cussed in class, some African Americans were lynched in public while dressed in their military uniform. Many were severely beaten almost to death. They were treated with no respect. As I looked through my notes I found that African Americans were grouped together in combat and often were given missions that could have been considered suicidal. Although the blacks were treated poorly, it seems that the Japanese Americans got the raw end of the deal during the war. Shortly after the United States entered into war with Japan, the federal government initiated a policy whereby 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were rounded up and herded into camps, 2/3 of these people were actually United States citizens. They were incarcerated without indictment, trial, or counsel - not because they had committed a crime, but simply because they resembled the enemy. These were similar to concentration camps that the Germans were using for the Jews, though no one was being killed and Japanese Americans were allowed to work within the camps. Not many Americans knew about the camps at that time, and some still don’t know today. Like discussed in class, it was an embarrassing moment for this country. The book that was assigned in class, Desert Exile by Yoshiko Uchida, told the story of a family who lived through these horrible times. As we discussed in class as well as in the book, the Japanese were strong minded and never seemed to be negative, “And yet most of our parents had continued to be steadfast and strong in spirit”(142). Some Japanese Americans were allowed to leave these camps to join the armed forces or continue their education, but they had to leave their families behind. Security was somewhat like a jail, with all the necessary precautions. Uchida mentioned that, “All paper was stripped from packages to prevent illegal messages”(81). Japanese Americans were shown no respect as United States citizens as...
