Mrs. Ohly
English 10
May 7, 2012
At what point is the level of national security a much higher priority than personal freedom for Americans? Ever since 9/11, the country’s way of balancing this problem was that even though personal freedom is very important, the priority for national security is at a much higher point during a time of war. Whenever the United States goes into a time of war or conflict, there are usually some changes to help increase the security level. There is no exact right or wrong answer to when too much national security overpowers the freedom of the individuals in America. The United States has history in which they have lowered the priority of personal freedom in order to reach a stronger national security importance in other cases other than 9/11. Some of these changes included the Japanese Internment Camps during World War II and the Patriot act after 9/11. Is the freedom we give up, worth the extra security? To begin with, it depends on whom it affects. The majority of Americans weren’t worried about the Japanese Americans put into internment camps during World War II. Their fear of a Japanese invasion justified the bad treatment of the Japanese Americans. The United States couldn’t balance their need for national security and the freedom that Japanese Americans were used to having. The United States put the Japanese Americans into internment camps so the government could watch and control them in case they were involved in any of the Japanese military plans. The Japanese Americans’ rights were completely taken away in order for the government to feel like they had the national security that was needed during this time. The government did this as attempt to protect the country from another form of terrorism as said in an article by the United States History, “Considering it to be of utmost importance to the national security, the government began the registration of enemy aliens on February 2, 1942. At the same time,