On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had Executive Order 9066 signed and issued that declared the internment of all Japanese Americans or those of Japanese descent would be interned in isolated camps on the West Coast as they were considered a threat to national security in the United States.
Many Japanese Families would be drastically affected by the Presidents decision to intern them until the end of the war. Many of these families were being told that it was for their own safety behind a camp that was fenced with barbed wire. Children and adults were moved to remote places where buildings that looked like they were made for livestock were now being converted into for the purpose of the families removed to live there from 1942 through 1945. The buildings they lived in were often not very good as they were once places where animals had lived and the sanitation was bad. The camps often included things such as schools, post offices, work facilities, farmland that was all protected in a camp surrounded by barbed wire. With these places, children and adults were limited to what they were able to in the camps to pass time until the war ended. There were assembly centers that gave an opportunity for some Japanese to go do work on a farm and there were cases of over 4,000 Japanese Americans who were allowed to attend college. At some of the camps, it was reported that violence occurred at Santa Anita facility where a riot broke out from overcrowding and not enough rations at the camp. Some even tried to escape being interned while they were sent to a camp. It often resulted in the person who tries to escape being shot and killed
In the Endo Vs. The United States case, it was declared that the internment of Japanese Americans was unjust and that the US had no right to intern its own citizens. It was decided that the camps should be closed after the decision of the Supreme Court in 1945 decided to close the camps. It was reported that the last Japanse camp was closed in 1946. Many years would pass by until the United States government would acknowledge and take full responsibility for their wrongdoing in interning many of their Japanese American citizens.
I think that this topic is very interesting. It is most interesting how the Japanese were the ones interned, even though they were citizens of the United States just like most other people. I think it is so sad how some people discriminate against a certain race, gender, religion, or ethnic group or groups.
ReplyDeleteOne of my friends has grandparents that were in the Japanese internment camps. She still sees the effect on them to this day, her grandmother has a habit of hoarding food because when she lived in the camps they did not get enough food.
ReplyDeleteI think this has left a long term effect on America realizing how cruel their actions were during World War II because they were so afraid of what could happen to them that they had to place unjust orders on Japanese Americans and make them stay in those interment camps with little to live for.
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