Japanese American Internment Essential Questions: 1. Why were Japanese-Americans interned during World War II? 2. What occurred after Executive Order 9066?

Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941 USS Arizona

Why were J-Americans Interned? Ethnicity was the cause…not because of a threat to US security Japanese and Japanese Americans living on the Pacific coast were considered “subversive” They were on the coast and thus too close to Japan

Newspapers add fuel to the fire Ugly stories ran to support anti-Japanese feelings

Executive Order 9066 February 19, 1942 Gave the Army the complete authority to remove Japanese immigrants and American citizens alike from the Pacific coast Justified as necessary for national security

Executive Order 9066 More than 110,000 Japanese Americans shipped to “relocation centers” Relocation center = prison camp Charges never filed against Japanese Americans

Relocation Internees were taken from their homes They lost their possessions—forced to sell homes and businesses

Relocation in Stages 1st phase: internees transported on trains /buses under military guard to the temporary detention centers. Temporary centers were built on race tracks, fairgrounds, or livestock pavilions. Prisoners lived in livestock stalls or windowless shacks that were crowded w/out ventilation, electricity, and sanitation facilities. Food was often spoiled; there was a shortage of food and medicine. 2nd phase: approximately 500 deportees daily moved to permanent concentration camps. Camps were in remote, uninhabitable areas. In the desert camps, daytime temperatures often reached 100 + degrees. Sub-zero winters were common in the northern camps.

Internment camp locations

Key Terms for Japanese Americans Issei: First generation Japanese immigrants in US Nisei: Second generation Japanese-Americans—2/3 of internees Sansei: Third-generation Americans. Neither they nor their parents had ever known any other life than their life in the United States. Thousands joined the armed forces—many as part of the 442nd Regimen.

Manzanar

Life in the Camps The internment camps were surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. Armed guards patrolled the perimeter and were instructed to shoot anyone attempting to leave. Many families were assigned to one barrack and lived together with no privacy.

Life in the Camps The prisoners worked to build a community, painting the barracks, planting fruit trees and gardens and even digging small ponds in the hope of capturing some semblance of the pre-attack normalcy. Supported the war effort.

The Fight for Justice Japanese Americans fought in the courts and in Congress Korematsu v. United States: 1944, Supreme Ct. decided that forced evacuation was justified as a “military necessity” After the war, Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) worked to have the government compensate those who had lost property

Redress & Reparations The Bill passed (under President Ronald Reagan) 1988 Surviving internees were given $20,000 in 1990 and an official apology from the President (George H. Bush) “We can never fully right the wrongs of the past. But we can take a clear stand for justice and recognize that serious injustices were done to Japanese Americans during World War II.”

Korematsu and Rosa Parks

Manzanar Monument