NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Japanese Internment Camps What were they? Internment camps were permanent detention camps that held internees from March 1942 until their closing in 1945 and 1946. Although the camps held captive people of many different origins, the majority of the prisoners were Japanese-Americans. There were ten different relocation centres, which were scattered all over the interior West, in isolated desert areas of Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming. Why were they set up? ?
After the bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941, the United States was gripped by war hysteria. This was especially strong along the Pacific coast of the U. S. , where residents feared more Japanese attacks on their cities, homes and businesses. Leaders in California, Oregon and Washington, demanded that the residents of Japanese ancestry be removed from their homes along the coast and relocated in isolated inland areas. As a result of this pressure, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the forcible internment of 120, 000 people of Japanese ancestry. More than two-thirds of those interned under the Executive Order were citizens of the United States, and none had every shown any disloyalty.
In April 1942, internment camps were set up across the United States of America. Executive Order 9066 was rescinded by President Roosevelt in 1944, and the last of the camps was closed in March 1946. What were they like? In 1943, all internees were forced to respond to questions intending to separate those loyal from those disloyal to the United States. Internees who refused to declare undivided loyalty to the United States were sent to Tule Lake, which became the Segregation Centre.
Resistance to the internment and to War Relocation Authority policies at Tule Lake was very strong, resulting in Army occupation, violence and marital law. The internment camps that the Japanese lived in were like slums. Their houses were made of tar paper, which was a bad choice for the building huts in the desert. In these places, the summers get very hot and the winters get very cold. In the winter, the tar paper huts provided no protection from the cold and in the summer, the tar paper would absorb the heat, causing exceedingly hot temperatures inside. In these internment camps, there were no gas chambers, crematoriums, starvation or forced labour.
The Japanese werent separated from their families in the camps and they were all regularly fed. They werent forced to choose between long hours or death. But, like the Jews, the Japanese were always watched. So although life was easier for the Japanese than it was for the Jews, it was still inhumane treatment of innocent people and should never have happened. What happened after the war?
At the end of World War II, Japanese Americans faced rebuilding their lives. The U. S. government had forced them away from their homes and intro crowded living areas and scarred many Japanese-Americans. They took away their constitutional rights along with three or fours years or their lives. As awareness of the wrongfulness of the internment grew, a movement developed to gain an apology and redress from the U.
S. government. The Redress Movement succeeded in getting the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (CLA) passed. The Act offered an official apology, funded education about the internment as a deterrent to future violations, and authorized a ten-year program of token $ 20, 000 payments to most camp survivors. Not all those wronged received redress. After ten years, both the compensation and the education mandate of the CLA remain unfulfilled.
Free research essays on topics related to: executive order 9066, japanese ancestry, japanese americans, u s government, internment camps
Research essay sample on U S Government Executive Order 9066
