Download Reaction: Japanese American Internment Camps

Reaction to Pearl Harbor:
Japanese American
Internment Camps
Created by: Abby Helton,
Katie McAfee, and Lauren
Sharpe
December 7, 1941, was much like
September 11, 2001. It was a great
surprise, and there was not much to
be done to stop it.
Following the attack at Pearl Harbor,
all Japanese were blamed and weren’t
given much respect. Just as we began
to stereotype Muslims in September
and show hatred, much of the same
was done to the Japanese.
The Americans did something very
demeaning to the Japanese people
living in America…they placed them in
internment camps.
This sign would
not let people of
Japanese descent
past these lines!
Area
Limits
Sign
“From which any or all persons,
Japanese or Japanese American
descent may be excluded."
-Franklin Delanor Roosevelt
Japanese people were removed
from the west coast and south
Arizona and then the United
States government created
detention camps and
established curfews for all
Japanese Americans.
In 1944, Americans realized what
injustice they had caused the
Japanese Americans and camps
began to close. Years later, there
was a law passed stating that the
United States was sorry for the
injustice it had caused the people of
Japanese ancestry.
Camps
Closed
The United States government paid
$2,500 to each Japanese American
individual who was put into an
internment camp. This was the
United States’ way of saying, “We’re
sorry.”
“Congress recognizes that, as described in the
Commission on Wartime Relocation and
Internment of Civilians, a grave injustice was
done to both citizens and permanent residents
of Japanese ancestry by the evacuation,
relocation, and internment of civilians during
World War II.”
Purposes of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988
with respect to persons of Japanese
ancestry included the following:
1)
To acknowledge the fundamental
injustice of the evacuation,
relocation and internment of citizens
and permanent resident aliens of
Japanese ancestry during World
War II;
2)
To apologize on behalf of the people
of the United States for the
evacuation, internment, and
relocations of such citizens and
permanent residing aliens;
3)
To provide for a public education
fund to finance efforts to inform the
public about the internment so as to
prevent the recurrence of any similar
event;
4)
To make restitution to those
individuals of Japanese ancestry
who were interned;
5)
To make more credible and sincere
any declaration of concern by the
United States over violations of
human rights committed by other
nations.
He also stated that by passing the
Civil Liberties Act in 1988, “We
acknowledge our wrong doing and
understand the racial prejudice,
and we will strive to do better
under the circumstances.”
Internment
Camps
Top: Rows and rows of
cabins at Gila River, AZ.
Right: People wander
around at Heart Mountain,
WY. ->
Above is a map of the internment camps
throughout the western part of the United States.
There were nearly 70 internment camps spread out over
the United States. The previous page was a map of only
western America!
Some camp names were:
Gila River, AZ
(opened July 20, 1942-closed November 10, 1945),
Heart Mountain, WY
(opened August 12, 1942-closed November 10, 1945),
Jerome, AR
(opened October 6, 1942-closed June 30, 1944).
Camps were also found in Tennessee, Hawaii, Florida,
Georgia, and Illinois.
The following camps were the only ones in
our state of Tennessee:
Millington was a federal prison camp next
door to Memphis Naval Air Station.
Nashville contained more than two
buildings that were on state property.
Emotionally, politically and racially charged, the
issue of the Japanese American Relocation during World
War II is an event that just won't go away. Claims have
been made that American citizens were imprisoned
against their will in concentration camps, and that the
entire fiasco was motivated by war time hysteria, racial
bigotry, and opportunistic businesses that wanted to
snap up property left behind by the evacuees.
Counter claims have suggested that there was complete
documented evidence to justify an evacuation of
Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals from the
west coast of the United States, and that no American
citizen was detained against their will by their own
government.
We recently read an autobiography on George Takei
(Star Trek’s Mr.Sulu).
As a child he was put in an internment camp in
Rohwer, Arkansas. He, along with his brothers and
sister, was given a tag to wear which identified his
family. They were transported on buses and trains.
Most of their family possessions were either sold for
very low amounts of money, or left behind. They
had to evacuate very quickly and were only given a
limited amount of space for luggage.
Audio file used by permission of Brad Altman, business manager for George Takei.
Different people have different perspectives
on this situation. Some people think that it
was right for the United States to put the
Japanese people into internment camps, yet
others think it was an act of injustice.
We did not have access to any Japanese
Americans in our town, so we interviewed
someone who is a role model in our
community.
We interviewed our mayor, Darrell
Helton. His perspective was that
the United States was right in
putting the Japanese people in
internment camps because Japan
was the first to bomb us.
“Not knowing how the people would
act, we did the smartest thing we
could do, because they could have
been spies and could have felt sorry
for their homeland.”
In another interview with Mark Finchum,
a member of the National Council for
the Social Studies Board of Directors,
he stated, “The United States
government should not have interned
the Japanese Americans because the
United States Constitution should be
upheld first and foremost.”
Others think that because they were
already US citizens, they wouldn’t serve
as Japanese spies.
Some believe we could have
distinguished the difference between the
Japanese citizens and American citizens.
Despite current thoughts, they don’t
change the fact that the United States did
intern the Japanese Americans!