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, 1942I 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 BeingAmache 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 Streamers7 Presidential Unit Citations36 Army Commendations87 Divisional CommendationsMeritorious 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.

"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

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.

"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 VigilanceI 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)