Shedded tears. Broken hearts. Dull sorrowful nights filled with despair. These are some examples of Japanese experiences, during one of the most upsetting times of history. In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, located in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Because of this horrible event, the innocent Japanese people living in America were looked upon suspiciously, especially in the West. The Japanese were relocated to internment camps, and were revoked of their natural rights. They were treated terribly during this event, and their experiences in the camps irrevocably changed the lives of many Japanese Americans. The magazine article “Behind Barbed Wire” by Kristin Lewis gives great credibility to this statement, along with the short video …show more content…
Inside of the Japanese Internment camps, people were isolated from the rest of the nation. Thousands of people were trapped behind barbed wire and observed and guarded by United States soldiers, all of which were equipped with weapons. The Japanese-Americans were prisoners in their own home, outsiders in their own nation. Living conditions were also atrocious, further separating the Japanese-Americans from the rest of the country. That sense of division and separation added to the feeling that the Japanese-Americans had lost their freedom and were no longer equal to the people of the country. Even after the internment camps had been liberated, that feeling remained with the Japanese-Americans. Scope “Behind Barbed Wire” by Kirsten Lewis states, “Their sense of safety and justice had been shattered by what the government had done to them.” Many Japanese-Americans had lost trust and hope in the American government, unable to forget the distressing times in the internment camps. Their mindset was forever changed, as the Japanese-Americans could no longer feel safe in the place that they had once called home. Some people were so affected by the internment camps that they continued to inform and teach others about the events that had taken place. The Japanese-Americans were irreversibly changed by the inequality and the social and physical confinement that they
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.
The trauma that they endured enabled them to desensitize themselves to the attacks of their fellow Americans and thrive in a community that did not trust them. The Japanese-American people managed the trials and tribulations of America through collective willpower that enabled them to flourish in a hostile
In mid-1941, Japanese leaders believed that war with the United States was unavoidable and that it was important to seize the Dutch West Indies, who provided them with oil after President Franklin D. Roosevelt prevented the Japanese from importing oil there (History Notes pg. 19). On December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which lead to the United States joining World War II (History Notes pg.20). On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed an executive order called “Executive Order 9066” which caused the Japanese-Americans and Japanese immigrants to relocate and move to internment and concentration camps. The rooms were small; there was barely any light and no running water but the Japanese did their best to find
World War II was a very traumatizing time for the soldiers that fought in it. Unfortunately, the War was also a very traumatic experience for the Japanese Americans that were forced into internee camps. Key examples of those who have struggled through awful conditions are Miné Okubo and Louie Zamperini. Miné is a Japanese American artist who was forced to live in squalor conditions surrounded by armed guards. Louie is an American soldier and a previous Olympic athlete that was beaten daily and starved almost to death in prisoner of war camps.
Mary Matsuda Gruenewald tells her tale of what life was like for her family when they were sent to internment camps in her memoir “Looking like the Enemy.” The book starts when Gruenewald is sixteen years old and her family just got news that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japan. After the bombing Gruenewald and her family life changed, they were forced to leave their home and go to internment camps meant for Japanese Americans. During the time Gruenewald was in imprisonment she dealt with the struggle for survival both physical and mental. This affected Gruenewald great that she would say to herself “Am I Japanese?
Family #19788 The memoir Looking like the Enemy, was written by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald. Set during World War II after the attack upon Pearl Harbor. The Japanese Americans living in Western part of America had a since of betrayal and fear having to evacuate their homes and enter into internment camps.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the start of World War II for the U.S, the government decided that, to keep this country safe, to imprison all people of japanese heritage in internment camps. Japanese Americans were forced to sell their land and most of their belongings and travel on buses to where they would live for the next 5 years. They were forced into quickly built camps, and sometimes forced to build the place they were living in. Most of the living quarters were repurposed horse stables, and multiple families were crowded together in them. In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt rescinded Executive Order 9066, shutting down the camps.
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.
To start off, Americans weren’t affected by the Japanese Internment Camps as much as Germans, and those in surrounding countries, were by the Nazi Concentration Camps. As said in the American Propaganda Video, Japanese-Americans were, “...potentially dangerous…” and that the relocation of them was, “...with real consideration for the people involved.” Most Americans didn’t know the truth about the Japanese Internment Camps so they were, if anything, comfortable with the decision. However, this wasn’t the case with the Nazi Concentration Camps. Germans who didn’t remain loyal to Hitler were sent to a Concentration Camp, leaving thousands of Germans living in fear.
Farewell to Manzanar, written by Jeanne Wakatsuki and her husband James D. Houston, brings the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor to life through the the reimaging of the hardships and discrimination that Jeanne and her family endured while stationed at Manzanar. After the events of Pearl Harbor, seven year-old Jeanne is evacuated with family to an internment camp in which the family will be forced to adapt to a life in containment. Through the writings of Jeanne herself, readers are able to see Jeanne’s world through her words and experience the hardships and sacrifices that the Wakatsuki family had to go through. Farewell to Manzanar takes the reader on a journey through the eyes of a young American-Japanese girl struggling to be accepted by society.
Furthermore, the United States should do more to compensate the families of those impacted by internment because the recompense provided initially was minimal and should be considered an affront to the memory of the victims. Prior to World War II, the 127,000 Japanese-Americans along America’s west coast (Japanese American Relocation and Internment Camps) were considered just another immigrant group coming to America searching for a better life. However, with the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, this perception soon saw a drastic change. The attack on the US Naval base on December 7th, 1941 left many casualties in its wake.
The experiences of Louis Zamperini and Jeanne Wakatsuki both do not complicate Mark Weber’s idea of the Good War about the clear-cut morality between the United States and Japan. During World War II, the United States treated the American Japanese harshly opposed to Japan’s treatment. Towards Japanese American civilians, who lived in America and had nothing to do with the war, they were treated unfairly by Americans. Environmentally, it was harsh for American prisoners of war as it was for the Japanese Americans when hate was evident in their captors’ eyes. Involving innocent civilians as the consequence for living in the United States while having no involvement in the war opposed to punishing those involved with the military showed a clear
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).
Japanese-Americans living on the west coast were savagely and unjustifiably uprooted from their daily lives. These Japanese-Americans were pulled from their jobs, schools, and home only to be pushed to
As a result, all Japanese were discriminated in the U.S.A. as biased perceptions were already set in their minds. They were judging the Japanese as the whole, just because the attack of a small part of the