Internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II
When the national interests are threatened, history has shown that American presidents will take extraordinary measures to protect them, even if this means violating the U.S. Constitution. For example, the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act enacted immediately following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, watered down civil liberties for American citizens. Likewise, President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War just as President Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the outset of World War II following the Japanese sneak attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor when tens of thousands of Japanese-American citizens were interred for the duration of the war. Despite the compelling circumstances that were involved, this paper will show that the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was not only unconscionable, it was also a fragrant violation of the U.S. Constitution and should not have taken place. A summary of the research and important findings are presented in the paper's conclusion.
Review and Discussion
In the Home of the Free, there is a fundamental expectation of the civil liberties that are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution in general and the Bill of Rights in particular, but this expectation was violated when the decision was made to inter-Japanese-American citizens following the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor, an act that was particularly egregious for the vast majority of Americans because a declaration of war had not been made. According to Flamiano, "After the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States entered World War II and anti-Japanese hysteria gripped the home front. Then, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the War Department to exclude any group of people from military areas for the duration of the war" (23). According to a historical timeline of World War II published in the Washington Times, in March 1942, U.S. authorities begin rounding up about 120,000 Japanese-Americans into internment camps. The Roosevelt administration says it's trying to head off possible espionage" (6).
Executive Order 9066 provided the legal framework that was used to relocate and inter-between 110,000 and 120,000 (accounts vary) Japanese-American citizens and Japanese immigrants to internment centers scattered across the country (Flamiano 23). Most of the internees were in fact, U.S. citizens who had either been naturalized or were natural-born, with the second generation being forced into the camps as part of whole families. In this regard, Gallavan and Roberts report that, "Two-thirds of those evacuated from their homes were American-born citizens. More than half were children, exiled only because their parents had been born in Japan. Evacuees were not told how long they would be held, nor were they charged with any crimes" (275).
Not surprisingly, this event was contrary to everything these people of Japanese descent had come to believe about their adopted or natural homeland. For instance, Luther reports that, "Studies have shown that many of the Japanese-Americans who were forced to relocate, a majority of whom were citizens of the United States, experienced an identity crisis. Suddenly denied their civil rights as U.S. citizens, they began to question the American side of their identity" (69). Besides causing the internees to question their American identities, many also experienced significant personal losses as well. For instance, Flamiano emphasizes that, "Many were forced to sell their homes and businesses, often suffering huge financial losses, and educations, careers, and lives were disrupted, sometimes irrevocably" (24).
Given the enormous groundswell of anti-Japanese hysteria that followed Pearl Harbor, it is also not surprising that there were few voices of dissent advanced against the internment, perhaps for fear of being perceived as "pro-Japanese" and "anti-American," and the mainstream American media primarily characterized the internments as logical...
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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