Japanese - American Racism

Write this down Japan attacked Pearl Harbor – Dec 7th, 1941 US declared war with the Japanese on Dec 8th, 1941 What to do with Japanese living in the country?

Write this down Navy Secretary Frank Knox “recommended the internment of all Japanese aliens in Hawaii” 158,000 Japanese Americans in Hawaii

Write this down General Delos Emmons “While we were attacked by a ruthless enemy…. this is America and we must do things the American way” Fought against internment of the Japanese in Hawaii

Write this down The Japanese were 90 percent of the workforce in Hawaii Thanks to General Emmons – 158,000 Japanese Americans did not become victims of internment

Dr. Seuss

Write this down 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the west coast FDR asked for research on what to do with Japanese Americans

Write this down Munson Report: November, 1941 Curtis Munson was sent by FDR to research the Japanese problem on the west coast

Document 1 What did the Munson Report state?

Write this down J. Edgar Hoover – Director of the FBI All suspected enemies were already in custody “mass internment of the Japanese would not be justified”

Write this down Francis Biddle – Attorney General of the United States On Feb 7th, 1942 in a lunch with FDR said, “there were no reasons for mass evacuation”

Write this down February 19th, 1942 FDR signed Executive Order 9066 – created the west coast as “military zone” and allowed for the deportation of all Japanese Americans Germans and Italians were not included

Why?

Write this down General John L. Dewitt “We are at war and I have no confidence in the Japanese” “A Jap is a Jap is a Jap”

Write this down “The Japanese race is an enemy race….the generations of Japanese born in the United States racial strains are undiluted…..” “over 112,000 potential enemies are at large today”

Why? Why Japanese and not Germans or Italians?

Document 2 Harry Paxton Howard, 1942 “Americans in Concentration Camps”

Write this down Fred Korematsu At 23, he refused to go to the internment camps He was arrested and convicted of “defying the governments order”

Write this down Korematsu v. United States (1944) Fred took his case to the Supreme Court to defend his rights as an American citizen

Document 3 The Korematsu Supreme Court Ruling What did the Supreme Court decide? Why?

Write this down After the war, Japanese Americans started to return back home only to find their homes and businesses taken

Write this down 1988 – Ronald Reagan issues HR 442 into law, apologizing for the incarceration of 110,000 Japanese Americans Reparation payments of $20,000 to each person incarcerated

Write this down January 30th, 2010 California passed “Fred Korematsu Day” First day named after an Asian-American in US History

One last thing…. After 9/11, Korematsu said, “the US government should not let the same thing happen to the people of Middle Eastern descent as what happened to Japansese-Americans”

"No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese Americans, then these are very dangerous times for our democracy."

DBQ 5.1 Driving Question: Why were Japanese-Americans interned during World War II ?