Japanese Concentration Camps in America

Following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, was a wave of suspicion and hatred toward Japanese Americans. It didn't help that most Japanese Americans lived in the Pacific coast and Hawaii, where Pearl Harbor is located. This widespread fear and prejudice toward Japanese living in the US caused the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

In 1942, the War Department demanded an evacuation of all Japanese Americans living in Hawaii. The military governor of Hawaii, General Delos Emmons, opposed because the Japanese Americans were crucial to the economy of Hawaii, being a significant part of the population. However, he was forced later to confine some of the the Japanese Americans in concentration camps.

Also in 1942, President Roosevelt signed the order to relocate people of Japanese ancestry - American citizen or not - to concentration camps for "national security". People were paranoid that Japanese Americans would spy for Japan and help cause another major attack on the US. Most of the people confined to these camps were Nisei, or natural citizens (born in America) with Japanese immigrant parents, and many of them had already joined the army. They found it frustrating and ridiculous that they were stripped of their rights just for being of Japanese descent.

There were never any specific charges against the Japanese Americans and some fought for their rights, for example in the Supreme Court case Korematsu v. United States when Fred Korematsu refused to leave his home and then was charged for defying a military order. Despite their efforts, Japanese Americans were still rounded up and forced into the prison camps. After the war, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) worked to make the government compensate for the concentration camps and in 1965 and 1990, Congress finally allowed giving money to families who were in the camps.

by Nicky