After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and other islands in the Pacific, the US responded by passing laws that allowed the government to removed over 120,000 Japanese citizens and Japanese-American citizens from the West Coast. These detainees, also known as 'enemy aliens,' were considered potential threats to US safety and the government believed both the country and these people would be safer if separated. You have seen several video clips -- including video from Pearl Harbor and the government's explanation of the internment camps produced in the early 1940s, read and analyzed President Roosevelt's 'Day of Infamy' speech, considered the 4th and 14th Amendments, and explored the Smithsonian's 'A More Perfect Union.' Definitely take the time to explore the words and memories of the detainees, as provided in 'A More Perfect Union.' Feel free to do some research on your own: find evidence of FDR's conflicted feelings about Executive Order 9066; what did J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, think about the relocation effort?
What resonates? Whose voices emerge for you? Are there 'right' answers? Where are the ironies? Be sure to create links to particular videos, images, sites, transcripts, etc (at least three) that illustrate your messages. This should be around 700-750 words.
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ReplyDeleteAfter the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States went into a frenzy trying protect the country from further attacks while simultaneously being thrust into World War II. One of the protective orders that passed during the time was Executive Order 9066. The order demanded the relocation of Japanese Americans on the West Coast to internment camps. Ultimately, the passing of the order sparked a debate between opposers and supporters. After researching, I’ve come to the conclusion that although Executive Order 9066 was passed under protective reasoning, that does not outweigh the various rights that were broken and the extreme racism that was displayed.
ReplyDeleteReading the recollections of the Japanese Americans who were sent to the internment camps was eye-opening. Almost all of the stories I came across talked about the Japanese Americans feeling violated, confused, angry, and helpless. They believed to be Americans and have the same rights Americans are entitled too. But once they were sent to the camps, that was all disregarded. Although the internment camps were never described as concentration camps, probably because mass extermination was not involved, I could still picture some parallels from the descriptions of the setting and compound layout between both.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the order in 1942, it caused a ripple of opposition on a political to citizen scale. While many politicians agreed with the contents of the order, Eleanor Roosevelt and FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover disagreed. Finding the ruling “unconstitutional”, the two were clearly unsuccessful in stopping the passing of the order. With Roosevelt and Hoover in the opposition of the order were also the Japanese Americans. Although it may be obvious and common sense that they all mentally resisted the order, only a few physically took a stance. Minoru Yasui of Oregon, Fred Korematsu of California, and Gordon Hirabayshi of Washington all refused to report for evacuation insisting the orders were unconstitutional. The three men were arrested, convicted, and sent to prison. Their cases were taken to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the convictions citing that the government’s policies were a military necessity.
The three men brought up the fourteenth amendment which states that treating people differently or poorly because they are a member of a certain race is illegal discrimination. The United States violated this amendment until 1945. The propaganda that was used at the time to swing politicians votes was completely racists. Slogans like, “Keep California White” and “Japs Keep Moving, This is a White Man’s Neighborhood” were scattered among towns as a constant reminder that all American Japanese civilians on the West Coast were enemies.
I do understand that President Roosevelt was coming out of a surprising attack at Pearl Harbor and he was taking any necessary means to protect and prevent further attacks on the United States, but passing Executive Order 9066 went below the belt. Not only was extreme racism allowed during the time, but the upheaving and relocation of thousands of Japanese Americans was extreme. Although it only takes one spy out of the thousands of Japanese Americans who lived on the West Coast, the government could have figured out a better tactic. Their logic and reasoning felt like it was coming from a place of panic; but regardless, that does not justify the rights broken, lives ruined, and overall demoralization that occurred because of Executive Order 9066.
Grace - Excellent information here, and I appreciate your thoughtful analysis of the government's actions. You're right - the fact that they were in 'panic mode' certainly played a role in the decision but it's unsettling to understand how quickly human rights and constitutional rights were pushed aside.
DeleteThe internment of Japanese and Japanese-American citizens during the second World War was certainly one of the most controversial yet overlooked decisions made by the United States government in modern history. The many Japanese and Japanese-Americans that had traveled or whose parents had traveled to the United States in search of greater freedom and financial opportunity were met with great obstacles once they began to completely rebuild their lives in the United States. Overcoming racial prejudice from white Americans in the form of exclusion, persecution, and anti-Japanese legislation such as the California Alien Land Law of 1913, the hard work perseverance- two highly valued American ideals- of many Japanese allowed them to find moderate success in the United States. All of the hard work that these people had done to establish themselves in the United States was undone with the passage of Executive Order 9066, a piece of legislation that would result in $1.2 billion in property losses and $2.7 billion in lost revenue to the Japanese, amidst the worst global economic downturn in history. It is both interesting and shocking to learn about what the United States- a nation comprised almost purely of immigrants and built upon the rights of the citizens- did to keep the rest of their nation safe from an unseen enemy. It is commonly said in the context of war and politics that few must be sacrificed so that many can survive, but I believe this measure to be untrue in regard to the rights of American citizens; no citizens should need to compromise their rights to freedom based on misunderstanding, prejudice, and speculation, and if the United States did truly identify a legitimate threat from some Japanese Citizens, then they should have found a less invasive method to monitor and detain those actually loyal to Japan.
ReplyDeleteSomething that came as a great surprised to me during my initial research of Japanese internment is the fact that the language used in Executive Order 9066 was extremely vague, offering a great amount of the legislation for interpretation. The majority of the text in Order 9066 that actually outlined the any sort of information regarding the parameters of the internment camps is as follows: “Now, therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated Commander deems such action necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion.”(http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5154/) The order never even made mention to Japanese people, let alone where, for how long, and under what conditions the people would be held. The bill essentially gave military leaders the power to make all decisions on what the internment camps would be like, which consequently jeopardized the rights of many Japanese. It is no surprise that Japanese internment caused such a great controversy.
Dom Smith's continued post:
ReplyDeleteAs shown in the ‘Questionnaire’ section under ‘Loyalty’ in ‘A More Perfect Union’ (http://amhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/experience/index.html) the question of loyalty put many Japanese in a very difficult position. Many Japanese-Americans had adjusted to living in the United States, and many more were born here, but with enactment of internment camps, all Japanese were ostracized from the United States and labelled as enemies. With such distrust directed towards them, many began to resent the United States, which worsened and in many instances prompted the very thing that the United States was trying to suppress. Japanese were forced to choose between their heritage and their new nation, and since the United States had turned on them, the great majority turned in great support to anti-American sentiment.
One last thing that was notable from my research was the lack of adequate medical treatment in the internment camps. Today in the United States military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, suspected terrorists and those that have directly attacked the United States are given hardy meals and access to world-class medical treatment. Although it was a different time and there were much different circumstances, it was surprising to me that the issue of feeding those in the camps and giving them access to medical treatment was greatly overlooked by those that planned the camps. This (http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/index.html) article highlights the poor treatment of the residents of the camps; many internees held protests for the lack of food in the camps, many died from malnutrition and little to no access to medicine, and some in the camps were killed by military personnel for getting too close to the fence. While there are obvious differences, accounts of Japanese internment camps sound curiously similar to Nazi concentration camps of the same time.
Dom - Excellent research and analysis here. You clearly examined a breadth of information and found important parallels; I agree that it's shocking how quickly the government re-frames certain rights in order to respond to a particular moment. Time and careful consideration from a broader range of voices seems critical.
DeleteThe detainment and internment of Japanese Americans was, in my opinion, one of the most narrow-minded, unsophisticated, and hipocritical decisions the U.S Government has ever made in it’s history as a nation. As someone whose family lost more than a few people in Nazi camps, I find it disgusting that this great country could have such a black mark in its history. I couldn’t believe what I read when I combed through FDR’s Executive Order Number 9066. I read what I believed was an abuse of power, or at least now what would be considered an abuse of power by the 113th Congress. What this Executive Order entailed was hardly different than what Marshall Law entails. Yet our current President would be crucified if he declared Marshall Law for any reason, gun control being a key issue today. Executive Order 9066 basically gave power to various federal agencies and military units to carry out the President’s directive, which was to round up enemies, or presumed enemies of the state, and place them in military detention camps. In this case, it meant that Japanese Americans woud be considered potential spies and be sent to internment camps in areas that the U.S military designated. Of course, it is easy to be cynical about this idea all these decades later, but perhaps at the time this was the only option. Pearl Harbor had been attacked, and you don’t have to look any further than a questionable Life Magazine article to realize that Americans were more than a bit paranoid. But what about the aftermath of 9/11? The attacks on New York and Washington D.C were just as bad as the Pearl Harbor attacks, but we didn’t start internment camps for Arab Americans? If you think about it, the call for detention camps would have been more logical after 9/11, as the organization that attacked us is not a structured government that we could combat in a conventional manner. I believe that the internment of Japanese Americans was the “simple” solution. It was easy for the government to round up everyone who physically “fit the bill”, and send them off to the middle of nowhere in places like Utah. Perhaps it was easy to justify this policy becuase the Nazi camps were so much worse. Since the Nazi regime was doing it, maybe the great United States could achieve the same outcome in a more humane manner. I can see the pure logic, but I believe that the internment camp policy ranks alongside our decades of slavery, and all the other fiascos that plague our history as a nation. The only good that came out of this policy was the fact that we now know that it should never be done again. If future governments understand that, maybe we got some merit out of it.
ReplyDeletehttp://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5154/
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/foster/lifemag.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OiPldKsM5w
Sam - You've got lots going on here. Your outrage at the hypocrisy and irony of the decision and yet your ability to see that 9066 responded to very complicated issues was interesting and thought-provoking. Well done.
DeleteThe bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 has gone down in history for the large array of ramifications it had. When thinking of these, what jumps to my mind is then-President Roosevelt announcing to the world that the day will live in infamy and that the United States declaring war as a direct result of the attack. What can be so easy to overlook in sweeping moments such as these however are how it affected actual individuals on a personal level. In this case, I believe one particularly powerful lense to view the bombing though is its day-to-day impact on the life of Japanese Americans.
ReplyDeleteThis era in United States history--specifically the forced internment of Japanese citizens--is tremendously interesting because of the sheer number of morals America claims to hold dear that it goes against. We looked at the Fourth and the Fourteenth Amendments, both of which blatantly show it unconstitutional and yet I was amazed that there was so little outcry. There were, nonetheless, a few outstanding exceptions such as a particularly eloquent justice on the Supreme Court at the time (Frank Murphy) who pointed out that “today it the first time, so far as I am aware, that we have sustained a substantial restriction of the personal liberty of citizens based on the accident of race or ancestry. It bears a melancholy resemblance to the treatment accorded to the members of the Jewish race in Germany. This goes to the very brink of constitutional power.” However, it seems that this opinion--one which I find myself personally agreeing with--was very much in the minority. You have very high up people in the government such as General DeWitt saying things such as “a Jap’s a Jap. It makes no difference whether the Jap is a citizen or not.” What really drove this home for me in demonstrating how sweepingly people accepted the internment of Japanese-Americans was learning how the law that made it a federal offense to resist relocation (Public Law 503) passed both houses of congress without a single vote against.
Another aspect that really resonates with me are the great ironies inherent to the situation. On one hand we have the United States going to war to fight for freedom; simultaneously however, the nation was perpetrating a heinous violation of civil liberties. Additionally what strikes me is how the Japanese were above all else... american. Not only in the metric of two-thirds of them being legal citizens, but too, these people were quintessential Americans--a theme that the novel we are currently reading (When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka) emphasizes. One powerful image that comes to mind when I think of this is the following one [http://amhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/collection/image.asp?ID=626&superSize=1] put up by a Japanese man in his storefront the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A second irony is the extent to which the families placed behind barbed wire were opposing the very nation they were accused of gathering intelligence for with twenty-five thousand Japanese Americans fighting in World War II. It is reasonable to assume that the majority of the families of these men were concurrently in internment camps. A final painfully, ironic observation was the parallels between the Nazi concentration camps the allied forces were fighting against and these camps that were set-up in the American homeland with so little outcry. The Secretary of Interior immediately following the war commented that “we graced the fancy name of ‘relocation centers’ to these dust bowls, but they were concentration camps nonetheless.”
Ultimately however, what is the most unnerving to me is the extent to which the context of a situation can inform our set of morals and how impressionable any given sense of personal right and wrong can be. Is that nature inherently bad I wonder?
Image of an identification card of an internee (Mary Tsukamoto) http://amhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/experience/index.html
An interesting interview with George Takei (a former internee)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yogXJl9H9z0
Neil - Good sources that you've provided here. This is an interesting post: clearly you're stunned by 9066 and you provided much to consider. Any thoughts about what FDR could have done differently?
DeleteThe US government in conjunction with its people have been responsible for many atrocious acts since our country’s inception. Even so, the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, to this day, is one of the greatest civil-liberties violations our nation has conducted against its own citizens. Not only did executive order 9066, (the order to imprison japanese-americans), violate people’s constitutional rights, it also meant the government’s public policy was to condone and facilitate racism.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I don’t understand how FDR, the president at the time, got around the legality of placing this order. It practically instituted martial law, giving a disproportionate amount of power to the war secretary. It enabled him along with any official he appointed to suspend the freedoms of any and all people they should so desire -- a clear violation of the 4th and 14th amendments to our constitution. The due process clause in the 14th amendment prohibits the government from depriving persons of life, liberty or property without taking certain steps to ensure fairness. There’s also an equal protection clause in the same amendment, requiring each state to provide equal protection under the law to all peoples within its jurisdiction. Lastly, the 4th amendment protects US citizens from unlawful search and seizure. The principal architects of this country had just been liberated from an almost authoritarian state when they founded the nation -- a state where soldiers were allowed to take whatever they wanted from anyone’s home. They would be appalled, they would be mortified to find that almost 2 centuries later, our government would be arbitrarily evicting its people from their homes and seizing their property, simply because of where their parents or parent’s parents came from.
Peter -
DeleteGood sense of the political piece to this: common sense and human rights needed much more attention, and your outrage is justified. What could have happened differently, in your mind?
During the time in which the United States was involved in World War Two, it suffered a large amount of racial profiling and segregation. After the bombing on Pearl Harbor, the government made the decision to forcibly remove all of the Japanese Americans on the west coast, and move them into internment camps. However, even before the segregation during World War Two, there was plenty of racial profiling. From 1861 until 1940 about 275 thousand people emigrated from Japan to the United States or its territories, mostly in Hawaii. Most of these Japanese immigrants worked on the sugar fields in Hawaii. However, the first law segregating the Japanese Americans from other citizens of the United States was passed in 1907. In 1907, Congress passed a law which forbids Japanese Americans from emigrating from Hawaii to the mainland. There were also many laws past which forbid immigration of Japanese citizens to the United States in general. The main reason for this segregation was one of the primary factors for which many things are done, money. Many American citizens were jealous of the success of Japanese Americans, despite the fact that the Japanese Americans earned all of their success. In fact, by 1940, even though Japanese Americans only controlled 4% of the total farmland in California, they produced 10% of the crop. Overall, Japanese segregation was not a new thing that came from the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
ReplyDeleteHowever, many new laws were passed due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and in general, the attitude of the average American citizen did shift towards more stereotypical. In 1942, Executive Order 9066 was passed, which forcibly removed all Japanese Americans from their homes on the west coast. On top of the fact that the Japanese Americans were being forced from their homes and into internment camps, they were given very little warning, as the order was passed in assembly halls only days before the deadline and the posters hung up as notices were not easily visible. People did not have much time to pack or sell things that they could not bring with them, and Japanese citizens being removed from their homes have limited ability to move their belongings. Selling property that would be lost had to be done at a significant loss of money to the Japanese Americans, due to the influx of property into the market. For Japanese business owners, leaving not only meant loss of home and property, but they also had to quickly sell their businesses, almost always at a loss of money. The estimated dollar value of property was about three billion U.S. dollars and the amount of money lost that would have been made in income was approximately six and a quarter billion U.S. dollars. So overall, the Japanese Americans that were moved to these internment camps, about 110,000, lost about ten billion U.S. dollars. However, losing money was just the beginning.
Brian Rubenstein's continued post:
ReplyDeleteOnce Japanese Americans actually arrived at the internment camps they would see barbed wire fences, guards stationed at the camps, supposedly for their own protection, and the conditions were unsanitary at best. People got very little food and were forced to live in tight quarters. However, not only were the conditions awful, the act by the United States government was also against their own laws, laws that had been in place for more than ninety years, and in one case, since the country was founded. The fourth amendment of the United States Constitution states that citizens of the United States of America have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects without being violated by unreasonable search and seizure. Also, the fourteenth amendment to the constitution states that all people born or naturalized in the United States and the state they live in. No state can make or enforce any laws which remove the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. It also promises that no state can deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of the law nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Brian - Interesting examination of the history of racial profiling, and you made interesting observations about the relationship between race and financial success as they played into racism toward Japanese Americans.
DeleteI found my information on these sites:
ReplyDeletehttp://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5154/
http://amhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/experience/index.html
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/foster/lifemag.htm
My feelings towards Executive order 9066, is that it wasn’t right. Order 9066 is unfair because it takes away the Japanese-American’s rights towards freedom. Even though these people are of Japanese descent they are still American citizens and deserve to be treated like them too. Instead the United States government completely violated the 4th and 14th amendments which state that laws can’t be enforced that take away any privileges or immunities of United States citizens. The people of Japanese descent in America were treated poorly and unfairly. The United States Government can argue that the camps are protecting the Japanese-American citizens due the anger that some non-Japanese American citizens are feeling after Pearl Harbor. Also due to all the racism going around. Especially after the super racist article that Life Magazine wrote about how to tell Japanese people from Chinese people. Including pictures and very racist observations of their own. The government could use examples such as these to say Order 9066 is for the safety of Japanese-Americans but it’s ironic because its destroying their lives. This is because they are being ripped from their homes, forced to lose most of their belongings and completely violating their right to freedom. These people are forced to live inside a barb wired fence in the middle of nowhere. They are basically being treated like animals.
ReplyDeleteExecutive order 9066 is a direct violation against both the 4th and 14th amendments, these amendments were created in order to protect American Citizens from laws that allow them to be stripped of their belongings and rights. Many of the detainees knew that these camps were completely against the constitution, making it hard for them to comprehend why the President would allow them. A detainee, named Gordon Hirabayashi felt as if the constitution was just a piece of paper that it had no effect because it was not valid in 1942. Due to the fact that "will of the people were not behind it." Meaning that the government was prejudice against all Japanese people and descent that they completely ignored what the constitution had to say. Violating their rights as American Citizens and making them feel isolated. Although many people saw Japanese-Americans as a threat, a lot of Japanese-American’s wanted to help the United States throughout the war. They volunteered themselves to fight for the United States and risk their lives. Because they wanted America to be victorious in World War II. An example would be Daniel Inouye. He was a World War II hero participating in battle until 1945, where he almost lost his life and lost his right arm. Inouye was awarded: the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Congressional Medal of Honor. Daniel Inouye, was a Japanese-American citizen who served in the United States Army and fought hard for the U.S. He later became highest-ranking Asian American politician in American history. When Inouye was in battle for the U.S he almost lost his life fighting for his country. This is major because at that time every non Japanese-American believed that everyone of Japanese descent was against the United States and supporting Japan. Daniel Inouye, was one of the many soldiers to prove them wrong. The internment camps that were created to hold the Japanese- Americans were wrong simply because they segregated them from the rest of society. Like I said before these people were also forced to begin a new life in unknown conditions. Imagine having to leave your home and could bring what you could fit into one suitcase. You would have to bring the necessities such as bedding and clothing. Leaving behind any valuable items such as family photos, family heirlooms and other items that are special to you. Due to the fact that it can’t fit into your bag. Also many families were farmers and they had to give their crops and land up to the government. Causing them to lose a large amounts of money over Order 9066. These people saw the United States as a land of freedom and opportunity making it why their family members before them decided to migrate here. But they had it all ripped away from them once these camps came into action.
ReplyDeleteMaria -
DeleteNice work: your writing reflects a clear understanding of the pain, anger, and confusion felt by the Japanese Americans during the war. Good sources!
Sites:
ReplyDeleteSites:
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&safe=active&client=firefox-a&hs=262&sa=X&tbo=d&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=fflb&biw=1280&bih=579&tbm=isch&tbnid=Umyn2bs2MgN9gM:&imgrefurl=http://nation.time.com/2012/12/18/2nd-lieutenant-danny-inouye-1924-2012/&docid=epR56jaxsTWF-M&imgurl=http://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/di-moh-cite.png&w=725&h=404&ei=5333ULLgI4uI0QH94oC4BQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=416&sig=117576803257616851198&page=1&tbnh=135&tbnw=246&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:0,i:125&tx=126&ty=76
http://amhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/transcript.html#intro
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/foster/lifemag.htm