Japanese-American Internment Camps

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans became paranoid of espionage from the Japanese. Because of this, President Roosevelt issued the internment of all people of Japanese ancestry to provide “national security”. Japanese- Americans were given two days to evacuate, and were forced into internment camps (Cooper, page 7). Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps because of their nationality, and had to undergo many unjust hardships. Although after the internment camps, they received compensation, it did not erase all the sufferings the government put them through. The internment of Japanese- Americans was truly not the best action our government took in response to the war against Japan. The decision to evacuate and remove Japanese living on the West Coast was not based only on Pearl Harbor. The removal of Japanese was a consequence of anti-Japanese sentiment from the early part of the twentieth century (Ng, page 13). The government maintained that military necessity was the main reason behind the evacuation and internment program(Ng, page 13). Other factors that lead to the evacuation included, arms found in Japanese homes and businesses when they were searched after Pearl Harbor, concentrations of Japanese in close proximity to highly sensitive military areas, and the presence of Kibei, second-generation Japanese-Americans educated in Japan, who were likely to be “pro-Japan” (Ng, page 13). Another reason for the internment, given by the government, was that the ethnic Japanese needed “protection” from vigilantes and other anti-Japanese forces during war time (Ng, page 14). On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 (Cooper, page 6). Although this order did not directly mention Japanese Americans or aliens, but designated certain areas of the West Coast that would fall under military jurisdiction, the effect of the order gave the military power to remove Japanese aliens and citizens according to their