Notes 3: Pearl Harbor AND Japanese American Internment Modern US History Unit 3: World War II April 2013

Pearl Harbor

The surprise attack on Hawaii shocked America out of its isolationism. At the same time it inspired fear and panic about what would happen next. Many of these frightened people began to take their anxiety out on Japanese American citizens – most of who were living on the West Coast.

Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the War Department ordered that all the Japanese Americans living on Hawaii had to be removed. Since this was over 1/3 of the Hawaiian population, the governor protested. In the end, 1,444 Japanese Americans living in Hawaii were interned or confined.

Next, rumors began to spread that Japanese Americans living on the West Coast were acting as spies or sabotaging American war efforts. No evidence of this was ever found though. In California, only 1% of the population was Japanese American, but the Californians took their anger out on them.

On February 19,1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which required all people of Japanese ancestry to be removed from the west coast of America and sent to internment camps. Roosevelt and the military justified doing this in the name of national security.

Approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to ten internment camps in the middle of the country. Approximately 2/3 of those relocated were Nisei, or Japanese Americans who were born in America. The smaller group of Japanese Americans that were born in Japan were known as the Issei.

The Camp at Gila

Towards the end of the war, many of the relocated Japanese Americans who could be sponsored in jobs away from the West Coast were allowed to leave the camps. Those who chose to join the U.S. Army were also released. The heavily decorated 442 nd was a Japanese American unit that fought in Europe and won more medals and decorations than any other of its size and term of service.

In 1990, reparation checks (compensation for wrongdoing by the government) of $20,000 were sent to every Japanese American that was interned. While the government apologized in this way, it is still a small measure compared to the great Civil Rights violations that happened at this time.

Primary Source on Japanese American Internment Read James Kazato's Story about Internment in the WWII reader pages and answer the following questions: 1. What did the Kazato have to do to prepare to leave? 2. What was life like in the internment camp? What were the hardships? How did people in the camps work to make the best of the situation? 3. How does Kazato feel that he is lucky after the war? What happened to others who weren't so lucky?