Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Japanese Relocation Centers On February 19, 1942, soon after the beginning of World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The evacuation order commenced the round-up of 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage to one of 10 internment camps—officially called “relocation centers”—in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. Why Were the Camps Established? Roosevelt's executive order was fueled by anti-Japanese sentiment among 1) farmers who competed against Japanese labor, 2) politicians who sided with anti-Japanese constituencies, and 3) the general public, whose frenzy was heightened by the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. More than 2/3 of the Japanese who were interned in the spring of 1942 were citizens of the United States. Conditions in the U.S. Camps The U.S. internment camps were overcrowded and provided poor living conditions. According to a 1943 report published by the War Relocation Authority (the administering agency), Japanese Americans were housed in “tarpaper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind.” Coal was hard to come by, and internees slept under as many blankets as they were allotted. Food was rationed out at an expense of 48 cents per internee, and served by fellow internees in a mess hall of 250–300 people. Leadership positions within the camps were only offered to the Nisei, or American-born, Japanese. The older generation, or the Issei, were forced to watch as the government promoted their children and ignored them. Eventually the government allowed internees to leave the concentration camps if they enlisted in the U.S. Army. This offer was not well received. Only 1,200 internees chose to do so. Legal Challenges to Internment Two important legal cases were brought against the United States concerning the internment. The landmark cases were Hirabayashi v. United States (1943), and Korematsu v. United States (1944). The defendants argued their fifth-amendment rights were violated by the U.S. government because of their ancestry. In both cases, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the U.S. government. Over Closure of the Camps In 1944, two and a half years after signing Executive Order 9066, fourth-term President Franklin D. Roosevelt rescinded the order. The last internment camp was closed by the end of 1945. Government Apologies and Reparations Forced into confinement by the United States, 5,766 Nisei ultimately renounced their American citizenship. In 1968, nearly two-dozen years after the camps were closed, the government began reparations to Japanese Americans for property they had lost. In 1988, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that awarded formal payments of $20,000 each to the surviving internees—60,000 in all. Other Groups in the Camps While Japanese-Americans comprised the overwhelming majority of those in the camps, thousands of Americans of German, Italian, and other European descent were also forced to relocate there. Many more were classified as “enemy aliens” and subject to increased restrictions. As of 2004, the U.S. Government has made no formal apology or reparations to those affected. This is a summary of Lt. Gen. J.L. DeWitt's letter to the Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, June 5, 1943, of the Final Report; Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942. The evacuation was driven by military necessity. The security of the Pacific Coast required the exclusion of Japanese from the West Coast. The surprise attack at Pearl Harbor by the enemy crippled a major portion of the Pacific Fleet and exposed the West Coast to an attack. More than 115,000 persons of Japanese ancestry resided along the coast. They were significantly concentrated near many highly sensitive installations essential to the war effort. Intelligence services records reflected the existence of hundreds of Japanese organizations in California, Washington, Oregon and Arizona which, prior to December 7, 1941, were actively engaged in advancing Japanese war aims. These records also disclosed that thousands of American-born Japanese had gone to Japan to receive their education and indoctrination there and had become pro-Japanese and then had returned to the United States. Emperor-worshipping ceremonies were commonly held and millions of dollars had flowed into the Japanese imperial war chest from the contributions freely made by Japanese here. The continued presence of a large, unassimilated, tightly knit racial group, bound to an enemy nation by strong ties of race, culture, custom and religion constituted a menace that had to be dealt with. Their loyalties were unknown and time was of the essence. It is better to have had this protection and not to have needed it than to have needed it and not to have had it – as we have learned to our sorrow. Over a period of less than ninety operating days, 110,442 persons of Japanese ancestry were evacuated from the West Coast. This organized mass migration was conducted under complete military supervision. It was completed without major incident in a time of severe national stress.