[57] Throughout the war, interned Japanese Americans protested against their treatment and insisted that they be recognized as loyal Americans. Eventually such zones would include parts of both the East and West Coasts, totaling about 1/3 of the country by area. Further slowing the program were legal and political "turf" battles between the State Department, the Roosevelt administration, and the DOJ, whose officials were not convinced of the legality of the program. [193], Five concentration camps were operated in the territory of Hawaii, referred to as the "Hawaiian Island Detention Camps". Encyclopedia of American Studies, edited by Simon Bronner, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1st edition, 2016. [38] Beginning in the late 19th century, several laws and treaties which attempted to slow immigration from Japan were introduced. [132][pageneeded], Before the war, 87 physicians and surgeons, 137 nurses, 105 dentists, 132 pharmacists, 35 optometrists, and 92 lab technicians provided healthcare to the Japanese American population, with most practicing in urban centers like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Between 1942 and Some Baptist and Methodist churches, among others, also organized relief efforts to the camps, supplying inmates with supplies and information. Nazi camps were places of torture, barbarous medical experiments and summary executions; some were extermination centers with gas chambers. [207] He started a legal battle that was not resolved until 1953, when, after working as undocumented immigrants for almost ten years, those Japanese Peruvians remaining in the U.S. were finally offered citizenship.[111][200]. Japanese [147], Outside camp, the students took on the role of "ambassadors of good will", and the NJASRC and WRA promoted this image to soften anti-Japanese prejudice and prepare the public for the resettlement of Japanese Americans in their communities. Civil rights attorney Wayne Collins filed injunctions on behalf of the remaining internees,[183][206] helping them obtain "parole" relocation to the labor-starved Seabrook Farms in New Jersey. Nash, Gary B., Julie Roy Jeffrey, John R. Howe, Peter J. Frederick, Allen F. Davis, Allan M. Winkler, Charlene Mires, and Carla Gardina Pestana. Eventually 33,000 Japanese-American men and many Japanese-American women served in the U.S. military during World War II, of which 20,000 served in the U.S. It's a question of whether the White man lives on the Pacific Coast or the brown men. [74] The Japanese represented "over 90 percent of the carpenters, nearly all of the transportation workers, and a significant portion of the agricultural laborers" on the islands. He provided statistics indicating that 34 percent of the islands' population was aliens, or citizens of Japanese descent." Many Americans believed that their loyalty to the United States was unquestionable. Editorials from major newspapers at the time were generally supportive of the incarceration of the Japanese by the United States. Incarcerees from Idaho competed in the state tournament in 1943, and there were games between the prison guards and the Japanese American teams. A Washington Post editorial dated February 22, 1942, stated that: There is but one way in which to regard the Presidential order empowering the Army to establish "military areas" from which citizens or aliens may be excluded. DeWitt, who administered the incarceration program, repeatedly told newspapers that "A Jap's a Jap" and testified to Congress, I don't want any of them [persons of Japanese ancestry] here. When Japanese Americans were sent to the camps they could only take a few items with them and while incarcerated could only work for menial jobs with a small monthly salary of $12$19. [78], The Niihau Incident occurred in December 1941, just after the Imperial Japanese Navy's attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States originally intended to trade these Latin American internees as part of a hostage exchange program with Japan and other Axis nations;[203] at least one trade occurred. [108] The camps were run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, under the umbrella of the DOJ, and guarded by Border Patrol agents rather than military police. [169] Because of the 100th's superior training record, the War Department authorized the formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The Roberts Commission Report, prepared at President Franklin D. Roosevelt's request, has been cited as an example of the fear and prejudice informing the thinking behind the incarceration program. 329) was issued on January 14, 1942, requiring "alien enemies" to obtain a certificate of identification and carry it "at all times". [16] The detainees were not only people of Japanese ancestry, they also included a relatively small numberthough still totaling well over ten thousandof people of German and Italian ancestry as well as Germans who were expelled from Latin America and deported to the U.S.[17]:124[18] Approximately 5,000 Japanese Americans relocated outside the exclusion zone before March 1942,[19] while some 5,500 community leaders had been arrested immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack and thus were already in custody. to internment of Japanese Americans Japanese internment camp During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and incarcerated at least 125,284 people of Japanese descent in 75 identified incarceration sites. Therefore, it was extremely difficult for claimants to establish that their claims were valid. Although many groups have been singled out for such persecution throughout history, the term 'concentration camp' was first used at the turn of the [20th] century in the Spanish American and Boer Wars. [244][245][246] These camps have been referred to as "war relocation centers", "relocation camps", "relocation centers", "internment camps", and "concentration camps", and the controversy over which term is the most accurate and appropriate continues.[107][247][248][249][250][251]. [197], During World War II, over 2,200 Japanese from Latin America were held in concentration camps run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, part of the Department of Justice. Japanese [147], The National Japanese American Student Relocation Council was formed on May 29, 1942, and the AFSC administered the program. In regard to Question 27, many worried that expressing a willingness to serve would be equated with volunteering for combat, while others felt insulted at being asked to risk their lives for a country that had imprisoned them and their families. Army. The U.S. Department of Defense described the November 9, 2000, dedication of the Memorial: "Drizzling rain was mixed with tears streaming down the faces of Japanese American World War II heroes and those who spent the war years imprisoned in isolated internment camps." When incarceration ended, they therefore had few savings to survive on. "[127] The quality of life in the camps was heavily influenced by which government entity was responsible for them. [40], In both rural and urban areas, kenjinkai, community groups for immigrants from the same Japanese prefecture, and fujinkai, Buddhist women's associations, organized community events and did charitable work, provided loans and financial assistance and built Japanese language schools for their children. Another was located in Haiku, Maui,[196] in addition to the Kilauea Detention Center on Hawaii and Camp Kalaheo on Kauai. Fred Mullen, "DeWitt Attitude on Japs Upsets Plans,", Testimony of John L. DeWitt, April 13, 1943, House Naval Affairs Subcommittee to Investigate Congested Areas, Part 3, pp. Many sought to demonstrate their patriotism by trying to enlist in the armed forces. When most of the Assembly Centers closed, they became training camps for US troops. R.C. [109] In addition 2,264 ethnic Japanese,[110] 4,058 ethnic Germans, and 288 ethnic Italians[109] were deported from 19 Latin American countries for a later-abandoned hostage exchange program with Axis countries or confinement in DOJ camps. 240. In 1998, the use of the term "concentration camps" gained greater credibility prior to the opening of an exhibit about the American camps at Ellis Island. Of the 20,000 Japanese Americans who served in the Army during World War II,[28] "many Japanese-American soldiers had gone to war to fight racism at home"[175] and they were "proving with their blood, their limbs, and their bodies that they were truly American". On April 9, 1942, the Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA)[112] was established by the Western Defense Command to coordinate the forced removal of Japanese Americans to inland concentration camps. The WCCA Assembly Centers were temporary facilities that were first set up in horse racing tracks, fairgrounds, and other large public meeting places to assemble and organize inmates before they were transported to WRA Relocation Centers by truck, bus, or train. [133], Flag of allegiance pledge at Raphael Weill Public School, Geary and Buchanan Streets, San Francisco, April 20, 1942, Teacher Lily Namimoto and her second grade class, Fourth grade class in barracks 3-4-B at Rohwer, General office in the high school at Rohwer, Senior physics class in barracks 11-F at the temporary high school quarters, A part of the brass section of the high school band, Of the 110,000 Japanese Americans detained by the United States government during World War II, 30,000 were children. [53] Bendetsen, promoted to colonel, said in 1942, "I am determined that if they have one drop of Japanese blood in them, they must go to camp. The legal difference between "interned" and relocated had significant effects on those who were imprisoned. World War II mass incarceration in the United States, Toggle Exclusion, removal, and detention subsection, Please help by moving some material from it into the body of the article. Instead, these individuals gained the passage of legislation which enabled them to retain the freedom of the nearly 150,000 Japanese Americans who would have otherwise been sent to concentration camps which were located in Hawaii. Across the camps, people who answered No to both questions became known as "No Nos". Examples follow. The movement's first success was in 1976, when President Gerald Ford proclaimed that the incarceration was "wrong", and a "national mistake" which "shall never again be repeated". No nation can fully understand itself or find its place in the world if it does not look with clear eyes at all the glories and disgraces of its past. 1, which gave the 227 Japanese American residents of Bainbridge Island, Washington six days to prepare for their "evacuation" directly to Manzanar. However, four powerful Japanese-American Democrats and Republicans who had war experience, with the support of Democratic congressmen Barney Frank, sponsored the bill and pushed for its passage as their top priority. 12 Facts About Japanese Incarceration in the United States [62] Colorado governor Ralph Lawrence Carr was the only elected official to publicly denounce the incarceration of American citizens (an act that cost his reelection, but gained him the gratitude of the Japanese American community, such that a statue of him was erected in the Denver Japantown's Sakura Square). [88][89][90] Daniel Pipes, also drawing on Lowman, has defended Malkin, and said that Japanese American incarceration was "a good idea" which offers "lessons for today". If all the Japs were removed tomorrow, we'd never miss them in two weeks because the White farmers can take over and produce everything the Jap grows. [46], Several concerns over the loyalty of ethnic Japanese seemed to stem from racial prejudice rather than any evidence of malfeasance. New York: Walker of Bloomsbury, 2013. [24] The Court limited its decision to the validity of the exclusion orders, avoiding the issue of the incarceration of U.S. citizens without due process, but ruled on the same day in Ex parte Endo that a loyal citizen could not be detained, which began their release. According to the same poll, 59% supported the relocation of Japanese people who were born in the country and were United States citizens, whereas 25% opposed it. The U.S. forced them into internment camps. Heres how [58], On March 2, 1942, General John DeWitt, commanding general of the Western Defense Command, publicly announced the creation of two military restricted zones. [87] She criticized academia's treatment of the subject, and suggested that academics critical of Japanese incarceration had ulterior motives. In it Roosevelt said that "baseball provides a recreation", and this was true for Japanese American incarcerees as well. Hoiles on the WWII Japanese internment", "Book defends WWII internment of Japanese Americans, racial profiling", "So Let Me Get This Straight: Michelle Malkin Claims to Have Rewritten the History of Japanese Internment in Just 16 Months? Almost 6,000 live deliveries were performed in these hospitals, and all mothers received pre- and postnatal care. [74] By comparison, Idaho governor Chase A. Clark, in a Lions Club speech on May 22, 1942, said "Japs live like rats, breed like rats and act like rats. [39], Despite racist legislation which prevented Issei from becoming naturalized citizens (or owning property, voting, or running for political office), these Japanese immigrants established communities in their new hometowns. [139] In the Southwest, the schoolhouses were extremely hot in summertime. Camp Lordsburg, in New Mexico, was the only site built specifically to confine Japanese Americans. However, due to the justification of concentration camps by the US government, "few seemed tactile to endorse the evacuation; most did not even discuss it." Japanese internment (article) | World War II | Khan Academy [27] Japanese Americans were initially barred from military service, but by 1943, they were allowed to join, with 20,000 serving during the war. [22][23] In its 1944 decision Korematsu v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the removals under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. [146], At Earlham College, President William Dennis helped institute a program that enrolled several dozen Japanese-American students in order to spare them from incarceration. Takaki, Ronald T. "A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America". In Magic: The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents From the West Coast During World War II, David Lowman, a former National Security Agency operative, argues that Magic (the code-name for American code-breaking efforts) intercepts posed "frightening specter of massive espionage nets", thus justifying incarceration. 241, Wu (2007), "Writing and Teaching", pg. The first internment camp in operation was Manzanar, located in California. [234], President Bill Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, to Korematsu in 1998, saying, "In the long history of our country's constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls: Plessy, Brown, Parks to that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu." [229] Concentration camp survivors sued the federal government for $24million in property loss, but lost the case. But if "reality" is cruel, you should criticize it instead of saying "meh whatever" People once thought that Japanese internment camps were reasonable, but they made innocent people into prisoners for their facial features. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Archives and Records Administration. [233], Under the 2001 budget of the United States, Congress authorized the preservation of ten detention sites as historical landmarks: "places like Manzanar, Tule Lake, Heart Mountain, Topaz, Amache, Jerome, and Rohwer will forever stand as reminders that this nation failed in its most sacred duty to protect its citizens against prejudice, greed, and political expediency". Question 28: Will you swear unqualified allegiances to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any and all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or other foreign government, power or organization? WebStudents will analyze primary sources to learn about the consternation caused by the questionnaire that was used to determine the loyalty of the Japanese and Japanese Americans incarcerated in War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps, and the subsequent removal of disloyals to the Tule Lake Segregation Camp. More than 100,000 people of Japanese descent were forced from their homes and sent to prison camps. [225], Beginning in the 1960s, a younger generation of Japanese Americans, inspired by the civil rights movement, began what is known as the "Redress Movement", an effort to obtain an official apology and reparations from the federal government for incarcerating their parents and grandparents during the war. Austin E. Anson, managing secretary of the Salinas Vegetable Grower-Shipper Association, told The Saturday Evening Post in 1942: We're charged with wanting to get rid of the Japs for selfish reasons. [167], When the government began seeking army volunteers from among the camps, only 6% of military-aged male inmates volunteered to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. For example, 20,000 were sent to Lake View, Chicago. [133][clarification needed] Food poisoning was common and also demanded significant attention. They are for Japan; they will aid Japan in every way possible by espionage, sabotage and other activity; and they need to be restrained for the safety of California and the United States. "[52], Incarceration of Japanese Americans, who provided critical agricultural labor on the West Coast, created a labor shortage which was exacerbated by the induction of many white American laborers into the Armed Forces. [27], Although War Relocation Authority (WRA) Director Dillon Myer and others had pushed for an earlier end to the incarceration, the Japanese Americans were not allowed to return to the West Coast until January 2, 1945, after the November 1944 election, so as not to impede Roosevelt's reelection campaign. "[52] This manifesto further argued that all people of Japanese heritage were loyal subjects of the Emperor of Japan; the manifesto contended that Japanese language schools were bastions of racism which advanced doctrines of Japanese racial superiority. The deportation and incarceration of Japanese Americans was popular among many white farmers who resented the Japanese American farmers. If U.S. code-breaking technology was revealed in the context of trials of individual spies, the Japanese Imperial Navy would change its codes, thus undermining U.S. strategic wartime advantage. [254] After the meeting, the Japanese American National Museum and the AJC issued a joint statement (which was included in the exhibit) that read in part: A concentration camp is a place where people are imprisoned not because of any crimes they have committed, but simply because of who they are. Throughout many camps, twenty-five people were forced to live in space built to contain four, leaving no room for privacy. Guiding Questions [133], Despite a shortage of healthcare workers, limited access to equipment, and tension between white administrators and Japanese American staff, these hospitals provided much-needed medical care in camp. Civilian Assembly Centers were temporary camps, frequently located at horse tracks, where Japanese Americans were sent after they were removed from their communities. A Los Angeles Times editorial dated April 22, 1943, stated that: As a race, the Japanese have made for themselves a record for conscienceless treachery unsurpassed in history. And since there is no sure test for loyalty to the United States, all must be restrained. [161] Many historians have dismissed the latter argument, for its failure to consider that the small number of individuals in question had been mistreated and persecuted by their own government at the time of the "renunciation":[162][163], [T]he renunciations had little to do with "loyalty" or "disloyalty" to the United States, but were instead the result of a series of complex conditions and factors that were beyond the control of those involved. [143], Both men and women participated in the sports. [186] "No serious explanations were offered as to why the internment of individuals of Japanese descent was necessary on the mainland, but not in Hawaii, where the large Japanese-Hawaiian population went largely unmolested."[187]. In one of the few cases to go to trial, four men were accused of attacking the Doi family of Placer County, California, setting off an explosion, and starting a fire on the family's farm in January 1945. feared that its military forces were unstoppable. In 1980, a copy of the original Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942 was found in the National Archives, along with notes which show the numerous differences which exist between the original version and the redacted version. )[134][135] The war had caused a shortage of healthcare professionals across the country, and the camps often lost potential recruits to outside hospitals that offered better pay and living conditions. [20] Most arrived before 1908, when the Gentlemen's Agreement between Japan and the United States banned the immigration of unskilled laborers. [214] Japanese Latin Americans brought to the U.S. from Peru and other countries, who were still being held in the DOJ camps at Santa Fe and Crystal City, took legal action in April 1946 in an attempt to avoid deportation to Japan. WebAn estimated 1,200 to 1,800 Japanese nationals and American-born Japanese from Hawaii were interned or incarcerated, either in five camps on the islands or in one of the The Roberts Commission report, which investigated the Pearl Harbor attack, was released on January 25 and accused persons of Japanese ancestry of espionage leading up to the attack. Instead, arguing it would better serve the community to follow government orders without protest, the organization advised the approximately 120,000 affected to go peacefully.[68]. [61], Eviction from the West Coast began on March 24, 1942, with Civilian Exclusion Order No. [111]:223, Many detainees lost irreplaceable personal property due to restrictions that prohibited them from taking more than they could carry into the camps. Kashima, Tetsuden. [136] Most were school-age children, so educational facilities were set up in the camps. The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was the U.S. civilian agency responsible for the relocation and detention. Her book was widely criticized, particularly with regard to her reading of the Magic cables. [171] The 442nd's Nisei segregated field artillery battalion, then on detached service within the U.S. Army in Bavaria, liberated at least one of the satellite labor camps of the Nazis' original Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945,[172] and only days later, on May 2, halted a death march in southern Bavaria.[173][174]. These men were held in municipal jails and prisons until they were moved to Department of Justice detention camps, these camps were separate from the camps which were operated by the Wartime Relocation Authority (WRA). Leading up to their incarceration, Nikkei were prohibited from leaving the Military Zones or traveling more than 5 miles (8.0km) from home, forcing those who had to travel for work, like truck farmers and residents of rural towns, to quit their jobs. After the war, they There was question over whether the bill would pass during the 1980s due to the poor state of the federal budget and the low support of Japanese Americans covering 1% of the United States. [223], To compensate former detainees for their property losses, Congress passed the Japanese-American Claims Act on July 2, 1948, allowing Japanese Americans to apply for compensation for property losses which occurred as "a reasonable and natural consequence of the evacuation or exclusion". Neither the Army, not the War Relocation Authority relish the idea of taking men, women and children from their homes, their shops and their farms. [155] During the remainder of 1943 and into early 1944, more than 12,000 men, women and children were transferred from other camps to the maximum-security Tule Lake Segregation Center. In return, "non-official" Americans (secretaries, butlers, cooks, embassy staff workers, etc.) Densho, The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. [17]:16 This data was eventually included in the Custodial Detention index (CDI). Additionally, vital medical supplies such as medications and surgical and sterilization equipment were limited. George Takei published a graphic novel titled, Daniels, Roger. Under normal sensible procedure not one day would have elapsed after Pearl Harbor before the government had proceeded to round up and send to interior points all Japanese aliens and their immediate descendants for classification and possible internment.[100]. This sort of shared experience has led some modern Japanese-American leaders to come out in support of HR 40, a bill which calls for reparations to be paid to African-Americans because they are affected by slavery and subsequent discrimination. He further stated in a conversation with California's governor, Culbert L. Olson, There's a tremendous volume of public opinion now developing against the Japanese of all classes, that is aliens and non-aliens, to get them off the land, and in Southern California around Los Angelesin that area toothey want and they are bringing pressure on the government to move all the Japanese out. WebJapanese American internment camps were located mainly in western U.S. states. [145] From 1942 through 1945, Tule Lake produced 29 different crops, including Japanese vegetables like daikon, gobo, and nappa. [154] The final two questions on the form, which soon came to be known as the "loyalty questionnaire", were more direct: Question 27: Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered? These losses were compounded by theft and destruction of items placed in governmental storage. More than 100,000 people of Japanese descent were forced from their homes and sent to prison Additionally, the whole of Hawaiian society was dependent on their productivity. Greenberg argues that at the time, the incarceration was not discussed because the government's rhetoric hid the motivations for it behind a guise of military necessity, and a fear of seeming "un-American" led to the silencing of most civil rights groups until years into the policy. On April 22, 2022, The Associated Press edited its entry for Japanese internment,[252] changing the entry heading to Japanese internment, incarceration, and adding the following wording: Though internment has been applied historically to all detainments of Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals during World War II, the broader use of the term is inaccurateabout two-thirds of those who were relocated US citizens and thus could not be considered internsand many Japanese-Americans find it objectionable. Japanese American Incarceration Books were only issued a month after the opening. [257] An article quoted Jonathan Mark, a columnist for The Jewish Week, who wrote, "Can no one else speak of slavery, gas, trains, camps? [215] Many others were simply fired for their Japanese heritage.[216][217][218]. Notabunny on Twitter: "But if "reality" is cruel, you should criticize Japanese American Internment Camps | Encyclopedia.com WebBy the end of the war in 1945, 125,000 people, half of them children, had spent time in what even Roosevelt admitted were concentration camps. [113] Since Japanese Americans living in the restricted zone were considered too dangerous to conduct their daily business, the military decided it had to house them in temporary centers until the relocation centers were completed. [36] From 1869 to 1924 approximately 200,000 immigrated to the islands of Hawaii, mostly laborers expecting to work on the islands' sugar plantations.