JAPANESE INTERNMENT

TERMS Alien Nativism Xenophobia Issei Nisei Internment Executive Order Nisei soldier World War II era

ALIEN Relating, belonging or owing allegiance to another country

NATIVISM an opposition to immigration Belief that those already in the United States were superior to any immigrants coming to America

XENOPHOBIA Is a dislike and/or fear of that which is unknown or different from oneself. Fear of foreigners, especially minority groups

ISSEI and NISEI Issei- first generation of Japanese immigrants to the US Nisei- Japanese children born in America (2nd generation) Sansei- Grandchildren of the Issei (3rd) Terms come from the Japanese words for 1,2,3 ("ichi, ni, san.“)

EXECUTIVE ORDER An executive order in the United States is an order issued by the President, the head of the executive branch

INTERNMENT Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial The Japanese were forced from their homes on the West Coast and forced into internment camps

EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066 signed and issued during World War II by U.S. President FDR on February 19, 1942 ordering Japanese Americans to internment camps Internment lasted until 1944 when FDR rescinded his order- the last camp closed in 1945

INTERNMENT CONTINUED Over 120,000 Japanese forced into camps (some German, Italians) More than 2/3 of the Japanese who were interned in the spring of 1942 were citizens of the United States.

WWII & JAPANESE INTERNMENT FDR & Executive Order 9066

INTERNMENT AND CONSTITUTION 5th amendment due process rights? "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.“ Habeas Corpus means you can’t be held without being charged with a crime

Image 1 Wanto Grocery, owned by an Asian American, UC Berkeley graduate. (California, December 1941)

Image 2 Reading evacuation orders on a bulletin board in Los Angeles. These families will have as little as one week to report to the relocation center. (1942) Library of Congress.

Image 3 Dorothea Lange, “One Nation Indivisible.” Pledge of Allegiance at Rafael Weill Elementary School a few weeks prior to evacuation. (San Francisco, 1942)

Image 4 Japanese Americans register for internment at the Santa Anita reception center in Los Angeles. (1942) Library of Congress

Image 5 Evacuees waiting with their luggage at the old train station in Los Angeles, CA. The train will take them to Owens Valley. (April 1942) Library of Congress

Image 6 Japanese Americans waiting to board the train that will take them to the internment camp in Owens Valley. (April 1942)

Image 7 “All Packed Up and Ready to Go” Editorial Cartoon, San Francisco News (March 6, 1942)

Image 8 Family arriving in internment camp barracks, from the Tacoma New Tribune, University of Washington. (no date)

Image 9 An American Soldier on guard duty at an internment camp holds a Japanese American child. Tacoma News Tribune, University of Washington.

Image 10 Internment camp mess hall. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, University of Washington.

Image 11 Byron, Takashi Tsuzuki, Forced Removal, Act II, 1944. Japanese American National Museum Collection.

Image 12 G.S. Hante, a barber in Kent, Washington, displays his sentiments about internment. (March 1944)

INTERNMENT CAMP CONDITIONS Armed guards were posted at the camps, which were all in remote, desolate areas far from population centers barbed-wire-surrounded with unpartitioned toilets, cots for beds, and a budget of 45 cents daily per capita for food rations

INTERNMENT CAMP CONDITIONS Some Japanese were actually shot for leaving the boundaries of the camp Most families were allowed to stay together Issei (1st generation) were given less respect than others

THE 442nd The 442nd Infantry, formerly the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army, was an Asian American unit composed of mostly Japanese Americans The most highly decorated regiment in the history of the United States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of Honor recipients in Europe during World War II

KOREMATSU v. UNITED STATES (1944) Korematsu refused to go to internment camps so he was arrested Supreme Court ruled that internment was allowed in order to protect national security US Supreme Court decision that allowed formal racism

APOLOGIES In 1988, the U.S. Congress passed legislation which awarded formal payments of $20,000 each to the surviving internees— 60,000 in all ($1.2 Billion) In 1992 George HW Bush offered a formal apology and awarded an additional $400 m In all 82,210 Japanese Americans received $1.6 billion

THE REST OF THE STORY George H. W. Bush’s apology to Japanese Americans held in the internment camps. (1988)