The Japanese-American Internment Camps In The Holocaust

6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. The number of Japanese-Americans who were killed in the internment camps is unknown but over 127,00 were put into the labor camps and about 7% of them died from hunger, dehydration or other unnatural causes such as executions. Japanese-Americans and Jews were both excluded of citizenship for either their nationality or religion. Jews were put in these concentration camps from 1933 to around 1945 by Hitler and the German army. Japanese-Americans were put in the internment camps around the year of 1945 through 1946 or 1947 by the American government. The Nazi concentration camps and Japanese-American internment camps were not essentially the same thing because they were put in the camps for different
purposes, the aftermath of the camps were different, and the locations of the camps were different. One reason why the concentration camps and the internment camps were different was that they had different purposes for being there.
In George Takei’s interview he states,”...we had to take loyalty tests, as if moving away to a camp far away from our home, wasn’t enough to prove that we were.” The purpose for the Japanese internment camps was the fear of being attacked. The Americans were skeptical of the Japanese because they had just bombed America on Pearl Harbor. In the Holocaust documentary it says that people were killed by gas chambers and mass-burnings. When the Nazis got bored they would kill randomly and have random roll calls for hours. This tells me that the purpose of the concentration camps was hate. Finally, the Nazi concentration camps were also known as “death camps”. This proves that the Nazis wanted to kill the Jews and anyone who they felt weren't worthy of being included in the Hitler’s “master
race”. Another reason why Nazi concentration camps were not essentially the same thing as Japanese-American internment camps is that the aftermath of each incident were different. In President Gerald. R. Ford’s speech he simply states,”...justice for each individual American, and resolve that this kind of action shall never be repeated.” The Japanese-Americans were simply apologized to, they didn't get any real rescuing.The president of the U.S. just had a speech and didn't really know what to do with them.The Nazi internment camps, however was a true rescuing. Jews were provided food, shelter, and water after their experience. Their situation was much more life-endangering, more serious than labor camps. Finally, after the Nazi concentration camps, the war was ended.When the war ended there were concentration camps still going on, which means there still innocent Jews dying because of their religion. There was a finitely to the concentration camps as there was to the World War II, the war was over around the same time the concentration camps were. Finally, Anne Frank’s diary states,”My friends are all gone...I have no reason to live.” Japanese-Americans got their got their citizenship back, they returned to their normal lives after a few months, but Jews never shook the haunted memories away, they were tortured with the memories of their loved ones being burned when their still alive, randomly being shot, being gassed, and collapsing from exhaustion or starvation. Jews never got to fully be citizens again, when they returned to their homes they were still hated by Germans.

Also, another reason why Japanese internment camps and Nazi concentration camps are not essentially the same thing is because of the camp's location. In George Takei’s interview he states,”...we rode on a train to a deserted area,closed off from the rest of world it seemed.” The Japanese internment camps were in secluded areas where they were closed off from the public. The Nazi concentration camps were not, they were in public squares sometimes, as if a warning to the rest of the public. The Nazis would leave people’s bodies out where anyone who walked out side of the chain linked, shocking wall, could see. The Japanese-Americans were only in a camp for 6 months sometimes and were often transferred. The Jews, however, were usually in one camp for the whole time. Some people may say that Japanese internment camps and Nazi concentration camps were the same thing.
They might say that both the Japanese-Americans and the Jews equally got the human rights stripped from them. But that is not true at all, the Jews never completely got their life back, the Japanese-Americans were given back their homes. Also, people might say that their purposes for being at the camps were the same, but that's not true either, one was out of fear and the other out of hate. In conclusion, the Nazi concentration camps and the Japanese internment camps were not essentially the same thing because they had different purposes and different aftermaths, and different locations. Many more Jews were killed than the Japanese-Americans. Jews dealt with much more grief and sadness. They were forever unequal and excluded from
humanity.