World War Ii: The Internment of Japanese Americans

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were some Japanese Americans that saw the internment as stripping them of their constitutional rights. Fred Korematsu started a lawsuit again the United States of America claiming that he was wrongfully imprisoned by being forced out of his home and into the internment camp. The courts found that in Korematsu vs The United States, the internment was constitutional and the government may send citizens to camps during wartime. It was also stated that “Korematsu was not excluded from the Military Area because of hostility to him or his race. He was excluded because we are at war with the Japanese Empire” (Korematsu v. United States (No.22)). In 1984 Fred Korematsu’s conviction was overturned as the evidence had been corrupted and in 1998, President Bill Clinton presents Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom (The War Relocation Authority and The Incarceration of Japanese-Americans During World War II ).

Whether the Executive Order 9066 and the Japanese American Internment was unconstitutional or just flat out wrong, there will always be a debate. Some feel that the only reason for this was to placate the people of the United States, which also contributed to the Japanese Americans to be harmed on mental, physical and economical levels. Others feel that it was for the safety of the Japanese Americans due to the discrimination and hate that was sent in their direction. What began in the wee hours of the morning on December 7th, 1941 at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii, ended with the Japanese people to be the enemy. Whether Japanese Americans or otherwise, neither the American people nor the American government had trust. On the contrary, it was believed by Americans that people of Japanese descent were traitors, spies and were out for sabotage. Justifiable or not, other countries would have kept their country safe with the same type of avenue. However, fighting in the war and helping with the warfront, Japanese Americans were able to prove their trustworthiness and help the United Stated defeat their adversaries.

Bibliography

442nd Regimental Combat Team. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2015, from Historical Society Web site: http://the442.org/home.html

Executive Order 9066. (1942, February 19). Government, General Records of the Unites States. National Archives. Retrieved February 3, 2015, from http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=74

Fox, S. C. (1988). General John DeWitt and the Proposed Internment of German and Italian Aliens during World War II. Pacific Historical Review, 57(4), 407-438. Retrieved January 20, 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3640375

Korematsu v. United States (No.22). (n.d.). Retrieved February 03, 2015, from Cornell University Law School: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/323/214

Shaffer, R. (1999). Opposition to Internment: Defending Japanese American Rights during World War II. Historian, 61(3), 597-620. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1999.tb01039.x

The War Relocation Authority and The Incarceration of Japanese-Americans During World War II . (n.d.). Retrieved January 20, 2015, from Truman Library Web site: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/japanchronoold.htm