Japanese Internment Among all of the other countries, one had the courage to bomb the United States of America. Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor because of the threat the Navy had on the U.S. After that, America feared another attack or even worse, an invasion from Japan in the West Coast. In order to prepare for an invasion America decided to relocate all of the Japanese-Americans, mainly in the West Coast because they were the most threat. Many people debated whether relocating was the right thing to do. The internment of Japanese-Americans was justified because of the security in the Pacific Coast, fear of another attack, and because it was a military necessity. Security in the Pacific Coast was very crucial. Shores become a big threat …show more content…
The military has a hard time in war. If Japan were to invade the U.S. the military would have a hard time recovering the land that they had just lost. Many of the Japanese were not loyal and would join Japan in the invasion. The military deals with a lot in wars, if they were to be attacked from the inside, it would leave them very vulnerable. “Military forces feared an invasion of our West Coast and… because they decided that the military urgency of the situation demanded that all citizens of Japanese ancestry be segregated from the West Coast temporarily”(Korematsu 4). The military feared invasion, and to prepare the internment was a big step to the military’s demands. “The security of the Pacific Coast continues to require the exclusion of Japanese from the area now prohibited to them and will so continue as long as that military necessity exists”(DeWitt 1). As long as the military needs the exclusion of the Japanese, it will continue to happen. The military’s necessity is a very big priority. In conclusion the internment of the Japanese-Americans was justified because America needed security in the West Coast, fear of an attack/invasion, and because the internment was a military necessity. Although the internment was justified, there are many reasons why it was not justified. The Japanese were of no threat to the American society. “The Japanese here i almost exclusively a farmer, a fisherman or a small businessman”(Munson 2). There are other reasons, but in the end the Japanese were sent to internment camps, and it was
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.
This investigation aims to assess the extent to which Japanese-American internment from 1942 to 1946 was a violation of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which declares that, “No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The question must be asked in order to examine the legality of the actions taken by the U.S. government in opposition to American citizens of Japanese extraction (Nisei) and their immigrant parents (Issei). To determine this, the scope of this investigation will concentrate on the reasons for internment and the conditions in which the Japanese people lived during 1942 and 1946, particularly in a camp called Manzanar. One method applied is to explore an oral history interview
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.
Japanese Internment: Why did it occur? How did it affect Japanese-Americans? Following the start of World War II and due to bad advice and popular opinion, President Roosevelt's executive order 9066 went into effect. This order began the marshalling of over 100,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps.
Evidently, the majority of those detained in internment camps posed no threat to America, but inept persons of power were blinded by prejudice and fear, and thus, the Japanese were interned. The Japanese were interned due to their shared ancestry, which is practically the definition of racism. The Italians and Germans who were put away could also claim the same
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.
I do not think that Roosevelt 's actions were justified in the internment of Japanese-American citizens, because there was very little evidence that the Japanese citizens were a threat to the rest of America. The Executive Order 9066 led to a lot of changes for Japanese-American citizens. The Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Roosevelt two weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and this authorized the removal of any or all people from military areas "as deemed necessary or desirable." This affected the Japanese-American citizens because the military then defined the entire West Coast, which was home to the majority of Japanese-Americans, as a military area. This then led them to relocate to internment camps, built by the U.S military in scattered locations around the country.
Whilst the Japanese were being sent to the camps, many people on the west coast were hanging racist signs in storefronts and neighborhoods giving the obvious notice that Japs were not welcome. This attitude of hatred is what caused the poor conditions of the internment camps on the west coast, carried out and justified by the idea that the white Americans were better than the Japanese Americans due to the suspicion of espionage. The Japanese Americans were thought of as spies therefor they were thrown into internment camps where the discriminatory attitude of western Americans brought upon their unjust treatment. The pressure of WWII caused the American government to make unecessary precautions in hopes of protecting a nation when they in fact they divided it.
Looking at the “alternatives” we see a variety of more simplified options. Looking at the options it seems strange that the choice of internment was made. The Law enforcement option was the Isai (Japanese immigrants to the United states) and Nisei (Japanese Americans born in the United States), secondly limit travel visas into or out of the United States, limit the geography the Isai and Nisei could go, and take away work from those who were acting questionably. Domestic exclusion zones were also put up for debate which would exclude Isai or Nisei from working on or near military bases, war manufacturing companies, and away from coast lines or boarders. Mass deportation was an option for non-citizens but due to the high expense it was not an economically feasible option at the time.
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.
One reason why the U.S government’s decision was not justifiable is because many of the Japanese-Americans were innocent people who legally received their American citizenship. For example, in Monica Sone’s “Camp Harmony”,
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).
No innocent people like the Japanese Americans should have been punished or looked as bad people because of their ancestry. The bombing of Pearl Harbor caused the U.S. to fear the Japanese Americans, so they placed them in internment camps. Japanese Americans shouldn’t of been punished because most of them were born and raised on the West Coast. The condition of the camps were often not pleasant. Japanese Americans were viewed as alien and untrustworthy, and isolated from others.
Japanese internment camps made us question who was really an American and it relates to today’s issues. Internment camps were similar to concentration camps or prison and Japanese-Americans were put into them. Even though they were considered Americans, they were still treated unfairly by other Americans. So who is American?
Abstract Imagine not being able to walk outside at night or having to sell your possessions and abandon your home to spend years behind barbed wire—even though you’d done nothing wrong. For Japanese Americans during World War II, this scenario was reality. The freedom they once had is now gone, as they are put into concentration camps no longer in their home. Now having to line up for meals and to do laundry, thing you did before on a normal basis, while being hovered over. The internment of Japanese Americans in the U.S. was the act of forcing those of Japanese decent to relocation and incarcerating them during World War II.