The Cortez Growers Association (CGA) provided some community structure and cohesion to the life of the farmers. Membership in the organization was contingent upon board approval and the payment of fifty dollars. From its origins, it evolved into a diversified structure, encompassing the marketing of produce, the shipping of goods, the purchase of farm supplies on a collective basis, even the drying of fruit. (Matsumoto, p.49; 53) However, far beyond a purely business related collective of farmers, the CGA created an important cultural institution. It staged traditional Noh plays for the community and provided English language and Sunday school instruction, although some members of the community retained their devout Buddhism, despite the efforts of Christian missionaries. The CGA showed how these farmers could retain their Japanese culture and still function as loyal Americans Ironically, the passage of the 1924 Immigration Act that limited the number of Japanese immigrants reduced some of the hostility to the members of the community for a time. But after the outbreak of World War II, much of this changed. The FBI questioned and seized the holdings of Issei leaders based upon their racial identity alone. (Matsumoto, p. 91) Many Japanese farmers, as a result of their displacement, lost their leases to their farms. The CGA cushioned some of the blows that internment provided to this still-fragile, but once-flourishing community. It arranged for the supervision of the land while the Japanese-Americans were away. The CGA and the knowledge that the lives they had worked so hard to build were not completely...
Still, the conditions of the camps forced ordinary, innocent people to live criminals -- toiling at enforced agricultural projects, eating at a canteen -- there was even a barber shop, again, much like a prison. (Matsumoto, pp.121-11) After the war, the tension and cultural divide that had been created between Japanese-Americans and their non-Japanese neighbors was not so easy to heal.
Yet, these were small amenities that did not mask the horrible conditions of the camps very well. Most of those within the camps were American citizens, and should not have had their liberties taken away with such blatant disregard for upholding American principles of freedom. Many Japanese-Americans, who were born in the U.S., paid taxes, and even bought war bonds, were treated like criminals during the relocation, "The Japanese-Americans suffered
Japanese internment camps are a dark period of American history. The forced incarceration of Americans of Japanese descent was based solely on racism and a culture of fear. During World War II, Americans also counted Italians and Japanese as their archrivals but of these groups, it was only Japanese-Americans that were rounded up and placed into concentration camps. Just as African-American soldiers could not serve alongside their white counterparts,
Essay Topic Examples 1. The Justification and Implications of Japanese Internment during WWII: This essay would explore the rationale provided by the U.S. government for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, examining the legal and political context. It would also analyze the implications of these actions on civil liberties and the precedent it set for government action during times of national security concerns. 2. The Psychological Impact of Internment on
The provision that persons cannot be deprived of liberty without due process of law takes precedence over the war powers." Both authors therefore agree that the American Constitution prohibits the unwarranted detention of citizens based on their ethnicity alone. Only the Chicago Daily Tribune article uses the type of language befitting an editorial. For instance, the author uses terms like "prejudice" and "hysteria" to describe the issue. The Los Angeles
internment camps for the Japanese that were set up and implemented by president Franklin D. Roosevelt. The writer explores the history leading up to the decision and the decision itself. There were six sources used to complete this paper. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the American public was outraged and stunned. American citizens had lived with a false sense of security for many years that the soil of the United
Japanese-Americans in the West Coast lived peacefully before President Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 9066 in February 1942 that condemned them to misery in internment camps in the deserts of California. Those who owned property had to sell them. Some had to give up their belongings. The Japanese-Americans could not wage any form of resistance because this would be suppressed by brute military force. Nobody would be foolhardy enough to
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