Full Answer
What was the Japanese American internment?
Japanese American internment was the forced relocation by the U.S. government of thousands of Japanese Americans to detention camps during World War II, beginning in 1942.
How did the United States treat Japanese Americans during the war?
Following the Pearl Harbor attack, however, a wave of antiJapanese suspicion and fear led the Roosevelt administration to adopt a drastic policy toward these residents, alien and citizen alike. Virtually all Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes and property and live in camps for most of the war.
Were only Japanese Americans targeted for detention during WW2?
Although the word Japanese did not appear in the executive order, it was clear that only Japanese Americans were targeted, though some other immigrants, including Germans, Italians, and Aleuts, also faced detention during the war. On March 18, 1942, the federal War Relocation Authority (WRA) was established.
Why were Japanese Americans incarcerated?
Japanese Americans were incarcerated based on local population concentrations and regional politics. More than 110,000 Japanese Americans in the mainland U.S., who mostly lived on the West Coast, were forced into interior camps.
What justification was given to Japanese families for the internment policy?
Virtually all Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes and property and live in camps for most of the war. The government cited national security as justification for this policy although it violated many of the most essential constitutional rights of Japanese Americans.
How were Japanese immigrants treated in internment camps?
The camps were surrounded by barbed-wire fences patrolled by armed guards who had instructions to shoot anyone who tried to leave. Although there were a few isolated incidents of internees' being shot and killed, as well as more numerous examples of preventable suffering, the camps generally were run humanely.
Was the order 9066 justified?
Roosevelt justified the order on the grounds of military necessity, declaring that Japanese Americans were a threat to national security. Anti-Japanese sentiments had been developing in the U.S. long before WWII had even begun.
How did America treat Japanese prisoners?
Prisoners were routinely beaten, starved and abused and forced to work in mines and war-related factories in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions. Of the 27,000 Americans taken prisoner by the Japanese, a shocking 40 percent died in captivity, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.
How were Japanese treated prior to ww2?
Discriminatory laws passed during the early l900s denied the Japanese the right to become citizens, to own land, and to marry outside of their race. In addition, they could not buy homes in certain areas and were barred from jobs in certain industries.
Do you feel the US was justified in relocating Japanese Americans explain quizlet?
The United States government justified the action of relocating Japanese Americans to internment camps by stating the actions protected Japanese from persecution that they would have faced otherwise due to a deep hatred that was brought on by the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
What was the main reason Executive Order 9066 was issued?
Issued by President Franklin Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, this order authorized the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to "relocation centers" further inland – resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Why did the US put Japanese in internment camps?
Nearly two months after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. In an effort to curb potential Japanese espionage, Executive Order 9066 approved the relocation of Japanese-Americans into internment camps. At first, the relocations were completed on a voluntary basis.
What was the internment of Japanese Americans?
Japanese American internment was the forced relocation by the U.S. government of thousands of Japanese Americans to detention camps during World Wa...
Where were Japanese American internment camps?
Japanese American internment camps were located mainly in western U.S. states. The first internment camp in operation was Manzanar, located in Cali...
Why were Japanese Americans interned during World War II?
After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. War Department suspected that Japanese Americans might act as espionage agents for Japan, despite a...
What was life like inside Japanese American internment camps?
Conditions at Japanese American internment camps were spare, without many amenities. The camps were ringed with barbed-wire fences and patrolled by...
What was the cost of Japanese American internment?
The cost of internment to Japanese Americans was great. Because they were given so little time to settle their affairs before being shipped to inte...
Why did the Japanese Americans return home?
Japanese-Americans who were returning home faced discrimination and prejudice from the civilian population. President Harry S. Truman, who waqs ashamed of these acts, paid tribute to the Japanese-American soldiers ...
What was the second generation of Japanese Americans called?
The second generation of American born Japanese-Americans were called Nisei. This executive order affected over 117,000 Japanese-Americans from both generations. Thousands of people lost their homes and businesses due to “failure to pay taxes.”. EO 9066 was widely controversial.
What was the EO 9066?
EO 9066 was widely controversial. This order stayed in place until President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9742 on June 25, 1946. EO 9742 ordered the liquidation of the War Relocation Authority and allowed Japanese-Americans to return to their homes.
What was the purpose of Executive Order 9066?
In an effort to curb potential Japanese espionage, Executive Order 9066 approved the relocation of Japanese-Americans into internment camps. At first, the relocations were completed on a voluntary basis. Volunteers to relocate were minimal, so the executive order paved the way for forced relocation of Japanese-Americans living on the west coast.
What was the purpose of the 9066?
Nearly two months after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. In an effort to curb potential Japanese espionage, Executive Order 9066 approved the relocation of Japanese-Americans into internment camps.
Who was the President of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team?
President Harry S. Truman, who waqs ashamed of these acts, paid tribute to the Japanese-American soldiers of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act. The remaining survivors of the relocation camps were sent formal letters of apology and were awarded $20,000 in restitutions from ...
Did the Japanese feel closure?
Despite the actions taken by various presidents after the liquidation of the War Relocation Authority, many Japanese-Americans never felt closure. The American-created internment camps are rarely discussed in history.
Who was the architect of the Japanese internment program?
California defined anyone with 1/16th or more Japanese lineage as sufficient to be interned. Colonel Karl Bendetsen, the architect behind the program, went so far as saying anyone with "one drop of Japanese blood" qualified.
How did Japanese Americans contribute to the agriculture of California and other Western states?
Japanese Americans contributed to the agriculture of California and other Western states, by introducing irrigation methods that enabled the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, and flowers on previously inhospitable land.
Why was the letter by General DeWitt and Colonel Bendetsen redacted?
A letter by General DeWitt and Colonel Bendetsen expressing racist bias against Japanese Americans was circulated and then hastily redacted in 1943–1944. DeWitt's final report stated that, because of their race, it was impossible to determine the loyalty of Japanese Americans, thus necessitating internment. The original version was so offensive – even in the atmosphere of the wartime 1940s – that Bendetsen ordered all copies to be destroyed.
How did the Census Bureau help the internment efforts?
The United States Census Bureau assisted the internment efforts by providing specific individual census data on Japanese Americans. The Bureau denied its role for decades despite scholarly evidence to the contrary, and its role became more widely acknowledged by 2007.
How many Japanese Americans were interned in Hawaii?
As a result, only 1,200 to 1,800 Japanese Americans in Hawaii were interned.
Why was Alaska not exempt from the Japanese?
Unlike the rest of the West Coast, Alaska was not subject to any exclusion zones due to its small Japanese population. Nevertheless, the Western Defense Command announced in April 1942 that all Japanese people and Americans of Japanese ancestry were to leave the territory for internment camps inland.
What was the night time curfew in 1942?
A night-time curfew, also initiated on March 27, 1942, placed further restrictions on the movements and daily lives of Japanese Americans. Included in the forced removal was Alaska, which, like Hawaii, was an incorporated U.S. territory located in the northwest extremity of the continental United States.
Why did America fight in World War 2?
America fought World War II to preserve freedom and democracy, yet that same war featured the greatest suppression of civil liberties in the nation’s history. In an atmosphere of hysteria, President Roosevelt, encouraged by officials at all levels of the federal government, authorized the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens ...
Who was the first head of the War Relocation Authority?
He chose as its first head Milton Eisenhower, a New Deal bureaucrat in the Department of Agriculture and brother of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Where were Japanese in Los Angeles?
There were more Japanese in Los Angeles than in any other area. In nearby San Pedro, houses and hotels, occupied almost exclusively by Japanese, were within a stone’s throw of a naval air base, shipyards, oil wells.
Did Japanese farmers have to move from critical areas?
Japanese farmers were living close to vital aircraft plants. So, as a first step, all Japanese were required to move from critical areas such as these. But, of course, this limited evacuation was a solution to only part of the problem.
Who suggested the creation of military zones and Japanese detention?
DeWitt suggested the creation of the military zones and Japanese detainment to Secretary of War Henry Stimson and Attorney General Francis Biddle. His original plan included Italians and Germans, though the idea of rounding-up Americans of European descent was not as popular.
When was the last Japanese internment camp closed?
Reparations. The last Japanese internment camp closed in March 1946 . President Gerald Ford officially repealed Executive Order 9066 in 1976, and in 1988, Congress issued a formal apology and passed the Civil Liberties Act awarding $20,000 each to over 80,000 Japanese Americans as reparations for their treatment.
Why was Fred Korematsu arrested?
In 1942, 23-year-old Japanese-American Fred Korematsu was arrested for refusing to relocate to a Japanese prison camp. His case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where his attorneys argued in Korematsu v. United States that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment .
Why did Endo refuse to be freed?
After filing a habeas corpus petition, the government offered to free her, but Endo refused, wanting her case to address the entire issue of Japanese incarceration. Two years later, the Supreme Court made the decision, but gave President Roosevelt the chance to begin camp closures before the announcement.
What was the purpose of Executive Order 9066?
On February 19, 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 with the stated intention of preventing espionage on American shores. Military zones were created in California, Washington and Oregon —states with a large population of Japanese Americans.
How many people were affected by Executive Order 9066?
Executive Order 9066 affected the lives about 120,000 people—the majority of whom were American citizens. Canada soon followed suit, forcibly removing 21,000 of its residents of Japanese descent from its west coast.
What was the policy of the US government in 1942?
From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent, including U.S. citizens, would be incarcerated in isolated camps. Enacted in reaction to the Pearl Harbor attacks and the ensuing war, the incarceration of Japanese Americans is considered one of the most atrocious violations of American civil rights in ...
Why did the US create internment camps?
The biggest reason behind, and justification for, the creation of internment camps was fear of espionage (spying). Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, there was wide speculation of Japanese spies living in the United States. Lt. General DeWitt was charged with going to the west coast and investigating the reports of spy activity.
What happened on December 7th 1942?
Of further concern to him was the fact that for a period of several weeks following December 7th, substantially every ship leaving a West Coast port was attacked by an enemy submarine. This seemed conclusively to point to the existence of hostile ship-to-shore communication” (DeWitt, 1942).
What did DeWitt report on the Pacific Coast?
He reported, “The Commanding General, during the closing weeks of December, requested that the War Department induce the Department of Justice to take vigorous action along the Pacific Coast.
Who confirmed General DeWitt's arrest?
Upon hearing this, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson wrote to Attorney General Francis Biddle on January 25, 1942 and stated, "General DeWitt’s apprehensions have been confirmed by recent visits of military observers from the War Department to the Pacific coast.
Why did Walter Lippmann argue that Japanese Americans had not yet been caught plotting an act of sabotage
Walter Lippmann, a journalist whose columns were carried by newspapers across the United States, argued that the only reason Japanese Americans had not yet been caught plotting an act of sabotage was that they were waiting to strike when it would be most effective.
How much did the Japanese American relocation program cost?
Camp residents lost some $400 million in property during their incarceration. Congress provided $38 million in reparations in 1948 and forty years later paid an additional $20,000 to each surviving individual who had been detained in the camps.
What did Japanese American high school students do?
At the Rohwer War Relocation Center in southeastern Arkansas, Japanese American high school students had their own band, sports teams, clubs, and activities like senior prom and student council.
What was the Japanese community like before the war?
Before the war, most Japanese Americans adhered closely to the customs and traditions enforced by their oldest generation (called Issei), which often deepened their isolation from mainstream American society.
How many subversives were arrested in Pearl Harbor?
After the Pearl Harbor attack, these two agencies, plus the Army’s G-2 intelligence unit, arrested over 3,000 suspected subversives, half of whom were of Japanese descent. As far as the agencies were concerned, the remaining Japanese American population did not pose a significant threat to national security.
How many Japanese people were born in the US during the Pearl Harbor attack?
At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, about 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry lived on the US mainland, mostly along the Pacific Coast. About two thirds were full citizens, born and raised in the United States. Following the Pearl Harbor attack, however, a wave of antiJapanese suspicion and fear led ...
Where were the war relocation camps located?
The more permanent relocation centers were not much better. The War Relocation Authority established 10 of these camps, mostly located in the West, although two were located in Arkansas (which later consolidated to one in Rohwer, Arkansas).
Overview
Exclusion, removal, and detention
Somewhere between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were subject to this mass exclusion program, of whom about 80,000 Nisei (second generation) and Sansei (third generation) were U.S. citizens. The rest were Issei (first generation) who were subject to internment under the Alien Enemies Act; many of these "resident aliens" had been inhabitants of the United States for d…
Background
Due in large part to socio-political changes which stemmed from the Meiji Restoration—and a recession which was caused by the abrupt opening of Japan's economy to the world economy—people started to emigrate from the Empire of Japan in 1868 because they needed to get jobs which would enable them to survive. From 1869 to 1924 approximately 200,000 immigrated to the islands …
Development
Executive Order 9066, signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, authorized military commanders to designate "military areas" at their discretion, "from which any or all persons may be excluded." These "exclusion zones," unlike the "alien enemy" roundups, were applicable to anyone that an authorized military commander might choose, whether citizen or non-citizen. Eventually s…
Advocates who supported and opposed the establishment of internment camps in the U.S.
The deportation and incarceration of Japanese Americans was popular among many white farmers who resented the Japanese American farmers. "White American farmers admitted that their self-interest required the removal of the Japanese." These individuals saw internment as a convenient means of uprooting their Japanese-American competitors. Austin E. Anson, managing s…
Newspaper editorials
Editorials from major newspapers at the time were generally supportive of the internment of the Japanese by the United States.
A Los Angeles Times editorial dated February 19, 1942, stated that:
Since Dec. 7 there has existed an obvious menace to the safety of this region in the presence of potential saboteurs and fifth columnists close to oil refineries and storage tanks, airplane factori…
Facilities
While this event is most commonly called the internment of Japanese Americans, the government operated several different types of camps holding Japanese Americans. The best known facilities were the military-run Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) Assembly Centers and the civilian-run War Relocation Authority (WRA) Relocation Centers, which are generally (but unoffi…
Internment ends
On December 18, 1944, the Supreme Court handed down two decisions on the legality of the incarceration under Executive Order 9066. Korematsu v. United States, a 6–3 decision upholding a Nisei's conviction for violating the military exclusion order, stated that, in general, the removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast was constitutional. However, Ex parte Endo unanimously declared on that same day that loyal citizens of the United States, regardless of cul…