Life in Japanese Internment Camp

The U.S. internment of people of Japanese descent during the 1940s was a major event in U.S. history, but it is often overlooked by many. It affected hundreds of thousands of people of Japanese descent, whether they were citizens or not. The incarceration of those placed in camps was affected mentally and it caused many of the internees to develop PTSD or otherwise commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder (Potts, 1994, p. 1). The camps affected how the Japanese were viewed in society during the time period of the camps and following the liberation of them. It also changed how the Japanese viewed society. This paper will focus on the cultural and social aspects of the Internal Improvements.

There are many things that happened to Japanese-American immigrants during World War 2 that people in this time period aren’t really familiar with. A story from a Japanese woman, Jeanne Wakatsuki-Houston, who was born and lived in this era, with help from her husband, James D. Houston, explains and sheds some light during the times where internment camps still prevailed. The writing piece titled “Arrival at Manzanar", takes place during her childhood and the Second World War. In the beginning, Jeanne and her family were living a calm and peaceful life in a predominantly white neighborhood, until disaster struck the world and they were forced to move due to escalating tensions between Japanese Orientals and white Americans. At the time, Japanese-Americans, like Jeanne, were forced to live in an internment camp, which is a prison of sorts, due to the war with Japan. The text is being told through a first person point-of-view in which Jeanne herself tells the story through her experiences during the war. In that story, which contains only a part of the original text, much of the setting took place either prior to and during the time she was sent to the internment camps and describes her struggle with it. This story clearly states the importance of family and perseverance which is shown through her use of pathos, definition, and chronological storytelling.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the internment of Japanese Americans on the West coast of the United States. On going tension between the United States and Japan rose in the 1930’s due to Japan’s increasing power and because of this tension the bombing at Pearl Harbor occurred. This event then led the United States to join World War II. However it was the Executive Order of 9066 that officially led to the internment of Japanese Americans. Japanese Americans, some legal and illegal residents, were moved into internment camps between 1942-1946. The internment of Japanese Americans affected not only these citizens but the

Race tracks and fairgrounds are a few examples of makeshift temporary camps in Phase 1 (Estes). During Phase 1 permanent camps were being built for Phase 2 of the Japanese Internment. Phase 2 camps were surrounded by barbed wire fences and evacuees lived in barracks. Each block of barracks only had one set of bathrooms, one laundry room, one ironing room, a cafeteria, and a recreation facility (Estes). Also Phase 2 camps tried to make life more normal for Japanese Americans by providing stores, hospitals, and self government to the evacuees (Relocation of Japanese Americans). Stores were the only way to get goods not given to you or that an evacuee brought. Also they were one of the only forms of employment for the Japanese Americans. Also any additional money had to have come from selling their belongings before coming on the trip. Remember that they had to sell their property and belongings for way below their actual value. All jobs paid similar low wages which led to issues for the Japanese Americans. Many of these issues destroyed their Japanese culture (McGrath). One issue was that children were earning as much money as their parents. This led to parents losing control of their children and destroying father son relationships. Another issue was that families no longer shared meal time together as children chose to eat with their friends. This was one of many Japanese traditions that vanished during their time in internment camps. Also

Throughout history of not only the United States but also the world, racism has played a huge role in the treatment of other humans. A dark mark in United States history, the Japanese Relocation during WWII is a prime example of this racism coming into play. Whether or not this event was necessary or even justified, however, is a constant question for historians even nowadays. The Japanese relocation of the 1920’s unnecessary and unjustified because it’s main causes: selfish economic plots by farmers, unrealistic military measures, and blatant racism.

     Unfortunately, the Japanese-Americans living on the west coast were given no time to show what their loyalties were: they were expelled from the area. They were shipped off to remote locations in the more barren sections of the country. The living conditions at the camps were inadequate at best. Residents were forced to endure extreme cold and extreme heat, cramped living spaces, poor meals, and a lack of indoor plumbing. The whole time, they were under the watchful eyes of armed military police. They were treated as prisoners.

To be a Japanese immigrant in the early 1900s was difficult but after December 7, 1941 things only got worse. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked the United States naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. “Although conflict had been underway in both Europe and Asia for years, the United States did not formally enter the hostilities until December 8, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously declared the attack on Pearl Harbor ‘a day which we live in infamy’ and asked Congress for a declaration of war” (Wu and Izumi). After the attack on Pearl Harbor “race became increasingly associated with loyalty in the United States” (Harth 254). “What Japan had done was blamed on Japanese Americans” (Wu 2). On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. Executive Order 9066 granted the secretary of war and his commanders the power “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” (Executive Order 9066). “Although the text of Executive Order 9066 did not specifically mention Japanese Americans, it was intended to apply to them exclusively” (G. Robinson and G. Robinson 4).

While World War II had been ongoing since 1939, Japan had been fighting for the Axis powers, against the United States. In 1941, when Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States government had assumed the viewpoint that the Japanese were not to be trusted, and that the Japanese-American citizens of the United States were much the same. As such, they had resorted to establishing internment camps, or preventive labor prisons, so as to keep them in check and ostensibly to prevent further Japanese sabotage. However, the government’s actions were not fully justified, as several factors had interplayed into the circumstances that directly contradicted the intentions and visible results of the internment of the Japanese-Americans, in the social, political, economical, and cultural aspects. On the whole, the internment camps served as drastic measures which were not wholly without reasoning; contrarily, those factors in support of the internment camps did not override those which had gone against it, since the United States’ own legislation, in the form of the Constitution and other laws, had explicitly prevented the depriving of human rights, privileges, and pursuits, which had doubtless applied in light of the Japanese-Americans’ universal citizenship along the Pacific Coast in the early 1940s. As such, while the internment camps were not completely unjustified and without purpose from the viewpoint of the government, they did not align with standards of law and

Our president during World War II was Franklin D. Roosevelt. On February 19, 1942, he “authorized the internment of ten of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan.”1 The attack on Pearl Harbor incited the fear against Japanese Americans, because the United States believed that Japanese Americans would turn their backs on the U.S. and be a threat to the security. This authorization was called the Presidential Executive Order 9066. Even though there was no evidence that they imposed threat, the military’s command was to take over and invade Japanese homes. The Japanese were ordered to live in internment camps in the West Coast. These camps were in horrible conditions and fenced with barbed wire. In the camps, the Japanese-American civilians created their own small city with their own doctors, food, and teachers.

2. What were the specific challenges Gruenewald and other interned Japanese Americans faced in “camp” life? How did individuals and families adapt to these changes?

Japanese Americans during World War II were displaced from their homes and placed in concentration camps (Takaki, 147). “In the War, we are now engaged in racial affinities are not severed by immigrations” (Takaki, 148). Furthermore, Japanese Americans were not citizens due to the exclusion of Asian people

Imagine going to bed one night thinking you are safe, only to wake up in the morning to find out that your own government thinks you are the enemy of the very country to which you were born. This very thing was a reality to many people after the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Because of this attack by the Japanese Americans became extremely fearful of citizens that were of Japanese descent. President Franklin D. Roosevelt reluctantly signed executive order #9066 which barred almost all Asian immigrants from entering the United States. This order also authorized the Secretary of War to select certain areas as military zones, clearing the way for the deportation of Japanese Americans to internment camps. This order would end up incarcerating about 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the west coast, for up to 4 years.

Throughout our lives in school, much of what we studied were about the Holocaust that happened in Europe. We have seen, heard, and listen to stories about the Nazis and what they had done during World War II. But we never know about the Japanese-American internment, which is like the concentrations camps in Europe. For example, I used to live in Seattle, Washington, and one of the well-known Japanese-American internment camp is in Puyallup about 40 minutes from where I lived. The facts that even though there are historical sites closed to where I lived, in school my teachers never taught us about it. I found out about the Japanese-American internment camp when I did a research papers on events during the early 1900’s. I believe that Americans

74 days after Japan’s attack on the US, President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the exucutive order no. 9066. The order forced 110,000 Japanese AMeicans were forced to leave their homeds in California, Washington, and Oregon. They were, “sent to 1 of 10 detention camps in desolate parts of the US”. These Japanese Americans charged with a crime against US government. Two-thirds of these Japanese Americans were born in the US, while more than 70% of them were American citizens. President Roosevelt’s action was supported by Congress, and not 1 vote was against this action. It was upheld by the constitution and by the Supreme Court. Deprived of liberty, Japanese Americans were forced into the camps called “relocation centers” that were surrounded by barbed wire and armed soldiers. “Families lived in poorly built, overcrowded, barracks.” The relocation center’s barracks had no running water, heat, privacy, and had to use the public bathrooms. The relocation centers provided medical care, school, and the younger adults could farm, do defense work, go to colledge, or work in the

“Studies point to the fact that only West Coast Issei and Nisei were removed-not those living in Hawaii or on the East Coast-and that the residents calling for their removal were California nativists, laborers, and farmers, who had long viewed Japanese immigrants as social and economic threats” (Hay 15-17). "Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066, or the Japanese Internment Order, authorized the secretary of war to prescribe military areas and was presented to the public as a necessary wartime measure to aid the United States in fighting World War II. The order was used to authorize the internment of over 100,000 Japanese Americans during the war. Both the U.S. government and much of the public feared that Japanese Americans would commit acts of sabotage in the United States to undermine the U.S. war effort and assist the Japanese. Instead, the government forced Japanese Americans into camps throughout the West, where they suffered from deprivation, despair, and disease for much of the war, even as Japanese-American units distinguished themselves in the U.S. military”