JAPANESE-AMERICAN
INTERNMENT
BACKGROUND INFO
• 1868 BEGINNING OF JAPANESE
EMIGRATION
• JAPANESE WORKERS TO HAWAII/GUAM
• JAPANESE WORKERS BUILT RRDS IN
CALIF/NWEST.
• JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS BECAME VERY
SUCCESSFUL IN U.S. AS FARMERS, SMALL
BUSINESSMEN, FISHERMEN
AS POPULATION AND SUCCESS OF JAP.
IMMIG. GREW SO DID RACIAL PREJUDICE AND
RESTRICTIVE LEGISLATION
ANTI-IMMIGRANT LEGISLATION
• 1906 – San Francisco segregates its schools
• 1907-1911- Beginning of restrictions on
Japanese immigration
• 1913- California enacts Alien Land Law
• 1920- New Alien Land law further restricts
Japanese immigrants
• 1922 – Supreme Court rules in Ozawa case,
definitively prohibiting Issei from becoming
citizens (until 1952).
• 1924 – Immigration Act –bars any further Asian
immigration
PRE WWII STATUS
• Despite long history of discrimination,
Japanese immigrants were living the
“American Dream.”
• Their success made them a target of envy
and racial animosity.
• Japanese Nissei and Issei were called the
“yellow peril.”
PEARL HARBOR
Became Catalyst for
challenging the loyalty
of all Japanese
people in U.S.
War reawakened
feelings of fear and
suspicion
The MUNSON
REPORT concluded
that the vast majority
were NO THREAT
(90-98% LOYAL)
“…I know the Pacific
Coast where the
Japanese reside. Even
though they may be
third or fourth
generation…we cannot
trust them. I know that
those areas are
teeming with Japanese
spies and fifth
columnists. Once a Jap
always a Jap. You
cannot change him.”
EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066
• FEBRUARY 19, 1942
I hereby further authorize and direct the Secretary of War and the
said Military Commanders to take such other steps as he or the
appropriate Military Commander may deem advisable to enforce
compliance with the restrictions applicable to each Military area
hereinabove authorized to be designated, including the use of
Federal troops and other Federal Agencies, with authority to accept
assistance of state and local agencies.
I hereby further authorize and direct all Executive Departments,
independent establishments and other Federal Agencies, to assist
the Secretary of War or the said Military Commanders in carrying out
this Executive Order, including the furnishing of medical aid,
hospitalization, food, clothing, transportation, use of land, shelter, and
other supplies, equipment, utilities, facilities, and services.
PROCESS
THE EXECUTIVE
ORDER
REQUIRED THE
REGISTRATION
OF ALL
PERSONS OF
JAPANESE
DESCENT BOTH
ALIEN AND
CITIZENS.
REMOVAL
• EVACUATION WAS RESPONSIBILITY OF THE
WARTIME CIVIL CONTROL ADMINISTRATION
• THE WCCA SET UP 108 EXCLUSION CENTERS ON
THE WEST COAST
• EACH HAD A POPULATION OF 1,000 JAPANESE
• RESIDENTS HAD TO REPRT WITHIN A CERTAIN TIME
TO BE TAKEN TO AN “APPROVED DESTINATION.”
• COULD ONLY TAKE WHAT THEY COULD CARRY
MOVING OUT
• MOST PEOPLE HAD VERY LITTLE TIME TO
PREPARE FOR THE MOVE.
• HAD LITTLE TIME TO PACK, SELL HOUSE OR
BUSINESS OR FIND STORAG E FOR
POSSESSIONS
• THE TOTAL DOLLAR VALUE OF PROPERTY
LOST HAS BEEN ESTIMATED AT 1.3 BILLION
DOLLARS
“We were renting a
house, so we weren’t
able to store too much.
People came to buy
things. We sold our
furniture. Stuff like that
you can’t take it away
with you. You are
limited to two
suitcases…what you
can carry. We just took
bedding and clothing/
That’s about all.”
Masao and Sada Mori,
in Beyond Words:
Images from America’s
Concentration Camps
FIRST STOP: ASSEMBLY
CENTERS
• 16 CENTERS WERE ESTABLISHED IN
CALIF, ORE, WASH, ANS ARIZ
• FAIRGROUNDS, RACETRACKS, ANF
OTHER PUBLIC FACILITIES WERE
UTILIZED
• THE EVACUEES REMAINED HERE
UNTIL THE WAR RELOCATION ADMIN.
(WRA) CAMPS WERE READY
Mutsu H.: A Human Being
Amache camp guarded by
very young soldiers. One time
soldier stop me and, "Hey
you." "You want to talk to me?"
He said, "Yeah. Are you a
human being?" I said, "Yes.
Don't you think so?" "Yeah.
You look like a human being,
but when I came from South
Carolina, they said that the
Jap is not a human being.
They are like a gorilla so if you
want to, kill them. That's what I
learned when I came. And
then I looked from top every
day and you people look like a
human being, and you people
all wearing beautiful clothes."
(Mutsu H. Interview, Copyright
1997 Densho Project)
TEMPORARY CAMPS (con’t)
• CONDITIONS WERE UNSANITARY
• SANITATION, FOOD, HEALTH CARE
WERE BENEATH THE LOWEST ARMY
STANDARD
• AT SANTA ANITA PEOPLE WERE
HOUSED IN HORSE STALLS THAT
ONLY A WEEK EARLIER HOUSED
HORSES
INTERNMENT
• BY THE END OF 1942
– 120,000 PEOPLE INTERNED
– FINAL DESTINATION ONE OF TEN CAMPS
– INSTANT “CITIES” BUILT BY THE WRA
– LOCATED IN THE MOST ISOLATED AREAS
– 65% OF THE EVACUEES WERE AMERICAN
CITIZENS
– SPENT FOUR YEARS IMPRISONED,
WORKING TO REBUILD THEIR LIVES
Granada Camp at Amache, Colorado
Heart Mountain Camp, Wyoming
"We lined up for
mail, for checks,
for meals, for
showers, for
laundry tubs, for
toilets, for clinic
service, for
movies. We lined
up for everything."
—Mine Okubo,
Citizen 13660
"My father worked in the adobe section, making adobe blocks,
bricks. We built the whole school. That's what we did. We didn't ask
anybody to build a school. We did it ourselves."
Gene Sogioka, in Beyond Words: Images from America's
Concentration Camps
Japanese American internees
struggled with the dehumanizing
effects of being imprisoned,
working to create as normal a life
as possible behind barbed wire.
But when the same government
that questioned their loyalty to the
United States simultaneously
recruited internees to serve in the
Army, the result was catalytic.
Communities divided, splitting
generations, families, and
ideologies. Some internees chose
to defy the United States
government. Others chose to join
its forces on the battlefields.
The draft of these
Japanese American
men did not bring
about the closing of
the camps, or the
restoration of the
rights and property
of Japanese
Americans. In
protest, many Nisei
refused to appear for
their physicals. In all,
315 young men
refused induction. Of
this group, 263 were
convicted of draft
evasion.
Some 25,000 Japanese
Americans served in U.S.
military units during World
War II. The valor of these
Americans, many of whom
had family and friends living
behind barbed wire, was
extraordinary. Their combat
record aided the post-war
acceptance of Japanese
Americans in American
society and helped many
people to recognize the
injustice of wartime
internment.
100th/442nd Unit Honors and Awards
7 Major Campaign Streamers
7 Presidential Unit Citations
36 Army Commendations
87 Divisional Commendations
Meritorious Service Plaques for Medical
Detachment and Service Company
3,600 Purple Hearts including 500 Oak Leaf
Clusters
JUSTICE
POST WAR
• Rejoining society was difficult for
many. Each individual received a $25
payment and transportation tickets at
the time of release. Many detainees
discovered that their pre-1941
communities had vanished, and their
homes and businesses were lost.
COURT CASES
• Four major court cases testing the
constitutionality of wartime treatment of
Japanese American citizens reached the
U.S. Supreme Court in 1943 and 1944.
Lawsuits brought by Minoru Yasui, Gordon
K. Hirabayashi, and Fred T. Korematsu
related to violations of curfew and other
discriminatory regulations imposed on
Japanese Americans prior to relocation.
The US Supreme Court justices who ruled on the
four cases were divided over the constitutional
issues in question. These differences were
reflected in the legal opinions they offered on the
Japanese American cases.
In 1942, twenty-three year
old Gordon Hirabayashi
disobeyed curfew
restrictions as an act of civil
disobedience. Tried in
October 1942, he was found
guilty and sentenced to
prison. The U.S. Supreme
Court heard his case in
1944, and upheld the verdict
of the lower court.
"We must credit the military with as much good faith as
we would any other public official. We cannot sit in
judgment of the military requirements of that hour."
—Associate Justice William O. Douglas, Concurring
Opinion, Hirabayashi v. U.S., 1943
"The broad provisions of the Bill of rights... are [not]
suspended by the mere existence of a state of war.
Distinctions based on color and ancestry are utterly
inconsistent with our traditions and ideals. Today is the
first time, so far as I am aware, that we have sustained a
substantial restriction of the personal liberty of citizens
based on the accident of race or ancestry. It bears a
melancholy resemblance to the treatment accorded to
members of the Jewish race in Germany. This goes to
the very brink of constitutional power."
—Associate Justice Frank Murphy, Concurring Opinion,
Hirabayashi v. U.S., 1943
FORMAL APOLOGIES AND
REDRESS
• 1976 –PRESDIENT FORD ISSUED FORMAL
APOLOGY
• 1988 – CONGRESSIONAL BILL- CIVIL
LIBERTIES BILL
*Acknowledged the injustice of the evacuation,
relocation, and internment of United States
citizens and permanent resident aliens of
Japanese ancestry during World War II.
*Offered an apology to Japanese Americans on
behalf of the people of the United States.
*Provided for a public education fund to finance
efforts to inform the public about...internment..so as
to prevent a recurrence of any similar event.
*Authorized a redress payment of $20,000 to
qualified Japanese Americans who were relocated
and interned by the government of the United States.
Frank Y.: Is $20,000 a Remedy?
That money that was sent to us, does that
remedy everything that was done? Can you
imagine the Jews in Germany, saying, "Oh,
they're going to give us $20,000 so now that's
all right," What the Germans did to them. No.
It's wrong. It should never be done again. And
it's the same with the evacuation of Japanese;
it should never be done again. ... It could be
any other people.
(Frank Y. Interview, Copyright 1997 Densho
Project)
Gordon Hirabayashi: Constant Vigilance
I would also say that if you believe in
something, if you think the Constitution is a
good one, and if you think the Constitution
protects you, you better make sure that the
Constitution is actively operating... and uh, in
other words "constant vigilance". Otherwise,
it's a scrap of paper. We had the Constitution
to protect us in 1942. It didn't because the will
of the people weren't behind it.
(Gordon Hirabayashi Interview, Copyright
2001 Smithsonian Institution)