Japanese Internment Camps WW2
It happened in America...on December 7, 1941, during World War 2; Japan attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, destroying much of the pacific fleet battle group stationed there. More than thousand people were trapped inside the ships when they were sent to the depths of the Pacific Ocean on that sunny day. The following day after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. The biggest tension at that time was bad for Japanese Americans who were living in the United States. American president Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066, authorizing the removal and incarceration of over 110,000 Japanese American. Two thirds were American citizens. Over half were children.
Life for most Japanese Americans was the same as it was for Americans of any ethnic background. They did normal things as we do today, going to school, playing with their friends. However, life for Japanese Americans had never been easy. Many Japanese immigrants were friends with the Americans they lived near and worked with. Many Japanese had come to America to work, to make money and then go back to Japan. But some also wanted to settle in America and raise their families here. Even Japanese Americans who were born in this country were mistakenly thought to be loyal to Japan. Racial prejudice against Japanese American was high after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and throughout World War 2. There were a lot of rumors that Japanese Americans were helping Japan by using special codes to make contact with them. Congressman John Rankin shouted in Congress "I'm for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska and Hawaii now and putting them in concentration camps...Damn them! Let's get rid of them now!" (Congressional Record, Feb.19, 1942). Japanese Americans faced countless varieties of discrimination. Japanese-Americans teachers had a hard time finding work because many white parents did not want Japanese-American...