WWII Japanese Internment Camps Mrs. Bailey Spring 2006

Objectives At the end of this lesson, you should be able to: 1.State the purpose of Executive Order Identify two reasons in favor and two reasons against Japanese Internment. 3.Identify two similarities and two dissimilarities of Japanese internment to Nazi concentration camps. 4.Present your opinion regarding civil rights v. national security.

Racism in the U.S.

Executive Order 9066 President Roosevelt Authorizes Japanese Relocation  February 19, 1942  Authorized the internment of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan.  Gave the military broad powers to ban any citizen from a fifty- to sixty-mile-wide coastal area stretching from Washington state to California and extending inland into southern Arizona.

Executive Order 9066 President Roosevelt Authorizes Japanese Relocation  Authorized transport to assembly centers governed by the military in California, Arizona, Washington state, and Oregon.  Also 3,200 resident aliens of Italian background were arrested and more than 300 of them were interned.  About 11,000 German residents—including some naturalized citizens—were arrested and more than 5000 were interned.

Registration

Personal Finance Issues  What were business owners to do?  How would they make their house payments?  Where would they find money to live?  What happens when they are released?  Who takes care of what they leave behind? Japanese-Americans suffered severe economic losses, personal humiliation and, in a some cases, death, due to this relocation.

Civil Rights v. National Security Where do you draw the line?  120,000 people of Japanese ancestry  77,000 were U.S. citizens  No due process/civil rights violated What would have been the right balance between the rights of the Japanese-Americans and the need for the United States to maintain its national security during World War II?

Waiting for Evacuation

Why not Hawaii? " There was no mass relocation and internment in Hawaii, where the population was one-third Japanese American. It would have been impossible to transport that many people to the mainland, and the Hawaiian economy would have collapsed without Japanese American workers. “ - - from the book Japanese American Internment Camps by Gail Sakurai, 2002 "Ironically, the territory with the largest Japanese population saw the least discrimination. More than one third of all residents of Hawaii had some Japanese ancestry. Japanese labor was considered vital to the civilian and military economics of the Hawaiian Islands. Besides, the views of Delos Emmons, military commander of Hawaii, were the opposite of those of General DeWitt.“ - -from the book Japanese-American internment in American History, 1996.

Mass Removal Notice the tag on the little girl’s arm.

Similar to Anti-Semitism?  Prejudice and discrimination played major roles  Economics and jealousy of economic success  Anti-Japanese-American feelings arose similar to German outlook on Jewish economic success  Hard work, self-sacrifice, and strong efforts by the Japanese-Americans and Jewish people are overlooked by prejudice against Japanese- Americans and Jewish people.

Camp Locations

Differences ??? By Degree  Allowed to take some personal items  Provided food, shelter, medical attention, store, education, and other basic needs  Labor  Families Intact – for the most part  Guards/prison atmosphere

Interned Life

Vocabulary  Issei: people born in Japan who moved to the U.S. and settled here  Nisei: children born to the Issei, they were automatically U.S. citizens  Sansei: the children born to the Nisei  Kibei: People of Japanese ancestry born in the U.S. but returned to Japan to get their education, then came back to the U.S.  JACL: Japanese American Citizens League, a major, although controversial, national organization for Japanese Americans

Vocabulary Continued  Redress movement : the movement to get the government to apologize for what it did by interning the Japanese Americans and to provide the survivors with some form of monetary compensation  Assembly Center : Where people were initially held during the "relocation" process  Internment Camp : One of ten camps in various states where people were moved to from the Assembly Centers. Some sources use the term "concentration camp" instead of "internment camp.“  AJA : Americans of Japanese Ancestry

Pro Internment Side  Pearl Harbor – Japan is the enemy  West Coast attack by Japanese is a likelihood  Many recent Japanese-American immigrants are not U.S. citizens – loyalty issue  Japanese-Americans are concentrated on the West Coast  Espionage and sabotage potential via Japanese-Americans  Temporary measure to aid national security  Internees will be released at the conclusion of the war

What is this a form of?

Con Internment Side  Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor; not Japanese- Americans  U.S. citizens are entitled to their civil rights (77,000 U.S. citizens)  Economic ties to U.S. (2 nd and 3 rd generation immigrants) – not likely to threaten their homeland  West Coats Japanese-Americans singled out; others live throughout the U.S.  European Front has many Japanese-Americans serving bravely

Discussion Questions 1.What was the purpose of Executive Order 9066? 2.Identify two reasons in favor and two reasons against Japanese Internment. Do you think it was a good decision? 3.Identify two similarities and two dissimilarities of Japanese internment to Nazi concentration camps. Are there more similarities or dissimilarities? 4.Do you think civil rights should be voided in the interest of national security? What rights are you willing to give up? How is this similar to current events?