Transcript Japanese Interment - Japanese Internment

Japanese Interment
Question
• In response to the War on Terror, should
we round up all Americans of Arab descent
or Muslim faith and relocate them?
• What is the proper balance between liberty
and security?
Paranoia Leading to Internment
• Bombing of Pearl Harbor
• 1941- 125,000 people of Japanese
descent live on west coast
• Fear of sabotage, spying or 5th column
activities
• Issei
– Born in Japan
• Nisei
– Full citizens born in US
Executive Order 9066
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February 19, 1942
Broad powers to military
Forcibly removed to “relocation centers”
110,000+ Japanese Americans
3,200 Italian Americans
11,000 German Americans
Camp Life
• Dismal surroundings-looked to improve
• Employment- self-sufficient
• Food
– mix of traditional Japanese and American food
– Subject to same rations as everyone else
• Medical Care
– Hospitals staffed largely by Japanese Americans
• Education
– Provided by white and Japanese teachers
(buddaheads)
• Baseball
Baseball
• Baseball in Japanese Internment Camps
Camp Locations
442nd Regimental Combat Team
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Made up of men already in service
Replacements from camps- volunteers
Served in Europe
Most had never been to Japan nor speak
Japanese
• Most decorated unit of its size
• Other duties
– Intelligence, interpreters, translators
Korematsu v. The United States
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Fred Korematsu refused to leave his home
1944 went before Supreme Court
6-3 decision against Korematsu
Court ruled that need to protect against
espionage outweighed the rights of
Japanese Americans
Justice Hugo Black
• "all legal restrictions which curtail the civil
rights of a single racial group are
immediately suspect" and subject to tests
of "the most rigid scrutiny," not all such
restrictions are inherently unconstitutional.
"Pressing public necessity may sometimes
justify the existence of such restrictions;
racial antagonism never can."
President Reagan Apologizes
• Most released Jan. 1945
• Property taken, financial ruin
• 1948- $37 million appropriated as
reparations
• 1988- additional $20,000 in reparations
– President Reagan officially apologizes
Japanese Canadian Internment
Camps
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British Columbia
23,000 moved by train to
Men, women and children separated
Military officials said fears unwarranted
Property sold
After war forced to leave country, move east of
Rocky Mountains
• 1949 could regained freedom of movement
• 1988- $21,000 given directly to those affected
Political Cartoon/ Blog
• Now that you have some background on
the Internment of Japanese of Americans,
you need to do a few things.
• Create a political cartoon
• Blog a letter from a camp