Transcript Japanese Internment

Internment Camps
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/99/fear/gallery.html
Events Leading to Internment
The Japanese and JapaneseAmerican were sent to
internment camps after the
Japanese attacked Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii.
 Also Germans, German
Americans, Italians, and
Italian Americans were also
relocated to camps due to the
war.
 America feared that these
people were spies or invaders
for the Axis Powers who could
lead a home front attack.
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Roosevelt stood his ground
and went on to sign the
order that would imprison
many Americans of
Japanese ancestry.
The signing of Executive
Order 9066 by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt on
February 19, 1942 forced
all accused ethnic groups
to internment camps by
use of his Commander-InChief war powers.
The order led
approximately 120,000
ethnic Japanese peoples
and Americans with
Japanese relatives to be
sent to internment camps.
Opposition of the Relocation
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Many accused Americans showed
that they were true patriots by
joining up and reciting the “Pledge of
Allegiance” and singing patriotic
songs such as “The Star-Spangled
Banner”.
Various people were apt to aid the
citizens who lived in America, such as
J. Edgar Hoover, an FBI Director, and
Franklin Roosevelt’s own wife,
Eleanor Roosevelt, who was
unsuccessful in privately persuading
him not to sign it.
Internment
Fear of disloyalty on the part of any Issei
or Nisei was common among many
Americans.
– Issei: those born in Japan, regarded
by the U.S. government as ineligible
for U.S. citizenship.
– Nisei: those born to Japan parents,
thus U.S. citizens.
 1/3 of the population of Hawaii was
comprised of those of Japanese descent,
thus many of them were not interned,
however the islands were placed under
martial law.
 Video Clip
“Days of Waiting” 1:30 min
Questions to consider:
 Describe life in a relocation camp.
How is that life different from your
own?
 Describe the differing points of view
held by the elderly and the young.
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http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/images/photodb/23-0306a.gif
Japanese near trains during Relocation
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/images/photodb/23-0307a.gif
Housing in a Japanese Relocation camp
War Relocation Authority(WRA)
Centers
Condition of the Camps
The 1943 War
Relocation Authority
reported the internees
were housed in “tar
paper-covered
barracks of simple
frame construction
without plumbing or
cooking facilities of any
kind.”
 They were built in
desolate areas with
severe, harsh weather
conditions.
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Life in Internment Camps Cont.
There was only a budget of 45 cents daily
per capita for food rations, giving the
internees little food.
 Manzanar, the most widely known camp,
northeast of Los Angeles, California, had
the worst weather; cold temperatures and
harsh, frequent dust storms.
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Life in Internment Camps
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The internees and their
heirs, were allowed to stay
with their families and were
treated well by guards
except if they violated rules.
Because they came from
the West Coast, most of the
internees did not have
clothes adequately warm
enough for Wyoming’s cold
weather.
Life in Manzanar
Photos taken by Ansel Adams (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage)
How the Internment was
Viewed
Ones who were for the internment simply
called internees “residents”, but Roosevelt
privately referred the camps as
“concentration camps”.
 Many who were against the internment
called it prejudice and called them
concentration camps publicly against the
War Relocation Authority.
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Internment Ends
The Supreme Court ruled the imprisonment of
loyal citizens unconstitutional in December 1944.
 The ruling led to the government bringing
individuals back to the West Coast on early
1945. The Japanese Americans were given $25
and a free ticket ride back to their homes.
 Some migrated back to Japan, but most stayed
to rebuild their lives.
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In 1988, Congress implemented the Civil
Liberties Act, apologizing on behalf of the nation
for the "grave injustice" done to persons of
Japanese ancestry. Congress declared that the
internments had been "motivated largely by
racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure
of political leadership" and authorized $20,000
payments to Japanese Americans who had
suffered injustices during World War II.
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aamhtml/aamabout.html)
Aftermath and Compensation of
Internment
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Although compensation was paid for property
losses, the ex-internees were still not able to fully
recover their losses.
Young Americans started the Redress Movement
in 1960 for an apology.
In 1988, President Ronald Regan signed a
legislation which apologized for the internment
on behalf of the U.S. Government.
The Manzanar Camp was reformed into a
National Historic Site to “provide for the
protection and interpretation of historic, cultural,
and natural resources associated with the
relocation of Japanese Americans during World
War II”.