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Japanese American Internment Camps

Japanese American Internment Camps Like all issues involving race or war, the question of whether or not it was legal and ethical to make Japanese Americans move to relocation camps in early WWII is a difficult and controversial problem. The internment of around 50,000 Japanese citizens and approximately 70,000 Japanese-American people born in the U.S. living in the American West Coast has become known as a tragedy and mistake. The government even set up numerous projects to apologize to the American citizens who were wronged (Bosworth). Still, at the time that the decision to relocate was made, the actions were constitutionally legal and seen by many as necessary. The actions were not based on racist feelings. It was, however, unethical to put so many innocent people through frustration, suffering, and loss of not only their property but also their freedom. The bombing of the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941 by the Japanese marked the start of trouble for the 120,000 People of Japanese ancestry living in Oregon, Washington, California, and Arizona. Because of their different language, culture, communities, customs, and religion, the Japanese living in America were already alienated from much of society (Brimner). Whites already had the fear of the "Yellow Peril" in their history, because of the prior Chinese immigration that had caused Caucasians to fear the loss of jobs to outsiders, among other things (Alonso, 14). When the bombing occurred, the people were so afraid of attack and the enemy that they feared Japanese living near the West Coast, (which was hard to defend and close to Japan,) so much that they turned to protests, discrimination and violent hatred (Alonso). The Government, including President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, were pressured by the restlessness of the people, the threat of Japan's attack, and the lack of time to take action. Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt was chosen for the job of defending and protecting the West Coast. He became one of the biggest supporters of evacuating the Japanese. The FBI began investigating and arresting people along the coast who were suspected of spying for enemy countries. Not only Japanese Americans were suspected. Italians and Germans were also investigated and imprisoned (Alonso). This is one fact that shows that racism was not the reason the Japanese were evacuated. Japan was the country that attacked Pearl Harbor, not Italy or Germany. DeWitt was hearing false reports of acts of disloyalty to the U.S. and sabotage on the part of Japanese Americans including unusual radio activity caused by contacting Japanese vessels, farmers burning their fields in the shapes of markers to aid Japanese pilots, and fisherman monitoring and relaying to Japan the activity of the U.S. navy (Daniels, 29). Executive Order 9066, signed by President Roosevelt, gave the military permission to label areas "military areas"and to keep out people who were seen as threats (Daniels, Appendix). DeWitt named the west coast a military area in Proclamation 1 in March 1942. This gave him the right to remove all those who threatened the safety of the U.S. from the area. Because even 100 Japanese-Americans who were still loyal to Japan could compromise the safety of the U.S., DeWitt decided that all people of Japanese ancestry had to be evacuated and placed in temporary relocation camps. He felt, as did many others, that there was not enough time to investigate each individual person. To protect the country, DeWitt made the tough decision to take away the freedom of 120, 000 people. This was entirely legal, because in the Constitution the War Power Clause gives congress the right to make any laws needed to win a war. The evacuation and internment of the Japanese was seen as necessary because they were a potential threat to the country and the war effort. The actions may have been legal, but that does not mean that they were error free. The Government is run by people, and people can be imperfect, which means they can make imperfect decisions. The people who were forced to leave their homes suffered and lost a lot. They were often given notice of the relocation dates only a few days in advance. They could only bring with them what they could carry, and they were forced to sell their belongings at fractions of the actual worth. Before the more permanent facilities could be built, the people had to live in make shift detention areas, often nothing more than a converted horse stable. The actual relocation camps were better. Still, they were forced to live in undesirable conditions where they had little or no privacy and only the luxuries that they brought with them. Worst of all, they felt betrayed because the country that most had been so loyal to had treated them so badly (Brimner). Their treatment was harsh and unethical, but this was war. At the time, and because the people in charge did not have a lot of truthful information, they could not have known that the people they were forcing such a strict law upon would not have threatened the country. They did know that many of the Japanese were innocent citizens, and they should have made more of an effort to investigate each person, but they were working on the safe side. In the Supreme Court case of Korematsu vs. the United States a man who had been charged with disobeying Public Law 503, which made it a crime to go against any of DeWitt's orders, appealed to the Supreme Court because he felt what was done to him was unconstitutional. In this case the legality of internment was brought up, even though it was not the focus of the case. Korematsu's opinions were that he should have been given a trial before he was "imprisoned", there was no real military reason to evacuate the Japanese, and that DeWitt's actions and laws were based on racism, and it is illegal in the constitution for anyone to be imprisoned or discriminated against based on race. The Government's opinion was that the protection of freedoms in the constitution does not always apply in wartime. The War Power Clause reinforces this. Also, there wasn't enough time to give everyone a fair trial. DeWitt did not base his decisions on race but on what was right for the country's safety (Alonso). In this case, the court ruled in favor of the United States Government. This was not a specific ruling on the constitutionality of internment, however. Only after the war did America finally realize just how unethical the internment really was. The Japanese in the relocation camps were ordered released later in the war. It was no longer necessary to detain them, because the threat of Japanese spies had passed. They had little or nothing to return to. The feeling of betrayal and resentment remained. Years later, in 1976, president Gerald R. Ford made Proclamation 4417, which made Executive Order No. 9066 completely void, even though it was no longer imperative after the war. The proclamation was also written to admit that the government had been wrong to treat its citizens with such disrespect. It states that the Japanese-Americans were extremely loyal and were unfairly suspected (Daniels, Appendix). In 1983, Korematsu's case was brought back to court, and this time the ruling was in his favor. The government decided to give monetary compensation to the internees to apologize and make up for their lost possessions and suffering. It took so long to review each record of each individual to determine the correct amount that a lot of the people died before they could have the satisfaction of receiving their check (Alonso). The Government has the right to do what is necessary to win in times of war. This right is guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States. 'What is necessary to win a war' includes the relocation of potentially hazardous people, and the Japanese were the people seen as a threat in WWII. The rights of the Japanese as American citizens were taken away, and this can and will happen again. This is an important factor in the Constitution, because the government must be able to protect the country and it's citizens in times of war even if it means unintentionally making innocent people suffer. Still, what happened to the Japanese-Americans was a horrible error which was not realized until too late, because they really did not threaten national safety. Their forced internment was unethical and should have been more carefully planned. The Japanese-Americans were evacuated because of their ancestry, but this does not mean the internment was necessarily racist. It was not hatred of their race that caused their mistaken relocation, but instead their relation to an enemy country. Another cause was the lack of understanding of their loyalties on the part of the government, who saw their foreign culture and language as signs that they were not part of and loyal to American society. The War Power Clause is important, but it can be dangerous when it results in unnecessary events like the Japanese-American internment. The best that can be done now is to realize what the mistakes were and to learn from them. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1531