Japanese Internment Camps

Japanese Internment Camps After the attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, most Americans were able to tolerate anyone of German or Italian decent. However Japanese-Americans were not treated the same way. (WHY?) Over 100,000 Japanese-Americans were moved from their homes to relocation camps despite the fact that there was no evidence of any disloyalty. The government posted signs (on right) to inform everyone of the instructions for removal. Helen Murao, an American citizen of Japanese decent, said – “We looked liked the enemy. That was our sin.” Of the 110,000 Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast and Hawaii in 1941, 1/3 were Issei (foreign-born Japanese who entered the US before 1924) and 2/3 were Nisei (children of Issei who were citizens born in the US).

Japanese Internment Camps In February of 1942, the federal government decided that all Japanese-American citizens, as well as aliens, be relocated from their homes and confined in interment camps located in Arkansas and western states. The Japanese were extremely vulnerable had little political power or economic influence and could easily be singled out.

Japanese Internment Camps On February 19, 1942 - FDR signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing removal of all Japanese from West Coast.

Japanese Internment Camps They were only permitted to only take a few belongings. Families were forced to sell most of their possessions. Evacuation sale (below) signs were everywhere on the West Coast. They would only receive about 5 cents per dollar for every possession they sold. Anything not sold - would be stored or left with friends. Families lost property - farms, homes, businesses – totally approximately $500 million.

Japanese Internment Camps Over the next several months, Japanese-Americans were sent to these camps. The American government justified their actions on the basis that there was a fear of Japanese-Americans committing sabotage to aid Japan in an attack on the US West Coast. General John De Witt (right) was the Head of the Western Defense Command. He said, “The very fact that no sabotage to aid Japan has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirm indication that such action will be taken.”

Japanese Internment Camps Any politicians who support relocation immediately gained support in their state and across the country. Farmers and businesses support relocation because they saw an immediate increase in profits with relocation. De Witt said, “The Japanese race is an enemy race.” Japanese-Americans were sent to one of ten armed and guarded camps. Topaz (camp in Utah) was 4,600 feet below seal level. Temperatures would rise to 106 degrees during the summer and drop to 30 degrees in the winter. Families were forced to lived in single room in barracks. They would furnish them with cots, makeshift dressers and bare light bulbs.

Japanese being taken off of truck

US soldiers ordered to guard the camps

Women being checked in at camp

Warning sign for border of camp

Japanese working in fields

Japanese harvesting crops

Main strip in camp

Main strip in camp

Main strip in camp

Barracks in camp

Barracks in camp

Japanese Internment Camps The Japanese created alternate communities to serve cultural needs, both American and Japanese. Newspapers, schools, churches, bands, boy scout groups were all examples used to prove that they were “Americans”.

Boy Scout march in camp

Japanese Internment Camps Near the end of the war, they were allowed to work at jobs in interior of US. They were also allowed to resettle in East or Midwest, but most stayed in camps for duration of war. They were not permitted to return to the West Coast. The US Supreme Court upheld policies that deprived Japanese of civil rights. In the 1943 case of Hirabayashi vs. US, the Supreme Court decided that a curfew order affecting only Japanese did not violate their constitutional rights. Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone said, “In time of war residents having ethnic affiliations with an invading enemy maybe a greater source of danger than those of a different ancestry.”

Japanese Internment Camps In December of 1944, the Supreme Court heard the case of Korematsu vs. US and upheld the executive order providing for relocation of Japanese-Americans. They based their decision on the grounds that the judiciary could not second guess military decisions. The dissenting justice termed the decision a “legalization of racism”. The court also ruled that citizens could not be held in relocation camps once their loyalty had been established and camps began closing down. In 1976, President Gerald Ford revoked Executive Order 9066 and apologized to Japanese-Americans. In 1980, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Interment of Civilians began investigation of the events that occurred. Their work led to passage of Civil Liberties Act (1988) - each surviving internee received $20,000.

Exit Ticket Looking back was America justified in its fears and resulting action of interning citizens – Japanese Americans? Compare our treatment of Japanese Americans to non-Aryans in Germany. How were our actions similar to the reaction of America following 9/11 and the treatment of Muslims?