On December 7th 1941 Japanese forces attacked the American Naval base of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which effectively brought America into WW2. After, the Japanese citizens of the West Coast United States were "relocated" as a matter of what was thought to be national safety. These internment camps are the subject of much debate. Many compare them to the Concentration Camps of the Nazi regime, but others refer to them quite mildly as "summer camps." By examining the autobiography Farewell to Manzanar one can clearly see these camps were far from a vacation, and by examining the government's post war response to relocation camps one can see it is thought by most to be a blemish on modern American history. Naturally there are revisionist historians who argue in defense of the internment camps, but the relocation and internment of the Japanese during WW2 was not justified.
Immediate following the Pearl Harbor, there was fear that the Japanese Empire was planning a full scale Naval attack on the West Coast of the United States. This suspicion lead the American government to unconstitutionally relocate and detain 120,000 Japanese. Of these approximately sixty two percent were American citizens. The sentiments were that citizenship alone does not guarantee loyalty to the United States. Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family were non-US citizens and since her father had a fishing boat, the FBI singled him out as a possible Japanese loyalist. While it is easy to look back at a historical situation with 20/20 vision, if one separates oneself from the known outcome of the war, it is easy to understand the suspicions of the Japanese people. With an extremely strong Navy, an attack on the Western United States by the Japanese would have devastating effects on the country but it is a completely different monster all together to detain people, for years, on mere suspicions. In fact, Jeanne Wakatsuki is only seven years old when she is first and she does not even speak Japanese. How can the detainment of a seven year old that does not speak the language and does not have contact with her ancestors in Japan be justified?
In the 80's the American Government established a commission to research the matter. The commission determined that the internment was "unjust and motivated by racism rather than real military necessity." WW2 was fought on two fronts, the European and the Pacific. Although Germans and Italians who were non-US citizens were also relocated, those who were US citizens but just of Italian or European descent were not affected. This fact alone proves that the Japanese were racially profiled just on account of their Asian appearance. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 gave twenty thousand dollars to each surviving detainee as reparations for their hardship. Most can look back on the period and feel regret and embarrassment for what happened, in such a modern era. However, we are going through similar times right now. The Japanese internment is a case of racial profiling, which, since September 11th 2001 has been the subject of much political debate in this country. Shortly after the attacks, most people found no problem with the racial profiling of Arabs during airport security believing that it was a matter of national security and a preemptive measure to prevent another terrorist attack. Will Americans look back at these times forty years in the future, just as was done with the Japanese internment, and regret their beliefs?
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