Cause Of Japanese Internment

According to the Supreme Court Record “Part Three of the Brief” it states, “There was ample ground to believe that imminent danger then existed of an attack by Japan upon the West Coast.” (206) This was mainly believed because the area had a large amount of war facilities and production which could have assisted in their belief of having the internment policy. Also, a factual claim that pro-internment advocates expressed was that through the “existence of media” Japan have attempted or had attempted to secure war aims. (206)

As opposed to righteous view that America was safeguarding its position in the war, the Japanese American internments were created out of resentment and racial prejudice fostered by other Americans. As the article “Personal Justice Denied” stated, the internments were led by “widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan” (Doc E, 1983). It may seem like a precautionary cause to make internments but there aren’t any other extreme measures for other fronts. Caused by a hatred stirred by media and society’s view, many people disdain the Japanese.

On December 7th, 1941, Japanese Aircraft and submarines launched a surprise attack on the Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii territory. Many Japanese aircraft flew in the sky with intent to eliminate the Pearl Harbor base, the soldiers, and all of our equipment. The American soldiers tried to protect themselves, our nation, and their brothers who they were fighting along side with. Both of the articles we have read contained a claim in relation to Japanese internment camps during WWII. The first article supported the idea japanese internment camps were necessary and our nation could have became corrupt because of the lack of trust and idea of dishonesty by the Japanese American population.

But it also shows that they were not the only ones to be mistreated and racially attacked and detained after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was unfair for them to have their rights ripped from them, no trial or no evidence. It was because of their ethnicity that they were gravely mistreated by the system that was supposed to protect them. It didn’t matter if you were a natural born citizen, or if you were of different ethnics of any foreign nature you were or could be consider to be an enemy of the United States. Even though the government justified their actions by protecting the people against further attacks, all they did was abuse the constitution, its power and ruin people’s

The internment of Japanese-Americans was justified because there were Japanese suspects. Between ten internment camps in Arizona, California, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas, about 250-300 people in each camp were suspects under surveillance. Only around 50-60 people were actually considered dangerous. “It is easy to get on the suspect list, merely a speech in favor of Japan being sufficient to land one there” (Munson 2). Clearly, America was taking extreme precautions.

The controversy surrounding the idea of the use of the internment camps during the second World War, is a highly debated issue. Was the US wrong to act out of fear in a time of great distress; or was it justifiable? In this essay, I will be arguing in favor of the US, stating, the internment camps were justifiable under the circumstances of the pearl harbor bombing. The first reason I bring forth to justify the US internment camps was that in a time of fear and distress, the US had reacted in a was that was to protect it’s people.

Since the very first presidential election, presidents in office have faced many difficult challenges. George Washington served as a general in the American Revolution and George W. Bush dealt with the 9/11 terrorist attack. Throughout President Franklin Roosevelt's presidential term, March 1933 to April 1945, he faced many difficult decisions that had to be made in the United States best interest. One of these decisions was based on the internment of Japanese American citizens. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory on December 7, 1941 which lead to the tension between Japanese Americans and the United States.

These guys felt the blunt force of discrimination during this time. Japanese-Americans were forced into one of ten permanent camps. This was the result of Executive Order 9066 and Pearl Harbor. These camps were given the name internment camps. The point of internment was to test the loyalty of the Japanese-Americans.

Jayna Marie Lorenzo May 23, 2023 Historiography Paper Professor Kevin Murphy Historiography Final: Japanese Internment “A date which will live in infamy,” announced President Roosevelt during a press conference after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Due to the military threat by the Japanese on the West Coast, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ordering for the incarceration of all people of Japanese descent. The Order forced about 120,000 Japanese Americans into relocation centers across the United States where they remained in captivity until the war ended.

The cause of the internment was due to the unlawful decisions made by the federal cabinet. In the year of 1985, the national association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC), seek the Mulroney government to negotiate a settlement plan about the war measures act. It was finalized in 1988 as it was agreed that the war measures act to be replaced by the emergencies act which then became part of the law. This act focuses on “prohibiting discriminatory emergency orders and permits the parliament to override emergency orders of the government after any emergency.” In contrast to the war measures act, the emergencies act declared that any emergency by the cabinet must be reviewed and approved by parliament and secondly, any temporary laws made under the act

The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was not justified. After Pearl Harbor, many Americans were scared of the Japanese Americans because they could sabotage the U.S. military. To try and solve the fear President Franklin D Roosevelt told the army in Executive order 9066 to relocate all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. They were relocated to detention centers in the desert. Many of them were in the detention centers for three years.

When put into the Japanese Internment Camps, Japanese-Americans were held at gunpoint and forced to leave their homes. After they were released from the camps, Japanese-Americans didn’t have a home to go back to. Not to mention the fact that the Nazi Concentration Camps left survivors mentally damaged and some mentally and physically disabled while the Japanese Internment Camps left survivors in a stable condition. In the Nazi Concentration Camps, prisoners were used as test subjects and those who did survive were left mentally or physically disabled. Even then,

How would you feel if one day you were told to leave your whole life behind to live in captivity just because people halfway across the world did something wrong? This horror story was all too true for the thousands of Japanese Americans alive during World War II. Almost overnight, thousands of proud Japanese Americans living on the west coast were forced to leave their homes and give up the life they knew. The United States government was not justified in the creation of Japanese internment camps because it stripped law-abiding American citizens of their rights out of unjustified fear.

As the Commission said in their Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, “The broad historical causes which shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership. Widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan.” The real reason the government put Japanese Americans in internment camps was because of their race, and they were just mad at Japan.

On December 11, 1941 Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese, more than 360 Japanese warplanes. They came and bombed our harbor killing more than 5,000 people. After the bombing America had a suspicion that maybe there was a spy, so they put more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans in an internment camps. I feel that internment camps were not necessary though because of that action we were thought of as racist, harsh, and dis loyal. I feel that because of those internment camps we were looked at as racist because we put humans in a internment camp just because they were of a different race.