Transcript Japanese Internment 08-09

Homework

STAR notes: 449-451.
Intro

HOT ROC


Vocab Quiz!
Review Homework


Pair share thesis statements
Share as a class
The Price of Fear: Japanese
Internment and Anti-Asian
Propaganda
Standard 11.7.5
Discuss the constitutional issues and impact
of events on the U.S. home front,
including the internment of Japanese
Americans (e.g., Fred Korematsu v.
United States of America) and the
restrictions on German and Italian
resident aliens; the response of the
administration to Hitler's atrocities
against Jews and other groups; the
roles of women in military production;
and the roles and growing political
demands of African Americans.
FDR’s 4 Freedoms
Speech to Congress on January 6, 1941




The first is freedom of speech and expression
The second is freedom of every person to worship
God in his own way
The third is freedom from want
The fourth is freedom from fear
Ours…to fight for
•How would you
rank these four
freedoms?
Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Religion
•Which is most
important?
•Discuss
Norman Rockwell, 1943
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Fear
Key Question:

Why were Japanese Americans interned (put
in relocation camps) and German Americans
and Italian Americans were not?
Propaganda
Analysis

What do you see?

What effect would
this type of
propaganda have
had on the general
American public
particularly after
Pearl Harbor?
Written response
Discuss


Review The Home Front during
WWII

Home front: The civilian population or the
civilian activities of a country at war.

How did WWII impact Americans at home?
Who counted as “American”?
What role did propaganda play?


Japanese Americans—A Quick History

New Vocab: Internment

1890s—First wave of Japanese
immigrants to Hawaii and the
West Coast.



U.S. citizenship limited to “free white
persons”—excludes Asian
immigrants.
1913—California Alien Land Law
of 1913 bans Japanese from
purchasing land
1924—Japanese immigration to
U.S. banned.
Propaganda:

Pearl Harbor,
December 7, 1941

“Jap” hunting
licenses circulated
through U.S.
Internment of Japanese
Americans



In the 2 weeks following Pearl Harbor,
around 2,000 Japanese immigrants
arrested.
 Fear of “enemy aliens.” Sensational
news headlines appear.
February 1942—Lieutenant General
John L. DeWitt sends memo
recommending removal stating:
 “The Japanese race is an enemy
race…racial affinities are not
severed by migration…the racial
strains are undiluted.”
Italian and German Americans?
Executive Order 9066

February 19, 1942—FDR signs Executive Order
9066, which authorized the War Department to
“exclude” people from military areas.

Two step process



Assembly centers
Relocation centers (Internment camps): CA, AZ, UT, WY,
CO, AK
Approximately 120,000 men, women and children interned.

Two thirds were American citizens by birth.

Photos
from the
evacuation
Tule Lake
Internment
Camp
Manzanar Internment
Camp
Video Clip


Disc 1 of The War (1:21:00-1:28:00)
Compare/Contrast to the experience of Jews
and “undesirables” during Nazi concentration

“We were put on a train, three of us and many trains
of others. It was crowded. The shades were drawn.
During the ride we were wondering, what are they
going to do to us?...We arrived in Amache,
Colorado. That was an experience in itself. We were
right near the Kansas border. It’s a desolate, flat,
barren area. The barracks was all there was. There
were no trees, no kind of landscaping. It was like a
prison camp. Coming from our environment, it was
just devastating.”
–Peter Ota, age 15 in 1942
Peter Ota, quoted by Studs Turkel in “The Good War”: An Oral History of
World War Two (1984), pp 29-30.
Activity: Loyalty Oath



Question #27 asked:
Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat
duty, wherever ordered?
Question #28 asked:
Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and
faithfully defend the United States from any and all attack by foreign or
domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance to the Japanese
Emperor or any other foreign government, power, or organization?
In your notebook:





1. How would you respond to these two questions? Explain your answers
2. Are there any reasons a person might answer “no” other than disloyalty?
3. First generation Japanese Americans could not be U.S. citizens. Would this
complicate their answer? How?
4. How might women and the elderly have felt in responding?
5. How can you prove loyalty? Could something like internment happen again?
(e.g. what happened after 9/11?)
Loyalty Oath

February 1943—loyalty review program includes
questionnaire.


Questions 27 and 28 generate confusion, fear, and anger.
1,200 volunteer for military service. (Beginning in 1944, the
Selective Service began drafting Japanese Americans).

1943-1944 Those who “pass” the loyalty test allowed
to resettle in interior states.
Many had lost all their property
and savings.

Supreme Court Case: Fred Korematsu vs
United States of America

1. What was this case about?
2. What was the verdict/decision?

(Use page 435)

Fred Korematsu vs United States
of America







Background info- *do not write down
Born 1919 in Oakland, CA.
After Exec Order 9066, Korematsu refused to report to a
relocation camp and went into hiding.
Captured May 30, 1942. Tried and convicted, then appealed to the
Supreme Court.
On December 18, 1944, the Court held that compulsory exclusion,
though constitutionally suspect, is justified during circumstances of
"emergency and peril".
In 1988, law signed by President Reagan gave $20,000 and an
apology to all surviving people who were interned.
In 1998, President Clinton awarded Fred Korematsu with the
Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Final Thoughts: Could something like
the internment of Japanese Americans
happen again?
Definitely
Agree
Somewhat
Disagree
Somewhat
Agree
Definitely
Disagree