Japanese- American Internment Camps during World War II

1. Japanese- American Internment Camps during World War II

2. Terms to Know • Internment-To place in confinement (to shut or keep in), especially in wartime • Barracks-A building, or group of buildings used to house military personnel. • Issei – Japanese-American Immigrants • Nisei – Children of Japanese-American Immigrants

3. Map of Internment Camps

4. How it started • December 7th 1941: Japan attacked Pearl Harbor (a military base in Hawaii). United States was scared of another attack and war hysteria seized the country. • February 19th 1942: Executive Order 9066 moved 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes into internment camps. • The US justified their action by claiming there was a danger of Japanese Americans spying for Japan • More than 2/3 of those interned were American citizens and 1/2 of them were children. • Some family members were separated and put in different camps.

5. Coming to the camps

6. What was it like to live there? • Life in the camps was hard. • The families had about 2 days to pack for the camps • They were only were allowed to bring what they could carry • They were housed in barracks and had to use communal areas for washing, laundry and eating.

7. What did the Japanese Americans do while in the camps?

8. School Time

9. How did it end? • January 1945 : the Public Proclamation 21 became effective in which allowed internees to return to their homes. • At the end of the war some remained in the US and rebuilt their lives • Others were unforgiving and returned to Japan

10. Were the internment camps necessary? • None of the people interned had ever previously shown disloyalty to the United States. • During the entire war only ten people were convicted of spying for Japan • The ten people were all Caucasian.

11. Korematsu v. U.S. (1942) • Korematsu refused to obey the relocation order • Appealed conviction on constitutional grounds • Supreme Court ruled the order a valid use of presidential power in wartime • Decision vacated in 1984, due to government-withheld evidence in the first trial

12. Randolph and the Fair Employment Act • Influential labor leader • Proposed a 1941 “March on Washington” to protest discrimination • FDR convinced him to cancel march; enacted Fair Employment Act A. Philip Randolph meets with first lady Eleanor Roosevelt

13. The Navajo Code Talkers • Used to transmit messages in the Pacific Theater • Based on the Navajo language • Navajo words frequently substituted for military terms • Code never broken Code Talkers Henry Bake and George Kirk send messages in the Pacific Theater, 1943

14. The Bracero Program • Established due to wartime labor shortage • Experienced Mexican laborers brought in for CA farm work; expanded nationwide • Braceros also worked for U.S. railroads • Reported human rights abuses • Lawsuits filed to collect savings withheld from braceros’ pay A bracero

15. “Zoot Suit Riots” • Los Angeles, 1943 • Conflicts between sailors on leave and young Mexican Americans, identifiable by their dress • African Americans and Filipinos wearing zoot suits also targeted • Military eventually placed LA off-limits to servicemen A zoot suit

16. The GI Bill • Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 • An attempt to thwart a social and economic crisis • Stalled in Congress as House and Senate hammered out a compromise • Bill provided for education and training, low-cost loans, unemployment benefits Stamp commemorating the GI Bill