Japanese Internment 1942



Japanese Internment 1942

I History of paranoia in the United States

Salem Witch Trials American Revolution

Anti-Masonic Party Know Nothing Party

Red Scare Japanese Internment

McCarthyism

2. The situation in January, 1942

• Pearl Harbor Sneak Attack

o 2 months after Pearl Harbor, FDR issues Executive Order 9066

o Authorizes the relocation of all persons of Japanese ancestry (both citizens and aliens)

o Goal is to prevent espionage and to protect Japanese people from angry Americans

• 117,000 Japanese were affected

▪ citizens and non citizens, rich or poor, young or old

▪ a tiny minority with no power and no friends or spokesman

▪ history of racism and discrimination, why should they be loyal?

• The responsibility of those in charge for protecting the country

▪ overkill, you cannot afford to be wrong

▪ reports of American intelligence

▪ a lack of manpower to keep an eye on West Coast Japanese

3. The wrong of it

• Imprisonment without due process of law

• No crimes committed, jailed for what they might do

• Loss of careers, jobs, property without compensation

• Concentration camps?

• The Japanese Americans were loyal

▪ 442 Fighting forces in Europe

▪ Japanese scouts in Pacific theater

• Hearings held for Italians and Germans, some jailed without due process

4. Supreme Court renders a verdict. Korematsu v. United States (1944), upheld the constitutionality of wartime relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans.

Issue: deprivation of American citizens and legal alien residents without due process of law on the plea of military necessity [112,000/ 72,000 citizens]

1. restrictions based on race [ancestry] and legalized racism

2. no acts of disloyalty or criminal [not even one]

3. many were very old or very young [who would care for if left behind?]

4. principle of innocent until proven guilty, cornerstone of our system was violated

5. martial law had not been declared

6. no danger of attack

7. it took 4-12 months for completion violating “immediate and impending danger”

8. loss of liberty and property without compensation or due process

9. all Americans have ties with foreign lands

10. wrong to do this, but even more wrong to officially condone it

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