Japanese Internment Camps: The Bombing Of Pearl Harbor

Many Japanese Americans were actively being sent to the internment camps against their will by the government. This forced exile likely instilled feelings of fear, confusion and betrayal amongst the Japanese-American people.

In American history Japanese internment camps had to do with a lot of hysteria. Hysteria was mainly built up because of the bombing on Pearl Harbor. Americans thought that they were no safe until all Japanese were in no way of hurting us. So by putting Japanese Americans in internment camps

Another thing that was bad about the internment camp is that there was a lot of racism going on between the Americans and the Japanese. The anti-racism has been going in the United States since the 19th century. There were tensions between the Asian immigrant workers and the whites because they were force to compete for jobs and land. The United States Congress decided to discourage the Japanese immigrants and to prohibit the naturalization of Japanese immigrants. “The state of California banned the marriages between the whites and the people of Asian descent” (KIM). This is also racism also because the Japanese were the only race that was send to the camps. There were signs on street and billboard on stores

The internment and cruel treatment of the Japanese in the U.S. stemmed from a fear of a full-pledged invasion from Japan and also from years of racial prejudice

The United States put Japanese people in camps, stealing their rights, and placed them in inhumane facilities that no human being should be forced to withstand.

In many times throughout history groups of people have been discriminated against based on race or religion. These people receive inferior rights because of the discrimination. In some cases they do not get citizenship, in others they are segregated from others, and physically harmed. Two groups of people that faced discrimination near World War II (WWII) were the Jewish people and Japanese Americans. Both groups faced very different types of discrimination by different oppressors with different motives yet their treatment was very similar and many events paralleled each other. The treatment of Japanese in WWII internment camps was as harsh as the Holocaust's treatment of the Jewish people.

On December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor was destroyed. The Japanese attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii during World War II. 2,300 Americans were killed in this bombing. After two months of the bombing, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Executive order 9066. The Executive order 9066 demanded all Japanese Americans to leave the West coast. Many believed that the Japanese Americans were suspicious of a crime that they did not commit. This was a nightmare to not only Japanese Americans, but also to many Americans. In the Executive Order 9066, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Whereas the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities.”

On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II (Prange et al., 1981: p.174). On February 19, 1942, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War and Military Commanders to prescribe areas of land as excludable military zones (Roosevelt, 1942). Effectively, this order sanctioned the identification, deportation, and internment of innocent Japanese Americans in War Relocation Camps across the western half of the United States. During the spring and summer of 1942, it is estimated that almost 120,000 Japanese Americans were relocated from their homes along the West Coast and in Hawaii and

Japanese-Americans were imprisoned in internment camps around America. This stripped the rights of property and freedom straight from the innocent Japanese-Americans (Japanese). This only occurred because nobody in political power was Japanese. On January 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed an order to remove anybody with Japanese descent from West coast states to be forcefully taken by the military and imprisoned in internment camps. It was about 110,000 Japanese-Americans stripped of their rights that are clearly stated in the constitution because a white man signed a paper based off of rumors due to racism

On December 7th, 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbour, "a date which will live in infamy"(http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5166/), sending America into a widespread panic, and anger. This day is what caused us to do something that no one would of thought we would ever do. We created internment camps here in America after signing executive order 9066, which authorized the relocation of all Japanese here in the US to those dreaded internment camps. The conditions were bad but not as bad as they were in Germany where millions of Jews died. After the war the remaining internees were freed to go rebuild their lives, during their captivity they were many legal cases against the Japanese internment, but fear overcame what was right.

The Japanese-American internment was unnecessary, it was a racist and unfair act. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, U.S feared that Japanese-Americans were spies and would aid Japan in the war. On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed the executive order 9066. Which resulted in more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans living in the united states, on the west coast were sent to internment camps. This act was unjust because they were American citizens.

The camps that the Japanese-Americans were taken to had the worse conditions imaginable. “More than 120,000 Americans of Japanese Ancestry were incarcerated in 10 camps scattered throughout the Western United States during World War II” (Children of the Camps Project 1). Detainees spent many years in these camps. They were locked behind barbed wire fences, and armed guards patrolled the camps. The conditions were comparable to the Jewish camps in Eastern Europe. Entire families lived in quarters that were poorly constructed and horribly cramped. These areas were also unbearably cramped and unclean. There was also no hot water for dishes or showers in the living quarters. In addition, lice was a huge problem in the internment camps. These camps and the laws that our government passed against the Japanese community were atrocious. The United States experienced a terrible tragedy when Pearl Harbor was attacked. However, the American government had no right to make these innocent Americans prisoners of war. During the 1940s and 1950s the Japanese

The Japanese-American placement in internment camps was wrong and unconstitutional. The Japanese-American people had been living in the United States without question until the uprise of racial prejudice brought on by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many Japanese-Americans had been born in America and lived an American life, integrated into American schools, speaking with American accents, and enjoying American culture. But, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Japanese were suddenly seen as threats that needed to be controlled. Without any consent, these Japanese-Americans were placed in internment camps with poor conditions and treated as if they were ticking time bombs themselves.

Between 1942 and 1945, thousands of Japanese Americans, regardless of United States citizenship status, received orders to evacuate their homes and businesses. Sparked by rising fear amongst the American people after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a Naval base in Hawaii, the U.S. government relocated Japanese Americans to remote areas on the West Coast and in the south, isolating them in internment camps. With no actual evidence supporting the creation of internment camps, the U.S. interned Japanese Americans because of Japanese involvement in Pearl Harbor resulting in a rise of anti-Japanese paranoia sparked by the economic success of Japanese Americans, increased fear and prejudice within the United States government and amongst citizens,

The concentration camps forced you to wake up early in order to do the morning roll call. There were also very serious punishments if you didn’t follow the strict rules of the Germans. The Japanese had it much easier as they were not necessarily given any rules. The final dissimilarity is that the internment camps provided school and many activities whilst the concentration camps did not. This gave the Japanese a little freedom and allowed them to enjoy themselves.