Then Came War: Racial Stereotypes

“Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” The Japanese planes that were sent on the mission destructively sunk or at least damaged as many ships of the US Navy as possible. This was the start of the long debated Supreme Court Case Korematsu v US. The case had to do with stripping the civil rights away from a certain group of people, in this case, the Japanese Americans. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the US, mainly because of the war going on. The court’s opinion in the case of Korematsu v US was correct because the national security of the Country is far more important than the rights of a small minority of people, the argued dissent was weakly imposed and based mainly on a biased civil rights notion, and the army had reason to fear for the country, seeing as that many of the Japanese people on the west coast were first generation immigrants.

On December 7,1941 Japan raided the airbases across the islands of Pearl Harbour. The “sneak attack” targeted the United States Navy. It left 2400 army personnel dead and over a thousand Americans wounded. U.S. Navy termed it as “one of the great defining moments in history”1 President Roosevelt called it as “A Day of Infamy”. 2 As this attack shook the nation and the Japanese Americans became the immediate ‘focal point’. At that moment approximately 112,000 Persons of Japanese descent resided in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and also in California and Arizona.3

The autobiography illustrates personal experiences of discrimination and prejudice while also reporting the political occurrences during the United States’ involvement in World War II. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the United States government unleashed unrestrained contempt for the Japanese residing in the nation. The general public followed this train of thought, distrusting the Japanese and treating them like something less than human. In a country of freedom and justice, no coalition stepped up to defend the people who had lived there most of or all of their lives; rather, people took advantage of the Japanese evacuation to take their property and belongings. The government released demeaning propaganda displaying comical Japanese men as monsters and rats, encouraging the public to be vigilant and wary toward anyone of Japanese descent. The abuse of the Japanese during this period was taken a little too lightly, the government apologizing too late and now minor education of the real cruelty expressed toward the nation’s own citizens. Now we see history repeating itself in society, and if we don’t catch the warning signs today, history may just come full

When Pearl Harbor was hit they removed 5,000 Japanese-Americans from the U.S. army on December, 19412. They army took away Japanese-American rights as citizens, by not allowing them to be apart of the United States Army. The selective services renamed them “enemy aliens” and stopped the draft of Japanese-American citizens. Military officials denied Japanese-Americans citizenships. December 7th, 19412, FBI arrested selected Japanese-American nationals on the West coast, they never returned home. They never got to say goodbye to their family until after six years, when the war was over.

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 main purpose of this exhibit is to inform the audience as to the injustices committed against Japanese Americans during World War II. The exhibit shows how the U.S. Constitution was ignored for a brief time of national crisis. Another purpose of "A More Perfect Union" is to celebrate the achievements of Japanese Americans. Despite the way they were treated and the conditions they lived in at the time, those living in the relocation centers lived nearly normal lives. They wrote books, painted pictures, attended school, played sports, and so on. Their achievements during wartime are also extensively depicted.

     During this time of crisis in America, the Japanese people in our country were done a huge injustice. They were stripped their constitutional rights, relocated to a location with poor living conditions, and when America apologized it was just too late. The mental and physical health impacts of this event continues to affect tens of thousands of Japanese

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

Fighting a war against the oppression and persecution of a people, how hypocritical of the American government to harass and punish those based on their heritage. Magnifying the already existing dilemma of discrimination, the bombing of Pearl Harbor introduced Japanese-Americans to the harsh and unjust treatment they were forced to confront for a lifetime to come. Wakatsuki Ko, after thirty-five years of residence in the United States, was still prevented by law from becoming an American citizen.

officials eventually began to recruit these internees into the American army. Not only was WWII a war about political alliances and geographical sovereignty, but it was also a war about race and racial superiority throughout the world. Propagating this idea, Dower (1986) argues, “World War Two contributed immeasurably not only to a sharpened awareness of racism within the United States, but also to more radical demands and militant tactics on the part of the victims of discrimination” (War Without Mercy: p.5). In elucidating the racial motivations and fallout from WWII, Dower helps one realize the critical role that race and racial politics played during the war and are still at play in our contemporary world. An analysis of this internment process reveals how the ultimate goal of the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans and the United States’ subsequent occupation of Japan was to essentially “brainwash” the Japanese race into demonstrating allegiance to America.

     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

In the documentary, American Experience: A Family Gathering, directed by Lise Yasui and Ann Tegnell, explores three generations of the Yasui family immigration to Oregon in the early 1900s, and through their imprisonment in internment camps during World War Two as Japanese-Americans. I found this documentary heart-warming, eye-opening and emotional to what the Japanese immigrants had to deal with when immigrating to the United States and different insights to what went through their minds before, during and after World War Two. From watching the documentary, I can’t even fathom how a civil and nothing but perfect Japanese family like the Yasui family, could immigrate to the United States, establish themselves with work, a home and the start a family, could be seen as enemies of the country and lose everything for just looking or sounding Japanese. I mean, when I was growing up and I read books about Pearl Harbor or looked at pictures, videos and the film about Pearl Harbor, I right away got mad and emotional about those attacks and got a sense of anger from those attacks and found myself thinking that the Japanese deserved what they got and brought it upon themselves, which is harsh. Now, I was just a young child and to get those feelings years later, should show to a degree on how easy it was for Americans to be upset, angered and thought of the Japanese-Americans as evil people at the time. The Pearl Harbor attacks were one of the hardest attacks on U.S. soil from a

Despite the papers supposedly claiming Japanese American sabotage, the internment of US citizens of Japanese descent following the bombing of Pearl Harbor was not justified, resulting into violation of the Constitution’s Fifth and Fourteenth amendments.

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.

From the Japanese internment camps launched in 1942 by President Roosevelt, to the now newly formed Muslim Ban of 2017 by Donald Trump, the attempt to force out and contain what America finds foreign and unassimilable is not a new idea. It is a toxic way of governing which has found both the democratic and republican parties guilty, and it continues to this day to be a large part of our governing system. One demographic specifically targeted by this agenda is America’s population of Muslims. While Islamophobia has lived in America for many years, it intensified after the events of 9/11 when Bush launched a “War on Terror” effectively enforcing the ideology of the “Muslim enemy” as an “enemy of the state” (Kumar 9). This was done through fear mongering, the perpetuation of stereotypes, and by racializing Muslim Americans.