Japanese Internment Essay

After Pearl Harbor, Americans were very afraid; for the first time in many Americans’ lives, the United States looked vulnerable, shattering the invincible image ingrained into their minds. Naturally, citizens felt that they had to take measures to protect the nation and restore its strong figure. In response to the anxiety from the attack and the subsequent war, America began taking serious actions: the most significant being the internment of all Japanese people. The interment was when the United States military placed anyone of Japanese origin in camps where they were expected to take the few resources they were given and make mock-towns to live in, forcing them to make thrifty accommodations that weren’t optimal for living. At the time, actions like these seemed justified to many Americans, seeing as Japanese immigrants could have collaborated with Japan by giving them resources like oil or acting as spies. However, as time progressed, the truth was revealed — the measures taken by the people out of fear were too drastic, and the mistreatment of persecuted Japanese people like the people described in Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston’s Farewell to Manzanar were not justified. In Houston’s autobiography, Jeanne encaptures how when unjust acts like the internment of Japanese people are carried out, people will push back in resistance with things like the December Riots and the resistance of the loyalty oath.
When a group of people are mistreated, they will likely make efforts to resist their malignant abusers. They combat their oppressor with marches, protests, boycotts, and when they are pushed far enough, they start riots. Unfortunately, Japanese internees were pushed too far on the night of December 5th in 1942 - exactly a year after the Pearl Harbor attack - and the internees started what became known as the December Riots. In the riots, the internees revolted against their captors and went on a head hunt to kill the inus (traitors, spies,