...The internment of Japanese-Americans in the United States during World War II was a horrific act of forced relocation and confinement in camps in the inner western states of the country. Between 110,000 and 120,000 Japanese-Americans, most of whom lived on the Pacific coast were subjected to the internment. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, war hysteria and a fear of the Japanese spread across the nation. President Roosevelt worked to counter this by issuing Executive Order 9066, thereby forcibly removing all Japanese-Americans from their homes and relocating them to internment camps outside of the restricted military zones. As his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt would write, “They were marked as different from other races and were not treated on an equal basis. In one part of our country, they were feared as competitors, and the rest of our country knew them so little and cared so little about them that they did not even think about the principle that we in this country believe in - that of equal rights for all human...
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...The Japanese Experience: Pre and Post Internment Camp The Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 caused the United States to not only declare war against Japan, but also to demand internment for anyone persons living in the United States that would be considered a national security threat, most of those people being Japanese-Americans. The Japanese experience has been altered by the policies and narrative of United States history. As waves of immigrants began to populate more of the West Coast, the growing frustration of California citizens allowed for the legal discrimination of most Asian Americans. Throughout their time in the U.S, there is a rich history attached to the Japanese experience. Among World War II, internment camps,...
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...The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during the World War II was a very devastating event in history. Many Americans were filled with fear and anger. They feared that those who are on American soil and has Japanese ancestry were enemies and would bring danger to the country. All these anxieties led to the decision of creating the internment camps. The Japanese American internment camps were a gratuitous act that revealed the Americans’ fear, and true feelings and thoughts about the accused enemies. One reason why the internment camps were unnecessary is that none of the Japanese-Americans had caused any troubles or disruptions in the country, yet the government still considered relocating them to a miserable and strange setting. According to the article, “Japanese-American Internment Was An Unnecessary And A Racist Act,” Henry Steele Commager, a historian, stated that “It is sobering to recall that the record does not disclose a single case of Japanese disloyalty or sabotage...
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...To say that the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was unexpected would be a lie. The U.S. is a country that has a long history of discrimination based on race. After pearl harbor many citizens of the U.S. acted in a very predictable way. Race based violence started occurring towards Japanese people and some unlucky person of Asian heritage. This is what has historically happened in the U.S. when the citizens do not understand a different group. Unrealistic generalization and stereotyping spread like wildfire in these kind of circumstances. There will always be people in any country that do not accept, and the people of the U.S. do quite a bit. Yet the trend seems to be that there is always one group that becomes the target after one incident created by an immeasurably smaller part of that said group. This time it was the Japanese. Is it really protecting the safety of American citizens when they and their families are put in internment camps? The internment of Japanese-Americans was wholly expected in a country with a...
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...They were now deemed enemies of the state. Over half of the 120,000 Japanese-Americans, and 22,000 Japanese-Canadians that were sent to the camps had never set foot in Japan. Some of those imprisoned died in the camps due to a lack of proper medical care. Others were killed for disobeying orders. Many of the Japanese-Americans and Canadians were housed in "tarpaper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind." These overcrowded accommodations were bleak and surrounded by barbed wire. Although the Jews first arrived in America over 300 years ago and had a certain level of religious freedom, anti-Semitism was socially, and sometimes even legally acceptable. For example, some states in the late 18th century barred...
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...If you ask me, I think the United States was being cautious about imprisoning the Japanese Americans. Putting the Japanese into internment camps was a dreadful move for those who were put into camps. These people were American citizens just like we are. Sure their country of ethnicity attacked our country but not all of the Japanese people were guilty. Many of those were second generation,for one reason, and other means existed for ensuring security also. Because of the harsh living conditions the Japanese was forever physically and mentally distressed. The second generation was for the most part the most innocent people in this event. The second generation received their whole education in the United States. They were usually insulted by their...
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...Japanese Interment Camps In 1941, the Japanese Army flew over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and bombed the U.S. military base stationed there. After this attack, many Americans were scared that there were some Japanese spies living among them. Two months after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed an executive order to relocate all Japanese – Americans to one of ten internment camps on the western side of the United States. The U.S. Military is not justified for doing this because they put many innocent Americans into these camps and they were difficult to live in. Right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, many Americans freaked out. Many thought that some Japanese immigrants very actually spies living among them, working for the Japanese Government....
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...To begin, my opinion on the imprisonment of the Japanese Americans of 1941 was racist and unnecessary. The reasoning behind this is because I believe that the Japanese Americans posed no threat to our nation. Also, the Japanese race was the only race that was imprisoned because of threat even though other problems, such as the rein of Hitler and the German race against Jews could’ve likely have posed the same threat. Moving on to further reasoning, the confinement of the Japanese Americans was racist because other people that were descended from the same race posed a threat to the United States, does not mean that every single person from the Japanese bloodline are dangerous. Not to mention, over 110,000 Japanese Americans were moved to Internment camps and were kept in small, uncomfortable and unsanitary cubicles, all while enduring harsh torture from guards. Over the course of two and a half years, not a single case of Japanese sabotage or disloyalty was not recorded, proving their devotion and innocence to an even further extent....
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...The internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II is a dark and often overlooked stain on America’s history. In 1942, Executive Order 9066 was signed by Roosevelt ordering the internment of all citizens of Japanese ancestry. For a war being fought against an anti-Semitic Germany, it seems ironic now that America would intern its citizens based on race too similarly to the way Germany interned its citizens based on religion. It can be difficult to understand how a nation based the principles of freedom and liberty could intern any population of people, but by taking a look at other unethical situations in United States’ history and world history, an explanation can begin to be found in the ideas of authorization, routinization,...
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...Orientalism James Berardino Canon Formation 2B: Orientalism Final Copy Orientalism can be best defined as an ill-conceived notion that befalls the ignorant and misconstrues their perception of most, if not all, people belonging to a race or ethnic group that is different than their own. It does so in a manner that perpetuates the perception of individuals from different races, cultures or ethnicities as grotesque, frightening or somehow inferior in the eyes of individuals who have already completely assimilated themselves culturally into the pre-existing social strata of the region in which they inhabit. In other words, orientalism is a social “virus” that is often perpetuated, or “spread”, by fear of the unknown; a virus which insidiously promotes discrimination and segregation based off differences in both culture and appearance, flourishes amongst the ignorant and is prevalent throughout both America’s distant and recent history, as well as in the archives of world history. A parent to ignorance and the culprit to the divisive vices of racial prejudice of all creeds, a lack of sufficient education, along with blatant disregard for one’s global community, is the underlying reason why Orientalism is a recurring theme in history that has yet to be abolished entirely. However, there exist scholars and filmmakers, such as Le Espiritu, Sucheng Chan, Wakako Yamauchi, etcetera, who give hope to the fight against such ignorance by using their work to inform and...
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...Farewell to Manzanar Essay Farwell to Manzanar is an autobiography of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. The story is about Jeanne and her family, composed of her father Ko, her mother Riku and nine siblings during World War II. Her parents are first-‐generation Japanese immigrants, called Issei. The children are called Nisei, they are natural American citizens and second-‐generation Japanese. The story begins on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The book is set during WWII when the Anti-‐Japanese sentiment was not unusual in states like California. Jeanne’s family and all Japanese were forced to move to an internment camp because they were all thought to be a threat for America. The Camp was called Manzanar. Manzanar is an isolated place located just outside the Mojave Desert in southeastern California. Jeanne observes and comments on her own and her family’s experiences...
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...Alexis Fenster 27 October 2015 Efficiency Essay: Southland In 1942, the American fear of the unknown ripped thousands of Japanese-Americans living in the United States from their homes and into internment camps. After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans became fearful that the Japanese people living in their country participated in the attack and were planning more from “the inside.” It was only once they were needed during the war that the men were allowed out of the camps to fight as American soldiers. Revoyr writes, “Frank and his friends were such great American soldiers, ironically, because they were Japanese- because of their sense of duty, and integrity, and faith in each other” (116). The fact that any Japanese man would fight for the United States against Japan after having their families and themselves treated as livestock, proves that these people were true Americans. Frank and his friends might have been Japanese by heritage but their loyalty was to the United States and they thought of themselves as Americans. This commitment came from their Japanese heritage which puts a strong emphasis on the duty people have to protect their country, so much so that people who did not fight with America were shunned by other Japanese-Americans (116). The Japanese are not the only people who have wrongly been punished in consequence of American’s fear, the Muslim community has been looked down on and feared ever since 9/11. Similar to the American reaction to Pearl...
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...Bartoletti, “Teens Against Hitler” by Lauren Tarshis, and “Betrayed By America” by Kristin Lewis, the authors use their techniques to express their theme in a masterful way. In The Devil's Arithmetic, Hannah goes back in time to the holocaust and experiences it herself, meanwhile in The Boy Who Dared, Helmuth looks back at what put him on death row during the holocaust. Then, in “Teens Against Hitler”, A young boy is take to a ghetto, and then leaves to join a resistance group, and in “Betrayed By America”, a japanese boy is taken to an internment camp...
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...On my Light-Giver essay, I received a score of 6/6-, which is understandable, because I can acknowledge that my essay had both good and bad aspects.To further explain the positive attributes of my essay, the most prominent detail that popped out at me throughout the entirety of my essay was how I was very descriptive. Rather than telling, I did a lot of showing through sensory details and imagery. For instance, at the end of the first page I wrote, “Simply reminding myself of what I endured brought shivers up my spine, caused a cascade of goose bumps to break out onto my skin, and spread an unwanted prickling sensation throughout my entire body.” My use of imagery really painted a picture in the reader’s mind and made them feel as if they were truly...
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...| Why is it so difficult to be understood? | by | | Herman Jacobs | | Why is it so difficult to be understood? For this essay we were asked to place imagine ourselves as the main character of a short story and then answer a simple question about her motivation. The challenge is that the main character is a Japanese-American woman living more than 50 years ago. The story “Two Deserts” by Valerie Matsumoto tells of Emiko Oyama, a young mother who lives in California’s Imperial Valley. Emiko is married with one daughter. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Emiko was interned during World War Two. This is no doubt one of the two deserts referred to by the story’s title. Emiko also revelas in the story that she has never been to Tokyo, and therefore we assume that she has never been to Japan. Emiko’s relationship with new neighbors is the heart of the story. More to the point Emiko’s relationship with Roy, a retired man who is very pushy, is the story. Emiko suffers Roy and adapts her life to try and discourage him from bothering her, but does not confront him directly. At the end of the story Emiko kills a scorpion and this signals that she has overcome her fears and that Roy won’t bother her any longer. The question is, why doesn’t she confront Roy sooner or in a more direct manner? Can language, culture and gender explain this? One reason Emiko doesn’t confront Roy directly has to do with linguistics, Robin Lakoff wrote about “Women’s Language...
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