By KYRA HASH
Staff Writer
The internment camps that captured the Japanese during World War 2 were widely debated as to whether or not it was a justified action. As a result of the attack against Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, virtually all Japanese Americans, about two-thirds of them being United States citizens, were taken from their homes and forced into internment camps, much like the ones that were being instituted in Germany around this time period. Pearl Harbor was located along the coastlines of Hawaii, where Japanese bombers attacked the United States naval base, landing themselves as the most hated country in the eyes of America. It didn’t take long for white Americans to recognize anyone of Asian descent as an active terrorist.
Even before the attack, the Office of Naval Intelligence, as well as the FBI, had been carefully watching the Japanese citizens of America since the 1930s. They rounded up about 3,000 people they suspected to have anything to do with the bombing of the naval base and half of their suspects were Japanese or of some sort of Japanese descent. Although the Federal Bureau of Investigation had deemed the rest of the citizens as safe and harmless, the white public had no issue or hesitation in taking matters into their own hands. Their assumptions towards the entire Japanese race were those of hysterics and aggression. Not only was their hatred directed towards Japanese citizens, but they also ended up targeting citizens of any Asian descent since they couldn’t tell the difference. In the eyes of the average white American, any Asian person walking along American soil was a confirmed terrorist.
Just a few months later on February 19th, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066, in which the War Department was ordered to create what were called military areas. This order granted the military permission to remove anyone for any reason from the coast of the United States. It was their intention to revert America into a “white man’s country”, placing Japanese immigrants and citizens into internment camps for the remainder of World War 2. The camps were given names to mask how awful they were such as “relocation centers” or “assembly centers”. The camps were written off as a national security measure, regardless of the fact that they were stripping American citizens of their constitutional rights.
The living conditions of the internment camps were, as to be expected, terrible. Most of the camps were created at a fairly last minute and because there was no respect for their future inhabitants, they were also created intentionally poorly. The average family lived in a horse stall with a dirt floor.
Even with the way they were treated, the Japanese who were living in these camps did what they could to feel even slightly more comfortable and more civilized. They took it upon themselves to create town-like things such as schools, newspapers, and police and fire departments. Making the best of a bad situation helped them grow closer together and manage to survive through such abusive circumstances.
The end of the internment camps was in December of 1944 when Roosevelt realized the criticism he would receive if he continued to punish Japanese citizens past the end of the war. They were released and allowed back along the coast.