Second World War

The Japanese Americans and Internment Camps

The Japanese Americans who were interned in concentration camps after the Japanese militia attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, were historical injustices at the center of the Second World War. Many prominent American politicians called for the roundup of Japanese Americans, particularly those living along the western coast, and their internment inland. It was believed that some of these Japanese spied for the Japanese government and disseminated vital security information, leaving the nation open to attack. However, a power conflict emerged about immigration or the movement of innocent persons between the US judicial department and the military department. McCloy John, the assistant secretary of war at that time argued that when weighing matters of civil liberties and national security as dictated in the constitution, he would consider the constitution ’just a scrap of paper.’ Therefore, the relocation went on smoothly without major hindrance. Approximately 330,000 Japanese Americans lived in both mainland and Hawaii and among them was Issei (first generation born in Japan and immigrated to the US) and Nisei (the 2nd generation that was born in the US soil by parents who migrated from Japan) (Ebertz 5). Issei were too conservative of the Japanese culture and did not want to identify much with the Americans way of doing things and hence they continued executing the cultural habits of their motherland. On the other hand, the Nisei were too loyal to the Americans and felt that America was their home and hence acted and lived like Americans.

The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)

This is an organization which was formed in the late 1920s by a small group of Nisei who recognized that some Americans discriminated against them based on their ethnicity, but as the JACL Creed says, “[would] do all in [their] power to discourage.” A second thing the JACL was formed to do was prove the loyalty of Nisei to the United States. As can be seen, nearly half of the JACL Creed confirms this commitment by giving thanks for living in such a giving nation with so many opportunities for making their citizens’ lives better. As the Second World War approached, things began to change, ultimately taking a turn for the worst. After the war, the goals of the JACL changed significantly (Lazar 63). No longer was there a focus on numerous points of discrimination; there was a focus on a single point: the struggle for redress after the use of Japanese American relocation camps of WWII.

December 7, 1941. The Attack on Pearl Harbor

In the early hours of the first Sunday of December, Japanese military waged war on Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i. When news of the attack reached the mainland, many JACL chapters were in meeting in their hometowns. All were in shock when word got to them about what happened. While the Nisei were disheartened just like every other American, they had much more on their minds. An attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese meant war would be declared officially (Yamamoto 5). They knew that a war with Japan would only bring bad things for them and their families. Within the day, JACL officers had telegrammed President Franklin D Roosevelt assuring him of their loyalty to the United States, offering their help in the Armed Forces.

Discrimination against Japanese Americans

Following the attack, Japanese Americans immediately began to be singled out and discriminated against because of their ethnic background. For example, representative of the JACL, Mike Masaoka, had been in Nebraska that morning, assuring Americans of Nisei loyalty. When word reached the Midwest about the attack, police arrested him and held him in jail on no charges other than being a Japanese American. Fortunately, government officials whom he had befriended were able to get the police to release him. Yet Masaoka would be arrested two more times on his return trip to California, based on the same charges.

Not all discrimination was from police and other government officials. Other Americans attempted to shut out the Issei and Nisei from the world. Many were fired from jobs or lost all Caucasian business in their stores. Insurance agencies canceled the policies of Japanese American customers. Bank accounts were frozen, leaving many without money. Perhaps worst of all, Japanese Americans had to deal with the harsh words of their fellow citizens; they had to listen as they were accused of disloyalty and treason. Even government officials admitted their skeptical views of Japanese Americans. Attorney General Francis Biddle, on December 7th, announced that the federal government would not interfere with the lives of the Japanese Americans so long as they remained loyal (Lazar, 67). In fact, he stated, the government would do everything possible to protect them from harsh American citizens. However, he then stated in the same speech his skepticism: “...Inevitably, there are some among our alien population who are disloyal...”

The Japanese American Citizens League’s Cooperation with the WRA

Throughout the deportation of Japanese Americans, the JACL supported all WRA decisions. In one newspaper article from the same year, JACL officers commented that they appreciated all of the officials in the WRA and the way they were handling the deportation task. They believed the WRA was treating the evacuees well, and they believed the WRA to be doing a high-quality job in planning into the future (Uchida 17). There were two reasons for the JACL’s cooperation with the WRA. First, the JACL knew that if there was any chance of them helping to release the evacuees, they must first prove their loyalty to the U.S. government. The best way possible to do this was to show that they agreed relocation was a good idea. And many did think it was safe for them to be relocated inland. Because wartime hysteria was high, American views of Japan, particularly on the West Coast were unpleasant. As they moved farther inland, the discrimination faded away very much.

However, many evacuees did not see the JACL’s cooperation with the WRA as a good thing. Instead of viewing the cooperation as showing loyalty to the U.S. government, they viewed it as disloyalty to Japanese Americans. This feeling left many Japanese Americans turning their backs to the JACL, thinking they were looking for the League at not the people they represent. Support for the JACL dropped greatly during the war and would not return to a large number until just before redress began to take hold (Ramirez 15).

Division and disruption of family

Since a lot of the second generation Japanese Americans were loyal to the US government and JACL they disagreed on various fronts with their parents (1st generation Japanese Americans). This is because even after their loyalty all people from Japanese decent continued to be marginalized and detained and hence the elders felt like there was no difference. Since the first generation followed their cultures to the letter, they were supposed to give directions to the younger generation on what to and not to uphold. Through divisions in the family, such exercises could not happen because the peace was distorted and no one could listen to another. Therefore, Nisei benefited from this because they continued to push for their agenda of being loyal and true to the government of the US (Ebertz, et al., 7). Additionally, this was a chance for the Nisei to come out loud and speak their concerns that would make the US government realize that they had nothing to do with the attack on Pearl Harbor and that they are royal Americans ready to do anything for the country.

On the other hand, the disruption of the family was a way to snatch power and control from the Issei and share it with the Nisei. This was done through the interruption of peace such that people could not reason together and come up with credible solutions to benefit them. This meant to frustrate the Issei who were believed to have snitched on the Americans. After the Japanese were placed in the internments camps, they were not allowed to move out because it was surrounded by soldiers with the right to shoot and kill anybody breaking this law. A number of American Japanese were shot dead because of the attempts to live the camp, but the camp was humanely manned. As time went by, it was realized that most of the Nisei members were loyal to American and hence plans to release them were made. Those who were granted the permission to leave were supposed to go and work in the Middle West and the east (Shoag 12). Some of them were to work in the west but with a foreign identity. In the year 1944, it was noted that the Japanese were not supposed to be treated inhumanely because they were Americans. This was through the pressure applied to the government through several peaceful demonstrations held in the country by civil societies. It was announced that the internment camps would be ceased by the year ending 1945. The last camp was shut down in March of 1946.

Authority position bested on Nisei over Issei

Because the Nisei were Americans by birth, they were automatically committed to their land. Additionally, a lot of efforts were made by their leaders to show and prove that they were loyal compared to Issei who were immigrants and never welcome to the country especially in the west. As a result, the Nisei were allowed to join the local authority departments as well as the armed forces in America to help fight the Second World War maintain security. There were Americans who trusted the Nisei because they spoke in English and schooled in America and hence they could have no intentions of harming the country, unlike the Issei who never adopted the American culture. They were viewed as a national threat, and even the citizen could not peacefully accommodate them as mentioned earlier. In the Camps, the children were allowed to learn and play all sorts of games. Privacy was minimized as people used common bathrooms to bathe. There was some leniency in allowing people to live together as a family. Churches were approved as well and hence to some extent life was not too difficult for them.

The loose structure of the camp made things not better for the parents and the children since they could see very little of each other. This weakened the traditional family unit and hence nothing could be accomplished in the spirit of a family. The Nisei to some extent blamed Issei for their firm stand with their cultural traditions. The suffering the Japanese Americans faced was seen to have originated from the disagreements between the Issei and the rest of the Americans. The second generation viewed themselves as casualties of a cold war between the government and Issei. As mentioned earlier, this also facilitated in ensuring that the Issei do not influence their children. Some of the Nisei spied on their parents on behalf of the American government to establish whether they were feeding Japan American strategies (Ng, 6). They did this as an attempt to gather more trust from the Americans and the government itself. As a result, they were favored in all aspects compared to the Issei who denied everything and never wished to cooperate with other citizens in efforts of building the nation. As a result, when it came to offering jobs and other opportunities, the 2nd generation was considered before the 1st generation.

The Concept of Discrimination and its Consequences

The concept of discrimination was impulsively observed during the period of immigration where they were given two weeks to vacate. They were to gather matching of their property and be ready to relocate. Since some of them had businesses and cars; there was no alternative but to sell them. The Americans took advantage of this and offered small prices to purchase properties from Japanese Americans. The military offered to buy their vehicles but at lower prices. For those who refused to sell, they were told that the cars were taken to facilitate the war. Both the Issei and Nisei had very few options at that time (Lau 82). Even with such difficult circumstances, the Nisei never gave up trying to convince the government that they had nothing to do with the attacks and that they were devoted to the land because they regard it as home.

Conclusion

The Japanese Americans suffered at the hands of their government because of being regarded as a threat to national security. The discrimination against them from other Americans and the government heightened after Japan attacked American harbor. The detainment took place without trial and hence all the Nisei and Issei were forced to remain in the internment camps as the war progressed. It was hard for them to prove that they had nothing to do with the planning of the attack. The efforts of the second generation to prove themselves loyal bore fruits since some of them were allowed out of the camp to go and work or join the military. Later on, the camps were ceased, and the Japanese were granted the right to go and work or reclaim their property. Several years later, the Japanese Americans were compensated $20,000 for the loss suffered in the camps. Ever since efforts have been made to ensure that Americans will never suffer from discrimination again.

Work cited

Ebertz, Susan. “Japanese American Internment.” Currents in Theology and Mission 44.2 (2017).

Shoag, Daniel, and Nicholas Carollo. “The Causal Effect of Place: Evidence from Japanese-American Internment.” (2016).

Lau, Amy. “Making Space for Silenced Histories: National History, Personal Archives, and the WWII Japanese American Internment.” Progressive Librarian 42 (2014): 82.

Ramirez, Ever. “For The Benefit of Nisei Readers in America: Newspapers as a Form of Behavioral Control during Japanese American Internment.” (2014).

Uchida, Yoshiko. Desert exile: The uprooting of a Japanese American family. University of Washington Press, 2015.

Lazar, Alon, and Tal Litvak Hirsch. “Online answers dealing with the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.” Journal of International Social Studies 7.2 (2017): 60-77.

Yamamoto, Eric K., et al. Race, Rights, and Reparations: Law and the Japanese-American Interment. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 2014.

Ng, Wendy. “Japanese American Internment.” The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism(2016).