Japanese Internment

Japanese Internment

Pearl Harbor • Japan's alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in 1940 focused world attention on the Asian nation's military power and imperial ambition. • The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 plunged the United States into war and planted the notion of Japanese treachery in the minds of Americans. • Hysteria + anti-Asian prejudices= Internment

Racists • World War II had all of the ugly overtones of racial conflict. • German and Italian Americans were not rounded up • German or Italian enemies were victims of despotic leaders • Japanese people were referred to as "yellow vermin," "mad dogs," and "monkey men." • Racist wartime propaganda

Removal • Officials in the War Department who advocated the forced removal of Japanese Americans found President Franklin Roosevelt receptive to their cause. • On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which set the removal program in motion. • The limited official opposition to removal centered in the U.S. Justice Department with officials such as Edward J. Ennis and the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover, who believed it was unconstitutional.

Executive Order 9066 • The Executive Order 9066 authorized the military to exclude any person from any area of the country where national security was considered threatened. • It gave the military broad authority over the civilian population without the imposition of martial law. • The order was applied only to Japanese Americans.

What did some of our leaders think? • "A Jap's a Jap. It makes no difference whether the Jap is a citizen or not."— General John L. DeWitt, Commander, Western Defense Command, 1942 • "I am determined that if they have one drop of Japanese blood in them, they must go to camp."— Colonel Karl Bendetsen, Administrator, Wartime Civil Control Administration, 1942

Removal Process • Registration of all Japanese Americans, both resident aliens and citizens, was the first step toward forced removal. • Spring of 1942, scenes like these were repeated in every Japanese American community along the Pacific Coast. • These Exclusion Orders were based solely on race and ancestry.

""We were told to take only as much as we could carry in our two hands. How much could you carry in your two hands? One big suitcase...well, how can you really manage with a big stuffed suitcase?""— Anonymous

Homeowners and small businessmen, moving out also meant selling out — quickly, and at an enormous loss. • Estimated at as much as 1.3 billion dollars. • Net income losses may have been as high as 2.7 billion dollars

Internment • Conditions varied from the heat, dusty, rainy, or bitter winter cold • All 10 camps had in common was geographic isolation. • Lived behind barbed-wire fences, watched over by armed military police in guard towers.

Post War • On December 17, 1944, Public Proclamation Number 21 ended the mass imprisonment of Japanese resident aliens and American citizens of Japanese ancestry. • On the following day, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Ex Parte Endo that claims of military necessity could not justify holding American citizens against their will.

Rejoining society was difficult for many • Each individual received a $25 payment and transportation tickets at the time of release • Many detainees discovered that their pre-1941 communities had vanished, and their homes and businesses were lost

Postwar housing shortage • Competition for jobs with returning veterans • Some were welcomed some were threatened

Japanese Internment