japanese internment
Japanese internment and the injustice behind it played a part in my resistance. Therefore, it is crucial to understand what it was. It all started with the bombing that occurred on December 7, 1941. On that day, Japanese warplanes attacked the American military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This attack was a threat to national security and scared the people (especially those in the West Coast). About two months after the attack on February 29, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This order gave power to the secretary of war and his military commanders so they could protect national security.
Anyone who was at least 1/16 Japanese had to leave California, western Oregon, western Washington, and southern Arizona. Approximately 120,000 people of Japanese decent were forced to go inland, away from the West Coast. These people were then put into Assembly Centers and were later moved to one of ten Relocation Centers in California, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arkansas. Assembly Centers were temporary facilities used to round everybody up and Relocation Centers were more like concentration camps. I would say that "concentration camp" is a very accurate term for the situation that the Japanese residents were put in. A concentration camp is “a camp where persons (as prisoners of war, political prisoners, or refugees) are detained or confined.” These Japanese residents were indeed prisoners in these camps, making this term very suitable for the scenario. They were tagged like one would tag a suitcase and it was quite apparent that their lives meant nothing to the guards or the government. The conditions that these Japanese were put in was horrible and unjust to say the least. These poor residents were crammed into small rooms where entire families would sometimes have to share a single cell. To make matters worse, the camps were sometimes placed in remote locations that endured harsh environments. On top of that, the food situation as simply inadequate. They were fed three times a day but the food was in such small portions that the people would be malnourished. Not only were they served very small portions, but the food was also very starchy and bland. They were usually fed potatoes and bread. These Japanese were not treated right as many of them died due to stress, poor medical care, or other factors. Not to mention that these people only had three days to two weeks to gather all that they could carry and evacuate. This short time frame did not leave them with much time to make sure their property and belongings were going to be taken care of properly. They were forced to abandon all that they had worked so hard for.
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Even though President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the one to sign Executive Order 9066, he is not the one to blame for the struggles that people of Japanese decent had to endure. The one who is truly responsible is Lt. General John DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command. He was constantly and openly questioning the loyalty of the Japanese who lived in the US. This man came up with the whole idea to evacuate the Japanese residents. He brought the idea to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and was a big part of the creation of Executive Order 9066. DeWitt also wrote the paper with the "INSTRUCTIONS TO ALL PERSONS OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY" and played a part in enforcing these rules for evacuation. It was also reported that during a testimony before a subcommittee of the House Naval Affairs Committee, DeWitt stated that “A Jap’s a Jap – it makes no difference whether he is an American citizen or not.”
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