Internment Camps

By: Lauren DeFelice, Adara Dusseau-Winters, Skyler Barnes,

Louise Matthiesen

Treatment of Internment Camps-Internment camps- relocation and detainment of Japanese Americans from West Coast during WW2-Issei – Americans of Japanese birth-Nissei – children of Japanese born parents who were sent to internment camps (mostly survived)-Japanese Americans suffered a lot more than any other aliens in USA did-12/7/1941- Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was bombed by Japanese natives US citizens began to feel threatened by Japan and Japanese Americans LD

-Japanese Americans had always been loyal to USA and stood behind FDR with decisions

-Immigrant Japanese had been coming to USA for better lives & were good workers

- “yellow flood’ of Chinese immigrants in the 1870’s where they took many jobs from Americans for lower wages which angered them

- They were feared during war that they’d turn their backs on USA

- They had strict cultures and greatly obedient

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• Germany and Italy also disliked for their beliefs of Nazism and Fascism

• Germans had been a potential threat from military to their control

• There were over 11,000 Germans alone brought into the Internment camps

• When they were taken from their homes, their belongings were broken and taken

• About 2,000 Germans and German Americans were taken and held by The Third Reich in Germany

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- FDR signs Executive Order – 2/19/1942 – power to define military areas where people may be excluded as necessary/desirable

- over 110,000 were relocated into camps with their families – named by a number

- Most of the 110,000 were infants, young kids and adults• Many that were in the internment camps didn’t

understand why• Japanese American Citizens League – limited

membership to its people and stressed importance of Americanization and shortened ties with Japan

• Japanese Americans in CA, OR, WA, AZ – sent to relocation camps – rights to vote taken, lost jobs

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• 4 years later after the Executive Order was signed, FDR destroyed it and camps were finally closed after 1945

• 1968- government gave reparations to Japanese Americans for property they had lost

• 1988- awarded formal payments of $20,000 each to the surviving internees

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•Tule Lake and Manzanar – northern Cali – cramped camps with uncomfortable areas, families in small spaces, bad facilities for cooking/bathing

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• “We’ve always been told that we are the ‘Quiet Americans’. We think a lot in our own mind, but we don’t say it with our words, because we don’t like to make too many waves” – internee, Martha Yoshioka

• “I know many… who say, that was all so long ago. Let’s forget it and leave well enough alone. But I just say, we were the ones that went through it – the tears and the shame and the shock. We need to leave our legacy to our children. And also our legacy to America, from our tears, what we learned.” – Internee, Mary Tsukamoto

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• health problems included psychological anguish and cardiovascular disease

• Internees of the camps went through trauma constantly over:

- loss of culture and habits

- low self esteem

- pressure to follow along

- disobedience of parents

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• After the bombing of pearl harbor the US became very suspicious of Japanese Americans

• they forced them from their homes and put them into interment camps

• Many of these victims were outraged and began to file lawsuits against the government

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Lawsuits/Events

• Hirabayashi v U.S

• Yasui v U.S.

• Korematsu v U.S

• These were all very famous lawsuits that were filed against the US government for taking away civil liberties of American citizens

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Hirabayashi v U.S

Gordon Hirabayashi was attending the university of Washington and he was violating curfew and evacuation orders while in a military area

Congress then provided the means of enforcing the order by criminalizing violations of military regulations in those areas, including the curfew and exclusion orders

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Yasui v U.S.

• The court said the curfew could not be applied to non-citizens

• Minoru Yasui was working at the Japanese consulate and had forfeited his citizenship

• Because he had become a citizen the curfew could be applied to him

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Korematsu v U.S

• During this time the US was removing all people of Japanese decent out of Military areas

• Korematsu was living in a military area and he was refusing to leave

• This was becoming a very controversial case, because the court was trying not to have any racial influence, and to keep it all about the safety of the military, but it was difficult to do at this time.

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Violating the Civil Rights

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• Prejudice

• Discrimination

• Conformity

• Fear

The internment camps are known for being the event in US history that violated the civil rights the most

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Speak up

Hirabayashi vs. US, 1943 College student, refused to obey and challenged

the law

Korematsu vs. US, 1944

They both argued their 5th amendment rights were violated by the US. Gov. because of the ancestry. The Supreme Court favored US gov. in both cases

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Americans reaction

Some people will still claim that it did not violated the civil rights, because they were a threat to the national security (spying for Japan)

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A line from the 5th amendment: “nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness

against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

Totally denied with the Excusive Order 9066

A man is innocent until his guilt is proved…

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After the closing of the camps Japanese Americans regained their American citizenship.

In 1968 the government began

reparations to Japanese Americans for property they had lost.

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Habeas Corpus

• To protect the individual from harming actions from the state and keep the individual freedom

• Abraham Lincoln suspended it under the civil war, FDR did with his signing of the Excusive Order.

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Civil liberties Act of 1988

• The Act provided reparations to the Japanese Americans who had been interned. Payments of $20,000 to each to the surviving 60,000 internees.

• Apologized with: "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership". (Reagan) The act was signed by President Reagan

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Discussion Questions

1. Do you think there would have been much of a difference between treatment by Nazis or the officers in the internment camps?

2. Would you have taken action more quickly rather than the months it took to repay and apologize to the internees?

Discussion Questions

3. With today’s living standards, how would you handle being contained into an internment camp?

4. Would you feel more helpless having no rights back then or now? Why?