Internment - Research Paper Example

Cause of the Internment The provocation for the Americans to enter into a war was brought about by Japan which by then had joined the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis in September 1940 by signing the tripartite pact. The United States got alarmed when Japan anticipated building an East Asian empire. The United Sates responded to the invasion of the Japanese forces into French Indochina by adding items to a lengthy list of embargoed Japanese goods and eventually the US froze all its’ trades with the Japan.

In 1941 the US intelligence sent out warnings to commanders of U.S bases in the pacific when he become aware of Japanese plans to attack. The American officials did not think the threat was significant but they were proven wrong on December 7th 1941 when the Japanese planes bombed the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor in an attempt to destroy American sea power in the pacific. During this time the Japanese destroyed nearly 200 aircraft, eight battleships, three cruisers and almost 2,400 Americans died.

On December 8th, the senate voted in favor of Franklin Roosevelt’s request for a declaration of war on Japan. Italy and Germany joined with Japan on 11th December on declaring war to the U.S., this led the U.S. into world war two (Inada, Society, pxi). Japanese American Internment The Japanese American internment occurred in the year 1942 and ended in the year 1945. Japanese war time internment refers to a forcible relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942, where around 110,000 Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans who lived along the pacific coast of the United States to housing facilities that were called war relocation camps (these camps were 10 and they were situated in seven states) at the wake of imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7th December 1941 (Burgan, p10).

The Japanese Americans internment was applied unequally through out the United States. Franklin Roosevelt endorsed the internment using an Executive order 9066 to the military that was signed on February 19th 1942 using his authority as commander-in-chief to exercise war powers. The order gave the military the right to relocate United States citizens who were thought to be potential enemies of the state. Many Japanese ancestries lost their homes, businesses and all their worldly possessions during the internment.

The Japanese American who were also known as the Nikkei community was made up of several various distinct groups who included; the Issei, Nisei, Sansei and Kibei, the Issei were the first generation and immigrants living in the US and they were considered to be more dangerous because they were spies for Japan and still closely tied to their mother country. The Nisei were the second generation and these were people who were born in the United States to people of Japanese ancestry from the Japan.

The Sansei were the third generation and these were people who were born by the Nisei and were most assimilated with the American culture. The Kibei were the U.S. citizens who were educated in the Japan. All the first three groups (Issei, Nisei and the Sansei) were interned. (Robinson, p4). Housing/the internment camps The Japanese families were housed in various camps around the U.S., the camps were enclosed with barbed wire, sentry post, armed guards and several towers. These camps had not much detailed planning as they were built quickly during the summer of 1942.

The residences were long