| 1952 |
|
| 1961 |
|
| 1962 |
|
| 1963 |
|
| 1964a |
(649) There was only one important occasion
when the normal rights of civilians were
violated in the interest of national safety.
In the excitement following the attack on
Pearl Harbor, over a hundred thousand Japanese-Americans
were removed from their homes along the Pacific
Coast and herded into camps run by the army. |
| 1964b |
|
| 1964c |
(615) In sad contrast to this moderation
the frenzy of public fury turned on the Japanese.
The fighting in the Pacific developed a fierce
savagery, reflected in the public anger within
the United States. On the Pacific coast,
hatred of Americans of Japanese background
became extreme. Wild stories circulated about
sabotage at Pearl Harbor -- stories later
proven 100 per cent untrue. As sandbags were
piled around Pacific coast telephone offices,
and barrage balloons were raised over shipyards,
fear of Japanese-American espionage and sabotage
became intense. Under public pressure, Roosevelt
in February, 1942, authorized the army to
remove all persons of Japanese ancestry.
(616) The persecution of Japanese-Americans
was the only serious violation of civil liberties
during the war. It represented a serious
erosion of civilian rights, for the Supreme
Court in 1944 validated the evacuation and
in other decisions upheld military control
over civilians. In time of war or national
emergency, citizens could expect no court
protection of their rights as against military
or executive authority. |
| 1964d |
|
| 1964e |
|
| 1965 |
|
| 1966a |
|
| 1966b |
|
| 1966c |
|
| 1966d |
− |
| 1966e |
(741) One group of people who suffered a
great injustice during the war were the Japanese-Americans.
The government, fearing sabotage in the event
of a Japanese invasion, moved those on the
West Coast to inland relocation centers.
The American Civil Liberties Union denounced
this action as "the worst single wholesale
violation of civil rights of American citizens
in our history." |
| 1967a |
|
| 1967b |
|
| 1967c |
|
| 1968a |
− |
| 1968b |
|
| 1968c |
|
| 1969a |
|
| 1969b |
(667) Hysteria and intolerance were minimal
-- with one major exception. More than 100,000
loyal Japanese-Americans were removed to
relocation centers. |
| 1969c |
|
| 1969d |
|
| 1970 |
|
| 1971a |
|
| 1971b |
(343) The Home Front in World War Two. Chapter
96 describes how the American people organized
and worked together at home to help win the
war. The main topics in the chapter are:
* The change-over of American industry to
the production of war material. * The wartime
efforts of American workers, * The winning
of jobs by black workers during World War
Two. * The wartime efforts of American farmers,
* Raising money to pay for the war. * Government
controls on the economy. * The unfair treatment
of Japanese-Americans during the war. * The
election of President Roosevelt to a fourth
term in 1944. |
| 1972 |
|
| 1973 |
|
| 1974 |
(758) After Pearl Harbor white residents
of west coast states feared an internal threat
from the Japanese Americans. They appealed
to President Roosevelt to remove the entire
community from the west coast. Actually,
there was no evidence whatsoever of sabotage.
But officials such as California's attorney
general Earl Warren (later a great civil
libertarian as the Chief Justice of the United
States) urged their evacuation to protect
the region's civil defense. Bowing to these
pressures, President Roosevelt signed an
executive order in February 1942 authorizing
the relocation of Japanese Americans to nine
inland centers. |
| 1975 |
− |
| 1976 |
− |
| 1978a |
− |
| 1978b |
(568) [Picture] After Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans
march to internment camps under armed guard.
They were held until 1945. On the West Coast
126,000 of them lost homes, farms, and businesses.
(663) Before his appointment to the Court
by President Eisenhower in 1953, Warren had
been active in California politics. As the
state's attorney general, he had played a
major role in the internment of Japanese
Americans during World War II (page 568).
This was hardly the basis for supposing that
he would take a strong interest in protecting
citizen rights. But Warren proved skillful
in leading the Supreme Court to decisions
that significantly advanced civil liberties. |
| 1980 |
|
| 1981a |
|
| 1981b |
(313) Then with the outbreak of World War
II, Japanese Americans in Hawaii and along
the Pacific coast ? citizens and aliens alike
? lost their homes and businesses when they
were interned in "relocation" camps.
(608) The internment camps. Despite racial
and ethnic differences, the members of most
minority groups did make social and economic
gains during World War II. One minority group,
however, was subjected to especially severe
discrimination. That group was made up of
Japanese Americans -- Japanese people who
had migrated to the United States, and the
Nisei who were American-born people of Japanese
descent. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor
came the widespread belief that Japan would
try to invade the United States. The federal
government quickly arrested a few Japanese
Americans who were considered to be disloyal.
However, this action did not satisfy the
growing numbers of people who thought that
all Japanese Americans living on the West
Coast should be imprisoned or deported. At
first the federal government was reluctant
to move all Japanese Americans. There was
no proof that any of them really were a threat
to national safety. But in the face of public
opinion and increased attacks against the
lives and property of the Japanese Americans,
the government was forced to take action.
As a result Executive Order 9066 was issued
in February, 1942. Executive Order 9066 called
for the relocation of Japanese Americans
to camps that were removed from coastal areas.
(608) [Picture] During the war, racial discrimination
struck hard against Japanese Americans who
lived on the West Coast. Viewed as a security
threat, the entire Japanese American population
was moved to internment camps located inland.
(609) [Picture] For many Japanese Americans
the ordeal of discrimination continued even
after the war. |
| 1982a |
(337-8) The upheaval in everyday life resulting
from these controls and from the whole vast
war effort revealed the extraordinary willingness
of the American people to make sacrifices
for the national emergency. Despite discomforts
and sacrifices, the people maintained a remarkably
high level of morale. Americans also suffered
deep anxieties and fears. However, these
fears did not lead to the widespread repressions
of minority groups that occurred in World
War I. The tragic exception to this overall
tolerance was the forced relocation of some
100,000 Americans of Japanese birth or parentage.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
many Americans were genuinely fearful of
a Japanese attack on the United States. (337)
[Picture] Hastily built tarpaper barracks
were the new homes for Japanese Americans
in 1942 when they were forced to leave their
former homes and relocate in detention camps.
This camp was set up in the desert near Manzanar,
California. |
| 1982b |
(635) The war had a very different impact
on the lives of Japanese Americans. Many
lived in the states of California, Oregon,
and Washington. After the attack on Pearl
Harbor, some 110,000 Japanese Americans ?
70,000 of whom were Nisei (ne'sa'), or American-born
citizens -- were forced to "relocate"
in distant states because military leaders
thought they would come to the aid of Japan. |
| 1982c |
− |
| 1982d |
|
| 1982e |
(619) In spite of the war, people who had
suffered severe economic hardship saw a chance
to improve their lives. There was one glaring
exception. On the West Coast, 110,000 Americans
of Japanese birth or descent made their homes.
During the early months of 1942, Japan was
winning the opening battles of the war. Fears
were expressed that a Japanese force might
land on the United States Pacific Coast and
that Japanese descendants living there would
support Japan. Nothing whatever in the past
behavior of Japanese-Americans supported
such a belief. Behind it was a long history
of prejudice against Asians. (619) [Picture]
By nightfall on December 7, 1941, the FBI
had arrested some 1300 "potentially
dangerous" Japanese aliens in California.
By spring of 1942, the civil liberties of
all Japanese-Americans living on the West
Coast had been suspended. Beginning in April,
nearly 110,000 Japanese-Americans ? half
of them under 20 ? were ordered to relocation
centers. From there they were moved to barracks
surrounded by barbed wire. |
| 1983a |
− |
| 1983b |
(165-6) With no evidence at all, high American
officials hinted that Japanese Americans
were cooperating with the Japanese government
against the United States. In California,
Washington, and Oregon there was talk of
Japanese spying and sabotage. Otherwise sensible
people demanded that Japanese Americans be
forced to leave the West Coast. General Benjamin
DeWitt, United States Army commander on the
West Coast, urged the government to order
their removal from that region. In this letter
to the Secretary of War, DeWitt gives his
reasons. Hostile naval and air raids will
be assisted by enemy agents signaling from
the coastline and the vicinity thereof: and
by supplying and otherwise assisting enemy
vessels and by sabotage. . . . The Japanese
race is an enemy race and while many second-
and third-generation Japanese born on United
States soil, possessed of United States citizenship,
have become "Americanized," the
racial strains are undiluted. . . . It, therefore,
follows that along the vital Pacific Coast
over 112,000 potential enemies of Japanese
extraction are at large today. There are
indications that these are organized and
ready for concerted action at a favorable
opportunity. The very fact that no sabotage
has taken place to date is a disturbing and
confirming indication that such action will
be taken. What are DeWitt's reasons for wanting
the Japanese removed? Read General DeWitt's
last sentence again. With this kind of reasoning,
was there any way for Japanese Americans
to defend themselves against the charge of
disloyalty? (166-8) They were then shipped
to ten "relocation centers" that
were set up in isolated parts of California,
Arizona, Wyoming, and several other western
states. There, behind barbed-wire fences,
they tried to establish some kind of normal
existence for the duration of the war. Those
who were herded into these camps were understandably
bitter. One, testifying before a United States
Senate committee, put it this way. Our citizenship
has even been attacked as an evil cloak under
which we can expect immunity for the nefarious
purpose of conspiring to destroy the American
way of life. To us -- who have been born,
raised, and educated in American institutions
and in our system of public schools, knowing
and owing no other allegiance than to the
United States -- such a thought is manifestly
unfair and ambiguous. . . . We cannot understand
why General DeWitt can make exceptions for
families of German and Italian soldiers in
the armed forces of the United States while
ignoring the civil rights of the Nisei Americans.
Are we to be condemned merely on the basis
of cur racial origin? Is citizenship such
a light and transient thing that that which
is our inalienable right in normal times
can be torn from us in times of war? The
questions in that last paragraph were not
answered by the committee. It was, indeed,
difficult to understand why Japanese Americans
should be treated one way and German and
Italian Americans, against whose ancestral
land America was also at war, another way.
The reasons most often given were those cited
by General DeWitt. Were they, do you think,
valid reasons for removing Japanese Americans
from their homes and placing them in camps?
Perhaps there was also another reason that
few mentioned. As a member of a nativist
organization said, "This is our time
to get things done that we have been trying
to get done for a quarter of a century."
(166) [Picture] a group of Japanese Americans
are trucked to a relocation center in a western
state soon after the United States entered
World War II. Their internment was a tragic
case of discrimination. |
| 1983c |
(441) With no evidence at all, high American
officials hinted that Japanese Americans
were cooperating with the Japanese government
against the United States. In California,
Washington, and Oregon there was talk of
Japanese spying and sabotage. Otherwise sensible
people demanded that Japanese Americans be
forced to leave the West Coast. General Benjamin
DeWitt, United States Army commander on the
West Coast, urged the government to order
their removal from that region. In this letter
to the Secretary of War, DeWitt gives his
reasons. Hostile naval and air raids will
be assisted by enemy agents signaling from
the coastline and the vicinity thereof: and
by supplying and otherwise assisting enemy
vessels and by sabotage. . . . The Japanese
race is an enemy race and while many second-
and third-generation Japanese born on United
States soil, possessed of United States citizenship,
have become "Americanized," the
racial strains are undiluted. . . . It, therefore,
follows that along the vital Pacific Coast
over 112,000 potential enemies of Japanese
extraction are at large today. There are
indications that these are organized and
ready for concerted action at a favorable
opportunity. The very fact that no sabotage
has taken place to date is a disturbing and
confirming indication that such action will
be taken. What are DeWitt's reasons for wanting
the Japanese removed? Read General DeWitt's
last sentence again. With this kind of reasoning,
was there any way for Japanese Americans
to defend themselves against the charge of
disloyalty? (442-4) They were then shipped
to ten "relocation centers" that
were set up in isolated parts of California,
Arizona, Wyoming, and several other western
states. There, behind barbed-wire fences,
they tried to establish some kind of normal
existence for the duration of the war. Those
who were herded into these camps were understandably
bitter. One, testifying before a United States
Senate committee, put it this way. Our citizenship
has even been attacked as an evil cloak under
which we can expect immunity for the nefarious
purpose of conspiring to destroy the American
way of life. To us -- who have been born,
raised, and educated in American institutions
and in our system of public schools, knowing
and owing no other allegiance than to the
United States -- such a thought is manifestly
unfair and ambiguous. . . . We cannot understand
why General DeWitt can make exceptions for
families of German and Italian soldiers in
the armed forces of the United States while
ignoring the civil rights of the Nisei Americans.
Are we to be condemned merely on the basis
of cur racial origin? Is citizenship such
a light and transient thing that that which
is our inalienable right in normal times
can be torn from us in times of war? The
questions in that last paragraph were not
answered by the committee. It was, indeed,
difficult to understand why Japanese Americans
should be treated one way and German and
Italian Americans, against whose ancestral
land America was also at war, another way.
The reasons most often given were those cited
by General DeWitt above. Were they, do you
think, valid reasons? Perhaps there was also
another reason that few mentioned. As a member
of a nativist organization said, "This
is our time to get things done that we have
been trying to get done for a quarter of
a century." (442) [Picture] a group
of Japanese Americans are trucked to a relocation
center in a western state soon after the
United States entered World War II. Their
internment was a tragic case of discrimination. |
| 1983d |
− |
| 1984 |
(425) The exception was the internment in
"relocation centers" of more than
110,000 Japanese-Americans. Of these people,
70,000 were Nisei, or native-born citizens
of the United States. Charges of criminal
behavior were never brought against them;
none were ever indicted or tried, though
civilian courts were open and accessible.
The Supreme Court upheld the government's
policy of internment. In wartime, the Court
said in the Hirabayashi ruling (1943), "residents
having ethnic affiliations with an invading
enemy may be a greater source of danger than
those of different ancestry." And in
the Korematsu case (1944), the Court, with
three justices dissenting, approved the removal
of the Nisei from the West Coast. One dissenter,
Justice Frank Murphy, denounced the decision
as the "legalization of racism."
In an even more ominous appraisal, Circuit
Court Judge William Denman had written, "the
identity of this doctrine with that of the
Hitler generals . . . justifying the gas
chambers of Dachau is unmistakable."
(425) [Picture] Branded members of an enemy
race by the government, more than 110,000
Japanese-Americans were rounded up and shipped
to internment camps. These people were among
the 18,000 Japanese-Americans sent to a race
track at Santa Anita, California, where they
lived in horses' stalls. National Archives. |
| 1985a |
(734) In sad contrast to this moderation,
a frenzy of public fury turned against Americans
of Japanese birth or descent. After the attack
on Pearl Harbor, wild stories circulated
about sabotage there and about plots to aid
an enemy landing on the California coast,
stories that afterward proved to be completely
untrue. In February 1942 Roosevelt authorized
the army to remove all people of Japanese
ancestry from the West Coast. . . . The Supreme
Court in 1944 approved the holding of Japanese
Americans in concentration camps and later
handed down other decisions endorsing military
control over civilians. In wartime, apparently,
American citizens could not rely on the Constitution
or the Court for the protection of their
civil rights. |
| 1985b |
(573) Detention Camps. Following the sneak
attack on Pearl harbor, a deep distrust of
Japanese Americans developed in the United
States. People worried that Americans of
Japanese descent might help the enemy. With
the agreement of Earl Warren, governor of
California, President Roosevelt disgracefully
ordered the army to move the Japanese Americans
from the Pacific Coast to inland detention
camps. (573) [Picture] In 1941 there were
more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent
in the United States. About 71,000 of them
were Nisei (American born). Early in 1942
all those living on the West Coast were moved
to relocation camps. |
| 1985c |
(249) General J. L. DeWitt, responsible for
defending the Pacific Coast against enemy
attack, feared that the 112,000 persons of
Japanese ancestry who lived in the West Coast
states might be a threat to national security.
General DeWitt recommended that these people
be sent away from the region. Suspension
of Constitutional Rights. More than 75,000
American citizens of Japanese ancestry lived
on the West Coast of the United States. .
. . Born in the United States, the children
of these immigrants had, of course, become
citizens at birth. They also considered themselves
patriotic and loyal. Yet, many American politicians
and leaders thought otherwise. Secretary
of War Henry L. Stimson urged President Roosevelt
to take action to remove all American citizens
of Japanese ancestry, as well as all Japanese
immigrants, from the West Coast. On February
19, 1942, The President issued Executive
Order #9066 giving authority to military
commanders to establish special zones in
territory threatened by enemy attack. The
order invested the military commanders with
power to decide who could come, go, or remain
in the special military areas. |
| 1986a |
− |
| 1986b |
(807) The tragic exception to this overall
tolerance was the forced relocation of some
100,000 Americans of Japanese birth or parentage.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
many Americans were genuinely fearful of
a Japanese attack on the United States. |
| 1986c |
(634) The worst discrimination, however,
was felt by Japanese Americans. Most Japanese
Americans lived on the West Coast. Many were
successful farmers and business people. For
years, they had faced racial prejudice in
part because of their success. After the
attack on Pearl Harbor, many white Americans
distrusted Japanese Americans. They warned
that Japanese Americans on the West Coast
could act as spies and help Japan invade
the United States. The President agreed to
an order to move Japanese Americans away
from the coast to "relocation"
camps farther inland. |
| 1986d |
− |
| 1986e |
− |
| 1986f |
(499) After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor,
over 100,000 Japanese (most of them American
citizens) were removed from the West Coast
to ten detention camps inland. They were
treated almost like prisoners and kept behind
barbed-wire fences. Both President Franklin
Roosevelt and the Supreme Court approved. |
| 1987a |
− |
| 1987b |
− |
| 1988 |
(619) German-Americans and Italian-Americans
were usually not blamed for the actions of
Hitler and Mussolini. Japanese-American citizens,
or Nisei, however, were treated very differently.
Pearl Harbor inflamed the racist feelings
that some Americans had toward Japanese.
Some Americans also were afraid that the
Japanese-Americans were spying for Japan
and secretly trying to damage the war effort.
(619) [Picture] Think: During World War II.
100,000 Japanese-Americans were taken from
their homes. Respond: What do you suppose
these people were thinking as they were taken
to relocation camps? (What will happen to
my family? to my business?) (620) After the
bombing of Pearl Harbor, people feared Japanese-Americans
might spy for Japan. President Roosevelt
ordered the army to evacuate the entire Japanese-American
community on the west coast to camps in the
West and Midwest. From the camps, people
were to be relocated to areas away from the
west coast. Within two months, 110,000 American
citizens and their alien parents lost their
incomes, their property, and their civil
liberties. (T116) Why were Japanese-Americans
taken from their homes and placed in relocation
camps? The day after the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor, the accounts of Japanese-Americans
in California were frozen. Additionally,
the banks refused to cash their checks. These
American citizens were forbidden to conduct
business, and in countless cases were refused
service. Soon, public outcry demanded that
the Japanese be evacuated from the west coast.
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt
authorized the secretary of war to designate
certain areas of the United States as military
areas from which people could be excluded. |
| 1989a |
(634) The worst discrimination, however,
was felt by Japanese Americans. Most Japanese
Americans lived on the West Coast. Many were
successful farmers and business people. For
years, they had faced racial prejudice in
part because of their success. After the
attack on Pearl Harbor, many white Americans
distrusted Japanese Americans. They warned
that Japanese Americans on the West Coast
could act as spies and help Japan invade
the United States. The President agreed to
an order to move Japanese Americans away
from the coast to "relocation"
camps farther inland. |
| 1989b |
− |
| 1990a |
(674) The bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan
created a wave of anger against Americans
of Japanese ancestry. Although Japanese Americans
were loyal citizens, many other Americans
held them responsible for the Japanese attack.
And since most of them lived on the Pacific
coast in small, identifiable communities,
they became easy targets for systematic discrimination.
Once at war, the United States feared a Japanese
invasion of the Pacific coast, the area of
the country closest to Japan. Warning of
possible sabotage, in February 1942, defense
officials labeled Japanese Americans living
on the Pacific coast "a menace to be
dealt with." Yielding to pressure, President
Roosevelt granted the War Department full
authority to forcibly relocate thousands
of innocent Japanese Americans. With little
or no warning, 110,000 Japanese Americans
were uprooted and moved to internment camps
in the middle of the country. (674) [Pictures]
"Herd 'em up, pack 'em off, and give
'em the inside room in the Badlands,"
recommended one newspaper columnist as the
appropriate treatment for Japanese Americans.
In 1942, more than 100,000 Japanese Americans
living on the West Coast were loaded onto
trucks, like those at left, and transported
to isolated camps roped off by barbed wire. |
| 1990b |
(571) Japanese and Americans of Japanese
ancestry had long faced discrimination on
the West Coast. After Pearl Harbor their
situation became much worse. For no good
reason, other citizens blamed them for what
the Japanese militarists had done and even
began to suspect that they might be helping
the enemy across the Pacific. Western politicians
and frightened military men pressured FDR
to remove them from the coastal states. President
Roosevelt gave in. Early in I942, under the
excuse of national security, 110,000 Japanese
Americans were rounded up. There was no evidence
that these Americans were disloyal. (571)
[Picture] Ordered to leave their homes and
businesses on short notice by order of the
united States government, bewildered Japanese
Americans wait in Los Angeles for a train
to take them to an internment camp. |
| 1990c |
(664-5) One minority group, the Japanese
Americans, fared badly during the war. Most
Japanese Americans lived on the West Coast.
Many residents there had long held a prejudice
against this minority. To this prejudice
was now added the fear that people of Japanese
ancestry might help the Japanese enemy in
an attack on the land along the Pacific Coast.
A demand arose for people of Japanese ancestry
to be removed from the West Coast of the
United States. Some military and political
leaders joined the chorus, and President
Roosevelt bowed to the pressure. In February
1942 he ordered the army to move some 110,000
people of Japanese background to relocation
centers farther inland. These relocation
centers were crowded, hastily built camps
where the residents lived behind barbed wire
and under armed guard during the war. . .
. The whole episode was a shameful one, not
fitting for a democratic society. There was
never any evidence of disloyalty on the part
of the Japanese Americans. |
| 1990d |
(862) The Japanese were easier to hate than
the Germans. The attack on Pearl Harbor created
a special animosity toward the Japanese,
but the depiction of the Japanese as warlike
and subhuman owed something to a long tradition
of fear of the so-called yellow peril and
a distrust of all Asians. The movies, magazine
articles, cartoons, and posters added to
the image of the Japanese soldier or pilot
with a toothy grin murdering innocent women
and children or shooting down helpless Americans.
Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, Time magazine
explained to Americans how they could distinguish
our Asian friends the Chinese "from
the Japs." "Virtually all Japanese
are short, Japanese are seldom fat; they
often dry up with age," Time declared.
"Most Chinese avoid horn-rimmed spectacles.
Japanese walk stiffly erect, hard-heeled.
Chinese, more relaxed, have an easy gait.
The Chinese expression is likely to be more
kindly, placid, open; the Japanese more positive,
dogmatic, arrogant. The racial stereotype
of the Japanese played a role in the treatment
of Japanese-Americans during the war. Some
prejudice was shown against German and Italian-Americans,
but Japanese-Americans were the only group
confined in concentration camps in the greatest
mass abridgment of civil liberties in American
history. (862-3) The Japanese had long suffered
from racial discrimination and prejudice
in the United States. They were barred from
intermarriage with other groups and excluded
from many clubs, restaurants, and recreation
facilities. Many worked as tenant farmers,
fishermen, or small businessmen. Others made
up a small professional class of lawyers,
teachers, and doctors and a large class of
landowning farmers. Although many retained
cultural and linguistic ties to Japan, they
posed no more threat to the country than
did the much larger groups of Italian-Americans
and German-Americans. But their physical
characteristics made them stand out as the
others did not. After Pearl Harbor, an anti-Japanese
panic seized the West Coast. A Los Angeles
newspaper reported that armed Japanese were
in Baja California ready to attack. Rumors
suggested that Japanese fishermen were preparing
to sow mines in the harbor, blow up tunnels,
and poison the water supply. West Coast politicians
and ordinary citizens urged the War Department
and the president to evacuate the Japanese.
The president capitulated and issued Executive
Order 9066 authorizing the evacuation in
February 1942. "The continued pressure
of a largely unassimilated, tightly knit
racial group, bound to an enemy nation by
strong ties of race, culture, custom and
religion, constituted a menace which had
to be dealt with," General John De Witt
argued, justifying the removal on military
grounds. But racial fear and animosity, not
military necessity, stood behind the order.
(862) [Picture] Japanese-American children
on their way to a "relocation center." |
| 1990e |
(647) Two months after Pearl Harbor, President
Roosevelt signed an executive order that
resulted in the internment of 77,000 Japanese
American citizens and 43,000 Japanese nationals
living along the west coast of the United
States. These citizens and aliens were spread
among 26 ''relocation centers" in 16
states across the country. |
| 1991 |
(612) The war inflamed a long tradition of
racism against people of Asian ancestry.
The governor of Idaho said, for example,
"A good solution to the Jap problem
would be to send them all back to Japan,
then sink the island.” Many believed that
Japanese Americans would act as spies or
saboteurs, although there was little evidence
to back such beliefs. (612) [Picture] This
photograph shows the anxiety Japanese American
families felt as they left their homes for
remote internment camps. ETHICS: Why, do
you think, were Japanese Americans treated
differently from German Americans or Italian
Americans? |
| 1992a |
− |
| 1992b |
|
| 1992c |
(289) In 1942, responding to deep-seated
nativist fears unleashed by war hysteria,
the U.S. began evacuating Japanese-Americans
from their homes on the West Coast, placing
them in "interment" camps for the
duration of World War II. (289-90) As rumors
spread across the country of a Japanese plot
to sabotage war industries and invade the
west coast, Americans demanded that something
be done about the Japanese living among them.
Many of the demands came from farmers and
politicians on the west coast, where most
of the Japanese-Americans lived. The farmers
were seeking to eliminate competition by
the Japanese; the politicians were playing
on the public's fears to gain popularity.
The federal government gave in to these demands,
and on February 19, 1942, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066
requiring all Japanese-Americans, both citizens
and non-citizens, living within two hundred
miles of the Pacific Coast to evacuate their
homes. More than a hundred thousand Japanese-Americans
were moved to ten internment camps located
in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming,
Colorado, and Arkansas. |
| 1992d |
(677) Japanese and Americans of Japanese
ancestry had long faced discrimination on
the West Coast. After Pearl Harbor their
situation became much worse. For no good
reason, other citizens blamed them for what
the Japanese militarists had done and even
began to suspect that they might be helping
the enemy across the Pacific. Western politicians
and frightened military men pressured FDR
to remove them from the coastal states. President
Roosevelt gave in. Early in 1942, under the
excuse of national security, 110,000 Japanese
Americans were rounded up. There was no evidence
that these Americans were disloyal. (678)
[Picture] Ordered to leave their homes and
businesses on short notice by the United
States government, anxious Japanese Americans
wait in Los Angeles for a train to take them
to an internment camp. |
| 1992e |
(677) Japanese and Americans of Japanese
ancestry had long faced discrimination on
the West Coast. After Pearl Harbor their
situation became much worse. For no good
reason, other citizens blamed them for what
the Japanese militarists had done and even
began to suspect that they might be helping
the enemy across the Pacific. Western politicians
and frightened military men pressured FDR
to remove them from the coastal states. President
Roosevelt gave in. Early in 1942, under the
excuse of national security, 110,000 Japanese
Americans were rounded up. There was no evidence
that these Americans were disloyal. (678)
[Picture] Ordered to leave their homes and
businesses on short notice by the United
States government, anxious Japanese Americans
wait in Los Angeles for a train to take them
to an internment camp. (677) Critical Thinking
Activity: Demonstrating Reasoned Judgment
Can the internment of Japanese Americans
during World War II be justified? The text
states, "In time of war it is harder
than ever for a free nation to preserve its
freedoms." Ask students to decide if
this statement justifies the internment of
Japanese Americans during World War II. What
evidence would support or dispute this idea?
Have students offer their viewpoint in an
essay. |
| 1992f |
(649) Although the American people were solidly
against all the Axis powers, there was no
persecution of German and Italian Americans
as had occurred during the First World War.
Japanese Americans, however, were treated
harshly. About 112,000 living in the Far
West were rounded up and sent to internment
camps in barren parts of the interior. |
| 1992g |
(472-3) The bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan
created a wave of anger against Americans
of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans
were loyal citizens. But many other Americans
held them responsible for the attack. Most
Japanese Americans lived on the Pacific Coast
in small, visible communities. They were
easy targets for discrimination. The United
States feared a Japanese invasion of the
Pacific Coast. This was the area of the country
closest to Japan. In February 1942, defense
officials warned of possible sabotage. They
labeled Japanese Americans living on the
Pacific Coast "a menace to be dealt
with." Roosevelt responded to such pressure
by granting the War Department full authority
to remove thousands of innocent Japanese
Americans. With little or no warning, 110,000
Japanese Americans were uprooted. Authorities
relocated them to internment camps. |
| 1993a |
|
| 1993b |
− |
| 1994a |
(356) To unleash such hatred against a foreign
enemy could be expected of any nation engaged
in war. Less understandable was the decision
in early 1942 to single out 110,000 Japanese-Americans,
two-thirds of them citizens of the United
States, remove them from their homes on the
West Coast, and confine them in inland camps.
The decision reflected racial rather than
military considerations. It was the result
of more than forty years of anti-Japanese
sentiment and racial tension on the West
Coast. No removal was ordered in Hawaii,
where 32 percent of the population was of
Japanese descent. Nor did anyone seriously
consider doing the same to German-Americans
or Italian-Americans. Earl Warren, attorney
general of California, explained "that
we can, in dealing with the Germans and the
Italians, arrive at some fairly sound conclusions
because of our knowledge of the way they
live in the community and have lived for
many years. But when we deal with the Japanese
we are in an entirely different field and
we cannot form any opinion that we believe
to be sound." Although there was no
evidence of Japanese sabotage on the West
Coast after Pearl Harbor, that only confirmed
the suspicions of those who advocated removal.
The head of the Western Defense Command,
in recommending removal to the secretary
of war, concluded, "The very fact that
no sabotage has taken place to date is a
disturbing and confirming indication that
such action will be taken." |
| 1994b |
(364) The Japanese were easier to hate than
the Germans. The attack on Pearl Harbor created
a special animosity toward the Japanese,
but the depiction of the Japanese as warlike
and subhuman owed something to a long tradition
of fear of the so-called yellow peril and
a distrust of all Asians. The movies, magazine
articles, cartoons, and posters added to
the image of the Japanese soldier or pilot
with a toothy grin murdering innocent women
and children or shooting down helpless Americans.
Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, Time magazine
explained to Americans how they could distinguish
our Asian friends the Chinese "from
the Japs." "Virtually all Japanese
are short, Japanese are seldom fat; they
often dry up with age," Time declared.
"Most Chinese avoid hornrimmed spectacles.
Japanese walk stiffly erect, hard-heeled.
Chinese, more relaxed, have an easy gait.
The Chinese expression is likely to be more
kindly, placid, open; the Japanese more positive,
dogmatic, arrogant. The racial stereotype
of the Japanese played a role in the treatment
of Japanese-Americans during the war. Some
prejudice was shown against German- and Italian-Americans,
but Japanese-Americans were the only group
confined in concentration camps, in the greatest
mass abridgment of civil liberties in American
history. (864-5) The Japanese had long suffered
from racial discrimination and prejudice
in the United States. They were barred from
intermarriage with other groups and excluded
from many clubs, restaurants, and recreation
facilities. Many worked as tenant farmers,
fishermen, or small businessmen. Others made
up a small professional class of lawyers,
teachers, and doctors and a large class of
landowning farmers. Although many retained
cultural and linguistic ties to Japan, they
posed no more threat to the country than
did the much larger groups of Italian-Americans
and German-Americans. But their physical
characteristics made them stand out as the
others did not. After Pearl Harbor, an anti-Japanese
panic seized the West Coast. A Los Angeles
newspaper reported that armed Japanese were
in Baja, California, ready to attack. Rumors
suggested that Japanese fishermen were preparing
to sow mines in the harbor, blow up tunnels,
and poison the water supply. West Coast politicians
and ordinary citizens urged the War Department
and the president to evacuate the Japanese.
The president capitulated and issued Executive
Order 9066 authorizing the evacuation in
February 1942. "The continued pressure
of a largely unassimilated, tightly knit
racial group, bound to an enemy nation by
strong ties of race, culture, custom and
religion, constituted a menace which had
to be dealt with," General John De Witt
argued, justifying the removal on military
grounds. But racial fear and animosity, not
military necessity, stood behind the order.
(865) [Picture] Japanese-American children
on their way to a "relocation center."
For many Japanese-Americans, but especially
for the children, the nightmare of the relocation
camp experience would stay with them all
their lives. |
| 1994c |
(498) Much of the anger that Americans felt
about Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor
in 1941 was directed at Japanese Americans.
Over 110,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds
of them American citizens, were forced to
go to detention camps after the attack. These
camps consisted of poorly-built barracks
with no indoor plumbing or central heating.
(563) World War II brought tragedy to Japanese
Americans. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor,
some Americans claimed that Japanese Americans
on the West Coast were a danger to the nation.
They feared they might spy for the Japanese
government. No evidence was ever given to
support this claim, but the government acted
on this fear. |
| 1994d |
|
| 1995a |
− |
| 1995b |
(228) (1) After the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor, many Americans became suspicious
of all people who had a Japanese background.
(2) Beginning in the spring of 1942, Japanese-American
citizens were taken from their homes and
placed in prison camps. (3) They were forced
to move so swiftly that often their property
was lost, stolen, or sold for a fraction
of its real value. (4) More than 100,000
men, women, and children were put behind
barbed wire fences. (5) The reason given
for relocating these people was military
necessity. (6) But it should be noted that
no Japanese-American was ever found to be
a spy or saboteur. |
| 1995c |
− |
| 1996a |
(757-8) In a society in which immigration
laws discriminated against Asians by race,
the war with Japan made life difficult for
loyal Asian Americans of all backgrounds.
Black and Hispanic workers still faced discrimination
in shipyards and airplane factories as much
as they had in peacetime industries. Italians
and Asian Americans. When World War II began,
about 600,000 Italian aliens and 5 million
Italian Americans lived in the United States.
Most still lived in Italian neighborhoods
centered around churches, fraternal organizations,
and clubs. Some had been proud of Mussolini
and supported Fascismo. "Mussolini was
a hero," recalled one Italian American,
"a superhero. He made us feel special."
Those attitudes changed abruptly after Pearl
Harbor. During the war, Italian Americans
unquestioningly pledged their loyalties to
the United States. Enemy aliens. At first
the government treated Italians without citizenship
(along with Japanese and Germans) as "aliens
of enemy nationality." They could not
travel without permission, enter strategic
areas, or possess short-wave radios, guns,
or maps. By 1942 few Americans believed that
German or Italian Americans posed any kind
of danger. Eager to keep the support of Italian
voters in the 1942 congressional elections,
Roosevelt chose Columbus Day, 1942, to lift
restrictions on Italian aliens. The segregation
of Italian Americans ended. Henceforth they
would maintain their ethnic unity as a matter
of choice, not necessity. The 127,000 Japanese
living in the United States, whether aliens
or citizens, did not experience similar tolerance.
Ironically, prejudices against them were
least high in Hawaii, where the war with
Japan had begun. Newspapers there expressed
confidence in the loyalty of Japanese Americans,
who in any case were crucial to the success
of Hawaii's economy. Issei. The situation
was far more volatile on the mainland. There,
Japanese Americans remained largely separated
from the mainstream of American life, often
because state laws and local custom threw
up complex barriers. In the western states
where they were concentrated around urban
areas, most Japanese Americans could not
vote, own land, or live in decent neighborhoods.
Approximately 47,000 Japanese aliens, known
as Issei, were ineligible for citizenship
under American law. Only their children could
become citizens. Despite such restrictions,
some Japanese achieved success in small businesses
like landscaping, while many others worked
on or owned farms that supplied fruits and
vegetables to growing cities. (759) [Picture]
The bleak landscape of this camp at Manzanar,
California, was typical of the internment
camps to which the government sent Japanese
Americans. |
| 1996b |
(526) The one enormous exception to the nations
generally creditable wartime civil liberties
record was the internment in "relocation
centers" of, ultimately, 120,000 Japanese
Americans. (526-7) Their imprisonment was
based not on suspicion or evidence of treason;
their crime was solely their ethnic origin-the
fact that they were of Japanese descent.
Charges of criminal behavior were never brought
against any Japanese-Americans; none was
ever indicted or tried for espionage, treason,
or sedition. "It was really cruel and
harsh," recalled Joseph Y. Kurihara,
a citizen and a veteran of World War I. "To
pack and evacuate in forty-eight hours was
an impossibility. Seeing mothers completely
bewildered with children crying from want
and peddlers taking advantage and offering
prices next to robbery made me feel like
murdering those responsible." |
| 1996c |
(225) Most of our students have studied about
Hitler's concentration camps but few know
about the ordeal Japanese Americans faced
in America during World War II. The photograph
in this exercise can engender a good class
discussion. (256) 4-13 INTERNMENT CAMPS FOR
JAPANESE AMERICANS. During World War II,
over 110,000 Japanese Americans were rounded
up and imprisoned in internment camps for
over three years. The U.S. Army was given
the power to arrest every Japanese American
on the West Coast (without warrants, indictments,
or hearings) and forcibly remove them from
their homes to be "relocated" for
the "security of the country."
Read the following quotes that reflect the
action of the U.S. government: "I'm
for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska,
and Hawaii now and putting them in concentration
camps.... Damn them! Let's get rid of them
now!" (1) CONGRESSMAN JOHN RANKIN, CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD, 12/15/1941. "ALL PERSONS OF
JAPANESE ANCESTRY, BOTH ALIEN AND NONALIEN,
WILL BE EVACUATED FROM THE ABOVE DESIGNATED
AREA BY 12 O'CLOCK NOON" |
| 1996d |
− |
| 1996e |
(452-3) World War I had resulted in infringements
of civil rights. The United States had a
better record World War II. Italian aliens
faced restriction for less than a year. But
Japanese-Americans suffered a harsher fate
as the government in response to hysteria
and prejudice, herded them into what clearly
were concentration camps. Even the Supreme
Court gave its blessing to this unjust relocation.
(463) ESSAY QUESTIONS. 1. What steps did
the Roosevelt administration take to maximize
war production? 2. What reasons did the government
have for placing Japanese-Americans in relocation
centers? |
| 1997a |
(305) In one of its policies, the United
States came close to direct duplication of
Fascism. This was in its treatment of the
Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast.
After the Pearl Harbor attack, anti-Japanese
hysteria spread in the government. One congressman
said: "I'm for catching every Japanese
in America, Alaska and Hawaii now and putting
them in concentration camps. . . . Damn them!
Let's get rid of them!" Franklin D.
Roosevelt did not share this frenzy, but
he calmly signed Executive Order 9066, in
February 1942, giving the army the power,
without warrants or indictments or hearings,
to arrest every Japanese-American on the
West Coast 110,000 men, women, and children
to take them from their homes, transport
them to camps far into the interior, and
keep them there under prison conditions. |
| 1997b |
(546) Generally, World War II brought about
few restrictions on civil liberties, or rights
guaranteed to all citizens. Almost no one
vocally opposed the war after Pearl Harbor,
and little danger existed of an attack on
the United States. As a result, there was
not a repetition of the hysteria and pressure
to conform that had occurred during World
War I. Most Americans showed tolerance toward
persons of foreign ancestry, including citizens
of German and Italian descent. The treatment
of Japanese Americans, however, became the
exception. Relocation. Spring 1942 brought
events that are burned into the memories
of Japanese Americans. Even though they showed
no evidence of disloyalty; more than 100,000
Japanese Americans were moved from their
homes to relocation camps. One evacuee. Helen
Murao, explained why. "We looked like
them [the enemy]. That was our sin."
Of the 110,000 Japanese Americans who lived
on the West Coast and in Hawaii, about one-third
were Issei -- foreign-born Japanese who had
entered the United States before the National
Origins Act of 1924 had dramatically cut
the number of immigrants allowed into the
country. (547) Japanese Americans were vulnerable
because they could easily be singled out
and they lacked political power. In addition,
they had little economic influence. Popular
sentiment against Japanese Americans on the
West Coast grew intense after the bombing
of Pearl Harbor. The San Francisco Chronicle
pushed to have Japanese Americans interned.
Individuals, including Earl Warren, attorney
general of California, (later chief justice
of the United States), and several members
of Congress, supported relocating Japanese
Americans. Finally, on February 19, 1942,
President Roosevelt signed Executive Order
9066 authorizing the removal of Japanese
Americans from the West Coast. (547) Over
the course of several months, the Japanese
Americans were ordered to report to relocation
centers. The military justified this action
on the basis that Japanese Americans would
commit sabotage to aid Japan in an attack
on the West Coast. General John DeWitt, head
of the Western Defense Command argued: "The
very fact that no sabotage to aid Japan has
taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming
indication that such action will be taken."
Other motives were equally important. Farmers
and business associations thought they would
gain from eliminating Japanese American competitors.
Politicians believed they would increase
their popular support by favoring relocation.
General DeWitt expressed the commonly held
view, "the Japanese race is an enemy
race." (546) (546) [Picture] Internment.
On March 30, 1942, Japanese American evacuees
are led from their homes on Bainbridge Island,
Washington. According to regulations, they
are taking only what they can carry with
them. What does the armed escort suggest
about the nature of the relocation? (547)
[Picture] Internees Return. Shigeo Nagaishi
and his Nisei family find broken windows
in their home and garage when they return
to Seattle, Washington, from the relocation
center in Hunt, Idaho, on May 10, 1945. Why
was this treatment of Japanese Americans
unfair? |
| 1998a |
(961-2) In a society in which immigration
laws discriminated against Asians by race,
the war with Japan made life difficult for
loyal Asian Americans of all backgrounds.
Black and Hispanic workers faced discrimination
in shipyards and airplane factories as much
as they had in peacetime industries. Little
Italy. Aliens from enemy countries fared
far better in World War II than in World
War I. When the war began about 600,000 Italian
aliens and 5 million Italian Americans lived
in the United States. Most still resided
in Italian neighborhoods centered around
churches, fraternal organizations, and clubs.
Some had been proud of Mussolini and supported
Fascismo. "Mussolini was a hero,"
recalled one Italian American, "a superhero.
He made us feel special." Those attitudes
changed abruptly after Pearl Harbor. During
the war, Italian Americans pledged their
loyalties to the United States. At first
the government treated Italians without citizenship
(along with Japanese and Germans) as "aliens
of enemy nationality." They could not
travel without permission, enter strategic
areas, or possess shortwave radios, guns,
or maps. By 1942 few Americans believed that
German Americans or Italian Americans posed
any kind of danger. Eager to keep the support
of Italian voters in the 1942 congressional
elections, Roosevelt chose Columbus Day,
1942, to lift restrictions on Italian aliens.
The segregation of Italian Americans ended.
Henceforth they would maintain their ethnic
unity as a matter of choice, not necessity.
Concentration Camps. Americans did not show
similar tolerance toward the 127,000 Japanese
living in the United States, whether they
were aliens or citizens. Ironically, tensions
were least high in Hawaii, where the war
with Japan had begun. Local newspapers there
expressed confidence in the loyalty of Japanese
Americans, who in any case were crucial to
Hawaii's economy General Delos Emmons, the
military governor of the islands, rebuffed
pressures from Washington to evacuate as
many as 20,000 'dangerous" Japanese.
He branded a Justice Department report warning
of widespread sabotage to be "so fantastic
it hardly needs refuting." Issei. The
situation was quite different on the mainland,
where Japanese Americans remained largely
separated from the mainstream of American
life. State laws and local custom threw up
complex barriers to integration. In the western
states, where they were concentrated around
urban areas, most Japanese could not vote,
own land, or live in decent neighborhoods.
Approximately 47,000 Japanese aliens, known
as "Issei," were ineligible for
citizenship under American law. Only their
children could become citizens. Despite such
restrictions, some Japanese achieved success
in small businesses like landscaping, while
many others worked on or owned farms that
supplied fruits and vegetables to growing
cities. (963) [Picture] The bleak landscape
of the internment camp at Manzanar, California,
was typical of the sites to which the government
sent Japanese Americans. In such a harsh
environment the Japanese had no real opportunity
to create productive farm communities, as
government officials had promised. |
| 1998b |
− |
| 1998c |
(886) The Japanese were easier to hate than
the Germans. The attack on Pearl Harbor created
a special animosity toward the Japanese,
but the depiction of the Japanese as warlike
and subhuman owed something to a long tradition
of fear of the so-called yellow peril and
a distrust of all Asians. The movies, magazine
articles, cartoons, and posters added to
the image of the Japanese soldier or pilot
with a toothy grin murdering innocent women
and children or shooting down helpless Americans.
Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, Time magazine
explained to Americans how they could distinguish
our Asian friends the Chinese "from
the Japs." "Virtually all Japanese
are short, Japanese are seldom fat; they
often dry up with age," Time declared.
"Most Chinese avoid horn-rimmed spectacles.
Japanese walk stiffly erect, hard-heeled.
Chinese, more relaxed, have an easy gait.
The Chinese expression is likely to be more
kindly, placid, open; the Japanese more positive,
dogmatic, arrogant." The racial stereotype
of the Japanese played a role in the treatment
of Japanese Americans during the war. Some
prejudice was shown against German and Italian
Americans, but Japanese Americans were the
only group confined in concentration camps,
in the greatest mass abridgment of civil
liberties in American history. (886-7) The
Japanese had long suffered from racial discrimination
and prejudice in the United States. They
were barred from intermarriage with other
groups and excluded from many clubs, restaurants,
and recreation facilities. Many worked as
tenant farmers, fishermen, or small businessmen.
Others made up a small professional class
of lawyers, teachers, and doctors and a large
number of land-owning farmers. Although many
retained cultural and linguistic ties to
Japan, they posed no more threat to the country
than did the much larger groups of Italian
Americans and German Americans. But their
physical characteristics made them stand
out as the others did not. After Pearl Harbor,
an anti-Japanese panic seized the West Coast.
A Los Angeles newspaper reported that armed
Japanese where in Baja, California, ready
to attack. Rumors suggested that Japanese
fishermen were preparing to sow mines in
the harbor, blow up tunnels, and poison the
water supply. West Coast politicians and
ordinary citizens urged the War Department
and the president to evacuate the Japanese.
The president capitulated and issued Executive
Order 9066 authorizing the evacuation in
February 1942. "The continued pressure
of a largely unassimilated, tightly knit
racial group, bound to an enemy nation by
strong ties of race, culture, custom and
religion, constituted a menace which had
to be dealt with," General John De Witt
argued, justifying the removal on military
grounds. But racial fear and animosity, not
military necessity, stood behind the order.
(887) [Picture] Japanese Americans children
on their way to a "relocation center."
For many Japanese Americans, but especially
for the children, the nightmare of the relocation
camp experience would stay with them all
their lives. (Library of Congress) |
| 1999a |
− |
| 1999b |
(762-4) In a society in which immigration
laws discriminated against Asians by race,
the war with Japan made life difficult for
loyal Asian Americans of all backgrounds.
Black and Hispanic workers still faced discrimination
in shipyards and airplane factories as much
as they had in peacetime industries. Italians
and Asian Americans When World War II began,
about 600,000 Italian aliens and 5 million
Italian Americans lived in the United States.
Most still lived in Italian neighborhoods
centered around churches, fraternal organizations,
and clubs. Some had been proud of Mussolini
and supported Fascismo "Mussolini was
a hero," recalled one Italian American,
"a superhero. He made us feel special."
Those attitudes changed abruptly after Pearl
Harbor. During the war, Italian Americans
unquestioningly pledged their loyalties to
the United States. Enemy aliens. At first
the government treated Italians without citizenship
(along with Japanese and Germans) as "aliens
of enemy nationality." They could not
travel without permission, enter strategic
areas, or possess shortwave radios, guns,
or maps. By 1942 few Americans believed that
German or Italian Americans posed any kind
of danger. Eager to keep the support of Italian
voters in the 1942 congressional elections,
Roosevelt chose Columbus Day, 1942, to lift
restrictions on Italian aliens. The 127,000
Japanese living in the United States, whether
aliens or citizens, did not experience similar
tolerance. Ironically; prejudices against
them were least high in Hawaii, where the
war with Japan had begun. Newspapers there
expressed confidence in the loyalty of Japanese
Americans, who in any case were crucial to
the success of Hawaii's economy. Issei. The
situation was far more volatile on the mainland.
There, Japanese Americans remained largely
separated from the mainstream of American
life, often because state laws and local
custom threw up complex barriers. In the
western states where they were concentrated
around urban areas, most Japanese Americans
could not vote, own land, or live in decent
neighborhoods. Approximately 47,000 Japanese
aliens, known as Issei, were ineligible for
citizenship under American law. Only their
children could become citizens. Despite such
restrictions, some Japanese achieved success
in small businesses like landscaping, while
many others worked on or owned farms that
supplied fruits and vegetables to growing
cities. (765) [Picture] The bleak landscape
of this camp at Manzanar, California, was
typical of the internment camps to which
the government sent Japanese Americans. |
| 1999c |
(829) War-related production finally ended
the Great Depression, but it also required
many Americans to move, especially to western
states where the jobs were. This map shows
major war-related industries and the states
that gained and lost population. For Japanese
Americans, relocation did not mean new jobs,
but a loss of freedom as they were assigned
to one of ten relocation centers across the
country. (835) The shock of Japan's attack
on Pearl Harbor raised fears of further attacks,
especially along the Pacific coast. On the
night of December 7 and throughout the next
week, West Coast cities reported enemy planes
overhead and practiced blackouts. Phantom
Japanese planes were spotted above San Francisco
and Los Angeles. In Seattle, crowds hurled
rocks at an offending blue neon light that
defied the blackout and then, venting both
fear and rage, rioted across the city. The
Rose Bowl game between Oregon State and Duke
was moved from the Bowl's home in Pasadena
to Duke's stadium in Durham, North Carolina.
Stores everywhere removed from their shelves
goods made in Japan. Alarm and anger were
focused especially on Japanese Americans.
Rumors circulated wildly that they intended
to sabotage factories and military installations
in order to pave the way for the invasion
of the West Coast. Within a week, the FBI
had arrested 2,541 citizens of Axis countries:
1,370 Japanese, 1,002 Germans, and 169 Italians.
Attorney General Francis Biddle announced
that he did not believe it would be necessary
to arrest more. Biddle soon changed his mind
as anti-Japanese hysteria spread. Japanese-American
Internment. The feelings against Japanese
Americans were a product of long-standing
racist attitudes and an immediate reaction
to the war. . . . Fueling the hatred following
the attack on Pearl Harbor were the actions
of General John L. De Witt, commanding general
of the Western Defense District. On December
7, he had seen Japanese planes over San Francisco
where none existed, and he believed that
everyone of Japanese heritage was a threat.
Except for individual cases, the nation did
not need to worry about Americans of Italian
or German ancestry, he pronounced, but the
Japanese were a different matter. "We
must worry about the Japanese all the time
" De Witt stated, "until he is
wiped off the map." Unable to discover
any acts of espionage or sabotage, California
Attorney General Earl Warren nonetheless
concluded that a plot existed and it was
only a matter of time until "zero hour,"
when the enemy within would carry out its
sinister plans. Echoing long-standing anti-Japanese
feelings, California moved to "protect"
itself. Japanese Americans were fired from
state jobs and had their law and medical
licenses revoked. . . . Although some doubted
the reality of any threat from the Japanese-American
community, few came forward to speak on its
behalf or to protest the growing cry to relocate
people of Japanese ancestry away from the
coast. President Roosevelt was no exception.
On February 19, 1942, he signed Executive
Order #9066, which allowed the military to
remove from official military areas anyone
deemed a threat. When the entire West Coast
was declared a military area, the eviction
of the Japanese Americans from the region
began. By the summer of 1942, more than 110,000
Nisei and Issei had been transported to ten
internment camps (see chapter-opening map).
When tested in court, the Executive Order
was upheld by the Supreme Court in Korematsu
v. United States (1944). (835) Nisei: A person
born in America of parents who emigrated
from Japan. Issei: A Japanese immigrant to
the United States. Executive Order #9066:
Order of President Roosevelt in 1942 authorizing
the removal of "enemy aliens" from
military areas; it was used to isolate Japanese
Americans in internment camps. Internment
camps: Camps to which more than 110,000 Japanese
Americans living in the West were moved soon
after the attack on Pearl Harbor. (836) [Picture]
In February 1942, President Roosevelt signed
an order sending all Japanese Americans living
on the West Coast to internment camps. This
photo shows a young boy, with a chocolate
bar and comic books, awaiting transportation
to one of the ten camps. FDR Library. |
