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Internment of Japanese During WWII
The Internment of Japanese-Americans During the Second World War
Between 1942 and 1945, the United States federal government forcibly interred more than 100,000 immigrants, most of them American citizens, in what President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called "concentration camps." At the time, supporters of the this program argued that this was a necessity because Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans were threats to the American war effort. In reality, the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War did not emerge "out of thin air," but rather was the result of outrage over the attack on Pearl Harbor mixed with nearly a century of anti-Asian sentiment.
Undoubtedly, the catalyst for interning was Pearl Harbor but, as TenBroek, Barnhart, and Matson make clear on page 86: "The decision to evacuate all...
territory. This, in part, explains the greater anger and racism toward the Japanese; the Germans were never able to attack the U.S. territories during the war, so Germany seemed like less of an existential threat than Japan.
However, to focus only on the proximate causes misses the larger racist context in which this policy operated. Just like Adolph Hitler did not invent German anti-Semitism, but in fact capitalized on an existing German animus toward Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and the mentally handicapped, so too the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized latent American anti-Asian sentiment. In other words, Pearl Harbor did not cause American racism toward the Japanese, it just gave racists an excuse to express their racism. TenBroek, Barnhart, and Matson are quite right to call this chapter the "activation of the stereotype" rather than the "invention of the…
The provision that persons cannot be deprived of liberty without due process of law takes precedence over the war powers." Both authors therefore agree that the American Constitution prohibits the unwarranted detention of citizens based on their ethnicity alone. Only the Chicago Daily Tribune article uses the type of language befitting an editorial. For instance, the author uses terms like "prejudice" and "hysteria" to describe the issue. The Los Angeles
Not only did a consumer need the money to make their purchase, they needed government approval in the form of ration stamps and cards. This severe restriction on the economic freedom of American citizens was tolerated due to the dire nature of the conflict. Another change in American society was less noticeable, but every bit as restrictive. Americans became the victims of a constant stream of propaganda ranging from
Gradually, though, the war effort eroded the practical and theoretical underpinnings of racism in the United States. The war stimulated the domestic economy, particularly in the industrial and manufacturing sectors. Jobs were opening up rapidly, and because so many white men were fighting the war, many black men were available to work. "For black workers World War II opened up opportunities that had never before existed," (O'Neil 1). The
WWII World War II bring a number of images to the minds of most Americans: the Atomic Bomb, the Japanese Internment Camps, fighter planes, military jeeps, assault rifles, and soldiers in battle. The overall impression of the war is very masculine, from troops of male soldiers to songs about our "boys" overseas. However, women played a very significant role in World War II, and it is believed by most war historians
Even before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government began targeting Japanese-American businessmen and placing them under arrest. Following Pearl Harbor, the efforts expanded beyond businessmen and targeted the whole of the Japanese community. Executive Order 9066 "set into motion the exclusion from certain areas, and the evacuation and mass incarceration of 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast, most of whom were U.S.
Internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II When the national interests are threatened, history has shown that American presidents will take extraordinary measures to protect them, even if this means violating the U.S. Constitution. For example, the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act enacted immediately following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, watered down civil liberties for American citizens. Likewise, President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War