What was the impact of WWII on the everyday life of the majority of Americans?

1. What was the impact of WWII on the everyday life of the majority of Americans? • In what ways did WWII contribute to the growth of the federal government? How did it foster what historians now call the “military-industrial complex” and the imperial presidency? • How do you explain the decision to intern virtually all Americans of Japanese birth (Issei) or ancestry (Nisei)? Do you think the internment of a population could happen again today?

2. Japanese “Relocation” • Racism before Pearl Harbor • Nativism • Executive Order 9066 • Feb 19, 1942 • 10 internment camps • 120,000 Japanese American relocated • 2/3 of internees were American citizens • War Relocation Authority (WRA)

3. Japanese Internment: Notification, Relocation, & Internment Photos

4. 10 Internment Camps

5. Japanese American experiences - “Relocation”/Internment Camps • Remote, barren lands, few belongings • Lost $2 billion in property and possessions • Japanese Americans in military • 442nd infantry combat team—well decorated • Challenges to internment • Korematsu case (1944)—internment is constitutional • 1988—reparations paid to surviving internees ($20,000 each)

6. Notification

9. Relocation

11. Internment Camps