Internment of Japanese Americans

1. Internment of Japanese Americans Text Wikipedia Slideshow Anders Dernback

2. Internment of Japanese Americans The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II was the forced relocation and incarceration in concentration camps in the western interior of the country of about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of whom lived on the Pacific Coast. Sixty-two percent of the internees were United States citizens. These actions were ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly after Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor

3. 127 000 Japanese Americans Of 127,000 Japanese Americans living in the continental United States at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, 112,000 resided on the West Coast. About 80,000 were Nisei (literal translation: "second generation"; American-born Japanese with U.S. citizenship) and Sansei ("third generation"; the children of Nisei). The rest were Issei ("first generation") immigrants born in Japan who were ineligible for U.S. citizenship under U.S. law

4. 1942 editorial propaganda cartoon in the New York newspaper PM by Dr. Seuss depicting Japanese Americans in California, Oregon, and Washington–states with the largest population of Japanese Americans–as prepared to conduct sabotage against the U.S.

5. More racism than any security risk Japanese Americans were incarcerated based on local population concentrations and regional politics. More than 112,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast were forced into interior camps. However, in Hawaii, where 150,000-plus Japanese Americans composed over one-third of the population, only 1,200 to 1,800 were also interned. The internment is considered to have resulted more from racism than from any security risk posed by Japanese Americans. California defined anyone with 1/16th or more Japanese lineage as sufficient to be interned. Colonel Karl Bendetsen, the architect behind the program, went so far as saying anyone with "one drop of Japanese blood" qualified

6. A Japanese American shop, Asahi Dye Works, closing. The notice on the front is a reference to Owens Valley being the first and one of the largest Japanese American detention centers.

7. Roosevelt authorized Executive Order 9066 Roosevelt authorized Executive Order 9066, issued on February 19, 1942, which allowed regional military commanders to designate "military areas" from which "any or all persons may be excluded. Although the executive order did not mention Japanese Americans, this authority was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were required to leave Alaska and the military exclusion zones from all of California and parts of Oregon, Washington, and Arizona, except for those in government camps. Approximately 5,000 Japanese Americans relocated outside the exclusion zone before March 1942, while some 5,500 community leaders had been arrested immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack and thus were already in custody.

10. Hayward, California. "Members of the Mochida family awaiting evacuation bus. Identification tags are used to aid in keeping the family unit intact during all phases of evacuation. Mochida operated a nursery and five greenhouses on a two- acre site in Eden Township. He raised snapdragons and sweet peas.

11. A child is "Tagged for evacuation", Salinas, California, May 1942. Photo by Russell Lee.

15. Children at the Weill public school in San Francisco pledge allegiance to the American flag in April 1942, prior to the internment of Japanese Americans.

17. Institutions of the War Relocation Authority in the Midwestern, Southern, and Western United States Date February 19, 1942 – March 20, 1946 Location Western United States, and parts of Midwestern and Southern United States PrisonersBetween 110,000 and 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast 1,200 to 1,800 living in Hawaii

19. A Japanese American unfurled this banner in Oakland, California the day after the Pearl Harbor attack. This Dorothea Lange photograph was taken in March 1942, just prior to the man's internment.

30. Spying on Japanese Americans (deneid fact) The United States Census Bureau assisted the internment efforts by spying and providing confidential neighborhood information on Japanese Americans. The Bureau denied its role for decades despite scholarly evidence to the contrary, and its role became more widely acknowledged by 2007. In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the removal by ruling against Fred Korematsu's appeal for violating an exclusion order. The Court limited its decision to the validity of the exclusion orders, avoiding the issue of the incarceration of U.S. citizens without due proces

31. List of Camps Puyallup, Washington (fairgrounds racetrack stables, Informally known as "Camp Harmony") Sacramento, California Camp Kohler (Site of Present-Day Walerga Park) (migrant workers' camp) Salinas, California (fairgrounds, racetrack, stables) San Bruno, California (Tanforan racetrack, stables) Stockton, California (San Joaquin County Fairgrounds, racetrack, stables) Tulare, California (fairgrounds, racetrack, stables) Turlock, California (Stanislaus County Fairgrounds) Woodland, California Arcadia, California (Santa Anita Racetrack, stables) (Santa Anita assembly center) Fresno, California (Fresno Fairgrounds, racetrack, stables) Marysville / Arboga, California (migrant workers' camp) Mayer, Arizona (Civilian Conservation Corps camp) Merced, California (county fairgrounds) Owens Valley, California Parker Dam, Arizona Pinedale, California (PinedaleAssembly Center, warehouses) Pomona, California (Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, racetrack, stables) (Pomona assembly center) Portland, Oregon (Pacific International Livestock Exposition,

32. Facilities While this event is most commonly called the internment of Japanese Americans, the government operated several different types of camps holding Japanese Americans. The best known facilities were the military- run Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) Assembly Centers and the civilian-run War Relocation Authority (WRA) Relocation Centers, which are generally (but unofficially) referred to as "internment camps". Scholars have urged dropping such euphemisms and refer to them as concentration camps and the people as incarcerated. The Department of Justice (DOJ) operated camps officially called Internment Camps, which were used to detain those suspected of crimes or of "enemy sympathies". The government also operated camps for a limited number of German Americans and Italian Americans, who sometimes were assigned to share facilities with the Japanese Americans.

33. DOJ and Army internment camps Eight U.S. Department of Justice Camps (in Texas, Idaho, North Dakota, New Mexico, and Montana) held Japanese Americans, primarily non-citizens and their families. The camps were run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, under the umbrella of the DOJ, and guarded by Border Patrol agents rather than military police. The population of these camps included approximately 3,800 of the 5,500 Buddhist and Christian ministers, school instructors, newspaper workers, fishermen, and community leaders who had been accused of fifth column activity and arrested by the FBI after Pearl Harbor. (The remaining 1,700 were released to WRA relocation centers.) Immigrants and nationals of German and Italian ancestry were also held in these facilities, often in the same camps as Japanese Americans. Approximately 7,000 German Americans and 3,000 Italian Americans from Hawai'i and the U.S. mainland were interned in DOJ camps, along with 500 German seamen already in custody after being rescued from the SS Columbus in 1939.

34. WCCA Civilian Assembly Centers Executive Order 9066 authorized the removal of all persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast; however, it was signed before there were any facilities completed to house the displaced Japanese Americans. After the voluntary evacuation program failed to result in many families leaving the exclusion zone, the military took charge of the now-mandatory evacuation. On April 9, 1942, the Wartime Civilian Control Administration (WCCA) was established by the Western Defense Command to coordinate the forced removal of Japanese Americans to inland concentration camps. The relocation centers faced opposition from inland communities near the proposed sites who disliked the idea of their new "Jap" neighbors. In addition, government forces were struggling to build what would essentially be self-sufficient towns in very isolated, undeveloped, and harsh regions of the country; they were not prepared to house the influx of over 110,000 evacuees

35. WRA Relocation Centers The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was the U.S. civilian agency responsible for the relocation and detention. The WRA was created by President Roosevelt on March 18, 1942, with Executive Order 9102 and officially ceased to exist June 30, 1946. Milton S. Eisenhower, then an official of the Department of Agriculture, was chosen to head the WRA. In the 1943 US Government film Japanese Relocation he said, "This picture tells how the mass migration was accomplished. Neither the Army, not the War Relocation Authority relish the idea of taking men, women and children from their homes, their shops and their farms. So, the military and civilian agencies alike, determined to do the job as a democracy should—with real consideration for the people involved

37. Justice Department detention camps Crystal City, Texas Fort Lincoln Internment Camp Fort Missoula, Montana Fort Stanton, New Mexico Kenedy, Texas Kooskia, Idaho Santa Fe, New Mexico Seagoville, Texas Forest Park, Georgia The Citizen Isolation Centers were for those considered to be problem inmates. Leupp, Arizona Moab, Utah (AKA Dalton Wells) Fort Stanton, New Mexico (AKA Old Raton Ranch) Immigration and Naturalization Service facilities East Boston Immigration Station Ellis Island Cincinnati, Ohio San Pedro, Los Angeles Seattle, Washington Sharp Park, California Tuna Canyon, Los Angeles

38. Angels Island Angel Island is an island in San Francisco Bay. Originally the home of a military installation, the island now offers picturesque views of the San Francisco skyline, the Marin County Headlands and Mount Tamalpais. The entire island is included within Angel Island State Park, administered by California State Parks. The island, a California Historical Landmark, has been used for a variety of purposes, including military forts, a US Public Health Service Quarantine Station, and a US Bureau of Immigration inspection and detention facility. The Angel Island Immigration Station on the northeast corner of the island, where officials detained, inspected, and examined approximately one million immigrants, has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

39. Fort Bliss New Mexico Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of LTC William Bliss (1815- 1853) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Bliss#/media/File:Aerial_view_Fort_Bliss_1968.jpg

40. In 1980, under mounting pressure from the Japanese American Citizens League and redress organizations, President Jimmy Carter opened an investigation to determine whether the decision to put Japanese Americans into concentration camps had been justified by the government. He appointed the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) to investigate the camps. The Commission's report, titled Personal Justice Denied, found little evidence of Japanese disloyalty at the time and concluded that the incarceration had been the product of racism. It recommended that the government pay reparations to the internees. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government and authorized a payment of $20,000 (equivalent to $43,000 in 2019) to each camp survivor. The legislation admitted that government actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership. The U.S. government eventually disbursed more than $1.6 billion (equivalent to $3,460,000,000 in 2019) in reparations to 82,219 Japanese Americans who had been interned and their heirs

41. U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 in August 1988, which granted reparations for the internment of Japanese Americans. Over 81,800 people qualified by 1998 and $1.6 billion was distributed among them. The act granted each surviving internee about US$20,000 in compensation (or, $40,000 after inflation- adjustment in 2016 dollars), with payments beginning in 1990. The legislation stated that government actions had been based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership" as opposed to legitimate security reasons. A total of 82,219 received redress checks