The Pros And Cons Of Japanese Internment Camps

In 1942 the evacuation of the Japanese Americans from the West Coast was mainly because the FDR believed that after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Americans were inherently disloyal to the United States. This caused the President to issue evacuation of all Japanese Americans from the West Coast War zones, and they were forced to live in the internment camps. This caused much loss for them, and caused the Japanese Americans to have to fight for their freedoms. It is important for us to understand the historical event of Japanese Internment Camps, because it helps us understand why equality of races is so important, along

In 1942, 112,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast of the United States were forced to relocated to ten internment camps that were considered very similar to the Holocaust concentration camps. These internment camps were permanent camps where Japanese Americans were detained for the simple fact of being of Japanese descent similar to how the Nazis forced the Jews to relocate to the concentration camps for the sole reason of being a Jewish. These camps would also hold captive people of many origins, the majority of the prisoners being Japanese-Americans. This compares to how Adolf Hitler would come to force Hungarians, Czechoslovakians, Ukrainian, Russians, French, German, and Jewish to concentration camps (The Holocaust). Hitler’s concentration camps forced its incarcerated to either work to death or die, many did not get a choice in the matter.

The widespread belief that Japanese American citizens were loyal to Japan, where their ancestors lived, resulted in fear of these people. This led President Roosevelt to sign an executive order that would relocate any citizens of Japanese descent to internment camps within the U.S. Many families left much of what they had behind, due to the uncertainty of whether or not they would be able to return to it. While the conditions inside the internment camps were nowhere near able to be compared to those during the Holocaust, they weren’t ideal. However, nothing is ever ideal when concerning racial prejudice. Despite the way that they were treated, the Japanese Americans persevered and in the end learned from their experiences.

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

Japanese Internment can not be justified by the United States government. The United States government, in the twentieth century can not justify the Internment of Japanese Americans and their families. Many will argue that in times of war that difficult decisions and choices have to be made on behalf of the nation at war. World War II highlighted the actions of a nation, embracing and expediting the actions and decisions while not seeing the long term consequence of such decisions. People in support of the war and the policies of our government, will argue that they needed to make the war more efficient to shorten the war and spare our nation needless lost of life. Can a society sacrifice moral principles as they blur the lines of its citizens and its enemies?

Roger Daniels’ book Prisoners without Trial is another book that describes the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. This piece discusses about the background that led up to the internment, the internment itself, and what happened afterwards. The internment and relocation of Japanese-Americans during World War II was an injustice prompted by political and racial motivations. The author’s purpose of this volume is to discuss the story in light of the redress and reparation legislation enacted in 1988. Even though Daniels gives first hand accounts of the internment of Japanese Americans in his book, the author is lacking adequate citations and provocative quotations. It’s

Imagine being taken out of you home to place of the unknown. There is a lot of chaos and horror. You don’t know who the trust. The government is coming to your neighborhoods and taking you and your family to internment camps just because the government does not trust anyone of your ethnicity. That sounds horrible, right? Well, during World War 2 the United States of America sent Japanese- Americans to internment camps because the government could not trust people of the Japanese decent. They were told that the Japanese- Americans will tell the enemy, Japan, all of secrets about war, that America will do to defeat the Japanese. But, by sending these innocent Americans to these camps is just unjustified, cruel and horrible. This essay will talk about why sending these people to these internment camps were dreadful and unacceptable.

Barbed wired barracks, portable potties, and partition-less showers. My grandfather reminisces his time spend at Manzanar Internment Camp. While my grandfather stood in the giant shadow of a 30-foot armed tower, 500-acres of Californian dessert enclosed nearly 12,000 Japanese Americans. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the removal and detainment of anyone in military territory. When “armed police went door to door rounding up Japanese Americans and ordering them straight to the camps” as my grandfather asserted, America’s national fear was exploited. My grandfather at the age of sixteen, lost his home, his family, and notably continued to face several obstacles postwar. Thousands of Japanese Americans during the 1940’s, including Ichiro in John Okada’s No-No Boy, have had their lives reshaped by new territories, boundaries and inner conflicts. The lost of family and friends was prevalent as racial prejudices intensified throughout the nation. While thousands of innocent families were victimized in the Japanese interment camps and imprisonments during WWII, the overwhelming distress led to corrupt relationships and inner turmoil.

     For over a century, the United States has been one of the most powerful and influential states on the globe. However, every nation has made mistakes in its past. Throughout our country’s history, certain groups have had to endure horrible injustices: the enslavement of African-Americans, the removal of Native Americans, and discrimination against immigrants, women, homosexuals, and every other minority. During World War II, the government crossed the line between defending the nation and violating human rights, when it chose to relocate Japanese residents to internment camps. The actions taken by the U.S. government against Japanese Americans and Japanese living in the

While the attack on Pearl Harbor was a devastating time in United States history and the attack being conducted by the Japanese government, it didn’t not justify Japanese Americans being put into internment camps. The fear of a Japanese attack on mainland United States soil prompted the United States government to create these internment camps. Such fear lead to innocent Japanese Americans to live in a way that could be considered inhuman. Of the hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans in the internment camps half of them were children. The conditions of the camps where no way of life and Japanese Americans were forced to live in an undignified life that

The first reason that I believe that the internment camps were unnecessary is they were a racist act against the Japanese Americans. In the article it states “Our unjust imprisonment was the result of two closely related emotions: racism and hysteria,” says Edison Tominaro Uno, a former internee.Uno says the claim that Japanese Americans were relocated for their protection was “sheer

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.

Japanese internment camps from 1942 to 1946 were an exemplification of discrimination, many Japanese Americans were no longer accepted in their communities after the Bombing of Pearl Harbor. They were perceived as traitors and faced humiliation due to anti-Japanese sentiment causing them to be forced to endure several hardships such as leaving behind their properties to go an imprisoned state, facing inadequate housing conditions, and encountering destitute institutions. The Bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7, 1941 (Why I Love a Country that Once Betrayed Me). This led president Roosevelt to sign the executive order 9066, which authorized the army to remove any individual that seemed as a potential threat to the nation (“Executive Order 9066”) This order allowed the military to exclude “‘any or all persons from designated areas, including the California coast.”’ (Fremon 31). Many Japanese opposed to leave the Pacific Coast on their own free will (Fremon 24) . Japanese Americans would not be accepted in other areas if they moved either.Idaho’s governor stated, Japanese would be welcomed “only if they were in concentration camps under guard”(Fremon 35). The camps were located in Arizona, Arkansas, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and California where thousands of Japanese Americans eventually relocated. (“Japanese Americans at Manzanar”) The internment lasted for 3 years and the last camp did not close until 1946. (Lessons Learned: Japanese Internment During WW2)

Like all issues involving race or war, the question of whether or not it was legal and ethical to make Japanese Americans move to relocation camps in early WWII is a difficult and controversial problem. The internment of around 50,000 Japanese citizens and approximately 70,000 Japanese-American people born in the U.S. living in the American West Coast has become known as a tragedy and mistake. The government even set up numerous projects to apologize to the American citizens who were wronged (Bosworth). Still, at the time that the decision to relocate was made, the actions were constitutionally legal and seen by many as necessary. The actions were not based on racist feelings. It was, however,

The Japanese-American Internment was a necessary choice, made by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It helped to make our nation secure during times of extreme emergency and it also helped the US government to keep their enemy under watch. “The story of how Japanese American soldiers from the war’s most highly decorated US military unit came to be there is just one part of a remarkable saga. It is also a story of one of the darkest periods in American history, one filled with hardship, sacrifice, courage, injustice, and finally, redemption. It began more than a hundred years ago” (Sandler, 2013, p. 6). At the turn of the 21st century began the immigration of the Japanese to America for various reasons, but all with one thing in mind: freedom. “We talked about America; we dreamt about America. We all had one wish – to be in America” (Sandler, 2013, p. 6). The decision by these many people was a grueling and tough decision, but they knew it would benefit them in the long run. “…like their European counterparts, they were willing to risk everything to begin life anew in what was regarded as a golden land of opportunity” (Sandler, 2013, p. 6). When they came to America, they were employed and were able to begin their new lives for the first part of it.