Citizenship, Civil Rights & Japanese Internment

Historical Background Aliens & Immigrants traditionally have faced racism in America Asian Immigration increased 1870s-1920s First welcomed – Cheap laborers – Railroad Then were looked down upon – for the same reasons.

Legacy of Anti-Asian Sentiment Harper’s Weekly illustration from 1870s was critical of anti- Chinese sentiment.

December 7 th, 1941 Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor – America panics. - paranoia - Xenophobia – fear of foreigners

Wartime Propaganda “non-human” looking characteristics based on stereotypes

Even worse… Even though this is not a literal “license” it displays some clear anti- Japanese hatred. You will not find German or Italian “hunting licenses” from the war era.

How to Tell your Friends from the “Japs” “Virtually all Japanese are short. Japanese are likely to be stockier and broader-hipped than short Chinese. Japanese are seldom fat; they often dry up and grow lean as they age. Although both have the typical epicanthic fold of the upper eyelid, Japanese eyes are usually set closer together. The Chinese expression is likely to be more placid, kindly, open; the Japanese more positive, dogmatic, arrogant. Japanese are hesitant, nervous in conversation, laugh loudly at the wrong time. Japanese walk stiffly erect, hard heeled. Chinese, more relaxed, have an easy gait, sometimes shuffle.” ~Time Magazine 12/22/41

Japanese Internment After Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order Allowed the military to ignore constitutional rights of American citizens in the name of national defense. Led to evacuation and mass imprisonment of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry. –Most on the West Coast.

Relocation Camps –

Affected American Citizens Issei – Japanese American Citizens born in Japan Nisei – Japanese- American Citizens who were born in America to Issei Parents

President Roosevelt himself called the 10 facilities “concentration camps.”

Wanto Grocery, owned by an Asian American, UC Berkeley graduate. (California, December 1941)

Dorothea Lange, “One Nation Indivisible.” Pledge of Allegiance at an Elementary School a few weeks prior to evacuation. (San Francisco, 1942)

Japanese Americans waiting to board the train that will take them to the internment camp in Owens Valley. (April 1942)

“All Packed Up and Ready to Go” Editorial Cartoon, San Francisco News (March 6, 1942)

Family arriving in internment camp barracks, from the Tacoma New Tribune, University of Washington.

` An American Soldier on guard duty at an internment camp holds a Japanese American child. Tacoma News Tribune, University of Washington.

G.S. Hante, a barber in Kent, Washington, displays his sentiments about internment. (March 1944)

Korematsu v. United States, 1944 Supreme Court Case that challenged the constitutionality of Japanese Internment camps. Fred Korematsu, a Nisei citizen, refused to leave his home in California – arrested. Korematsu lost.

The Ruling The Court stated; ”hardships are part of war…Citizenship has its responsibilities as well as its privileges, and in time of war the burden is always heavier.” In your opinion, do you think the war effort justified the limiting of only Japanese American citizenship? Why or why not? Pair Share…

An Apology, Too Little Too Late It was not until the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 that the government admitted the internment camps were wrong. All surviving victims of the WW II internment were issued $20,000 in reparations.