excerpt “Camp Harmony,” the american government got the japanese that lived in America and put them in relocation camps. One reason for doing that was so
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).
Yuri Kochiyama is a Japanese-American civil rights activist, and author of “Then Came the War” in which she describes her experience in the detention camps while the war goes on. December 7th, is when Kochiyama life began to change from having the bombing in Pearl Harbor to having her father taken away by the FBI. All fishing men who were close to the coast were arrested and sent into detention camps that were located in Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota. Kochiyama’s father had just gotten out of surgery before he was arrested and from all the movement he’d been doing, he begun to get sick. Close to seeing death actually, until the authorities finally let him be hospitalized.