Japanese-American Internment
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor leaving many Americans dead and numerous ships and planes destroyed. The next day, the United States declared war on Japan. Just two months later, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 which forced over 110,000 Japanese-Americans living on the west coast into internment camps. The government opened the first Japanese-American internment camp on May 8, 1942, and started closing them on June 30, 1944. Even though the war ended in 1945, the last camp was not closed until March 20, 1946. There were a total of ten internment camps located in desolate areas of the United States. The camps held about 7,000 to 18,000 Japanese-Americans each. The camps were surrounded by fences with barbed wire and guarded by armed soldiers. The Japanese-Americans in the camps functioned like communities. There were blocks of barracks that the families lived in. Each block had one building where the residents of that block ate. The blocks also had schools, libraries, churches, hospitals, post offices, warehouses, and repair shops. Even though the government provided the schools and hospitals, they didn't provide teachers or workers. The Japanese-Americans in the camps had to work and teach, but got paid extremely low wages. The Japanese-Americans also had to grow their own food and take care of livestock. This was very difficult because of the dry, desert-like conditions and extremely hot and cold temperatures of the camps' locations. A few people even died from starvation, lack of medical care, or trying to resist the armed guards and being shot. For the Japanese-Americans, suffering did not end when they were released from the internment camps. The people that came out of the internment camps were not the same from when they were interned, physically or emotionally. They had lost more than two years of their lives in the internment camps and many had lost their homes, jobs, and property when they were relocated. It took many months to get new homes and jobs. Most Japanese-Americans stayed on the Pacific Coast, but some moved to Japan to find new homes and jobs there. In 1981, Congress conducted an investigation and concluded that Japanese-American internment was a "grave injustice" and was a result of "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." This proved that the government was wrong in the internment of Japanese-Americans. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act that apologized to Japanese-Americans for being relocated to internment camps. It also gave $20,000 to each Japanese-American that was held in internment camps and that was still living. After every Japanese-American was paid, the money given to the Japanese-Americans totaled to $1.6 billion.
"Now the actual migration got underway. The army provided fleets of vans to transport household belongings, and buses to move the people to assembly centers. The evacuees cooperated wholeheartedly. The many loyal among them felt that this was a sacrifice they could make in behalf of America's war effort. In small towns, as well as large, up and down the coast, the moving continued. Behind them they left shops and homes they had occupied for many years."
"I spent my boyhood behind the barbed wire fences of American internment camps and that part of my life is something that I wanted to share with more people."
-George Takei
"Their own physicians took precautions to guard against epidemics. They opened advanced Americanization classes for college students, who in turn would instruct other groups. They made a rough beginning in self-government, for while the army would guard the outer limits of each area, community life and security within were largely up to the Japanese themselves. They immediately saw the need for developing civic leaders. At weekly community meetings, citations were given to the block leaders who had worked most diligently. Special emphasis was put on the health and care of these American children of Japanese decent."
"I look at my grandparents and what they dealt with in the Japanese internment in Arizona. That sense of perseverance, of making the best out of an incredibly bad situation, has always been something I drew inspiration from. I always ask myself, 'What in the world do I have to complain about?'"
-Scott Fujita
"At each relocation center, the evacuees were met by an advanced contingent of Japanese who had arrived some days earlier and who now acted as guides. Naturally, the newcomers looked about with some curiosity. They were in a new area on land that was raw, untamed, but full of opportunity. Here they would build schools, educate their children, reclaim the desert."
"Finally getting out of the camps was a great day. It felt so good to get out of the gates, and just know that you were going home…finally. Home wasn't where I left it though. Getting back, I was just shocked to see what had happened, our home being bought by a different family, different decorations in the windows; it was our house, but it wasn't anymore. It hurt not being able to return home, but moving into a new home helped me I believe. I think it helped me to bury the past a little, to, you know, move on from what had happened."
-Aya Nakamura
"When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, our west coast became a potential combat zone. Living in that zone were more than 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry; two-thirds of them American citizens; one-third aliens. We knew that some among them were potentially dangerous. Most were loyal, but no one knew what would happen among this concentrated population if Japanese forces should try to invade our shores. Military authorities therefore determined that all of them, citizens and aliens alike, would have to move."
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