Sunday, March 5, 2017
"Farewell To Manzanar" Internment Web Link Background Information?
Regarding the Densho Internment Link Resource, what are some ideas or
trends that profoundly struck you that are addressed regarding this
period in American History? Please use any quotes or specific
references to materials that validate your argument. Due by 2:30p.m. on Wed., March 8th, 2017.
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An idea/trend that profoundly stuck to me within this link was that the Americans proceeded to incarcerate the innocent Japanese/Japanese-American people for no other reason than fear. We had this prejudice toward everyone of Japanese descent which lead to the racism that resulted in internment camps. "After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt cited military necessity as the basis for incarcerating 120,000 Japanese Americans—adults and children, immigrants and citizens alike." This quote shows how we didn't want to risk being attacked by the Japanese again so we took extreme and unnecessary measures to prevent this and caused pain to so many people.
A trend that was popular within this time in American history was the fact that many Japanese Americans were incarcerated by Americans for no valid reason. There was very much preconception within this time and many families and citizens were separated. America simply was over cautious of the events that could possibly occur with the Japanese and Japanese Americans.
In the Densho website, the biggest trend that stuck out to me was that the Japanese-Americans were treated poorly and were often taken for no reason other than precaution. Even before Pearl Harbour was bombed, the government had a list of Japanese-Americans that the FBI were going to take. "The general consensus of those agencies was that the Japanese American community as a whole posed little threat to the U.S. should war with Japan take place. They also put together custodial detention lists of those who would be arrested should war come." This quote shows that these U.S. citizens posed no threat and the US was simply doing this horrible thing because of race.
Regarding the Densho Interment link, something that stuck with me was how, in a war founded on Hitler killing people who weren’t of the “superior race”, America was still being racist towards it’s own citizens. A phrase that stuck with me from the site was “looking like the enemy”. Something that really shocked me, however, was the amount of Japanese Americans that were put into camps. Including men, women, and children, a total of 120,000 of them were put into the camps.
One thing that I found that really stood out to me was that the country was totally okay with having to ship off the Japanese-American people to internment camps. It is completely unfair!! I know most of them remained in the United States but it is so cruel to take all that they have and rid of it just because of your origin. I think there should have been some sort of thing to be able to tell if they were truly loyal to the country, but they also should have just trusted the citizens and continue to further investigate. All because of fear. The full on Americans were capable of the same horrors, yet they were not sent to unclean facilities to live for about 5 years. You could just tell by the expression in their voices that they had felt discriminated. And when they had returned home, they were left with nothing. They had to start life new, all over again.
One thing that really stuck out to me was how they treated adults and children, citizens and immigrants alike. It didn’t matter if you had no ties to the Japanese culture but if they saw anything that may even have a little suspicion they put you in an internment camp. Some may say that even their rights had violated during this time even though it was a time of crisis they shouldn’t have all been sent to internment camps. “After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt cited military necessity as the basis for incarcerating 120,000 Japanese Americans—adults and children, immigrants and citizens alike. Decades later, a congressional commission found the justification of military necessity to be false. Click through the links below to learn the true reasons for this unprecedented denial of civil liberties and why it still matters today.”
After reading the Densho Internment Camp Information, I was perplexed by how after WW2 Americans looked at all Japanese as terrorists. People who left Japan years ago were targeted simply for looking like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. They were treated horribly and punished in ways that were completely unfair. "Many inmates lived in recently vacated horse stalls and slept on straw mattresses." As said, this situation was handled quite awfully, and Japanese Americans were treated as less than humans. At this point in time, America should have been better about handling racial issues, but instead, the government continued to make race a defining factor of a person.
I think Japanese still get treated unfairly like they are the enemy because they were the enemy during WWII. For example, one woman describes what it feels like to her father taken away from her by the FBI. Her family had to camp by themselves for a long time. During WWII, Japanese had to be put in concentration camps, for that reason. Japanese still feel like things aren't fair for them because they came from the enemy's home.
After reading through the website the idea I found throughout the documents was racism against the Japanese from the Americans. When the Pearl harbor attack happened, Americans were full of fear. Fear created this longing for a place to put and have an answer to who formed the attack, wanting someone to blame and put consequences on. “President Franklin Roosevelt cited military necessity as the basis for incarcerating 120,000 Japanese Americans—adults and children, immigrants and citizens alike.” The Americans assessed the Japanese and even though they didn’t it it was them for sure, they were an easy target to confront. The Japanese had no say in their innocence and now racism began. Everyone believed it was them which created a tension across the United States. When the war ended camps were immediately shut down. The Japanese were innocent and Americans had made a shame out of themselves. They treated the Japanese as the bad guys with no evidence but just assumption. The racism created was hard to overcome as Japanese were still faced with continuing hardships and racism in their communities that should’ve ever started. Even though apologies and movements were made to help the Japanese, the issue still has an ongoing relevance and play in social justice and civil liberties issues.
During this time period some things that profoundly struck me where the living conditions that these people had to deal with. Americans resented the Japenese because they thought that the people in the US were providing them with information about what was going on in America. Although this wasn't true, the US still took it upon themselves to ensure the safety of all of it's citizens and take all the Japenese people into a camp where they were constantly watched. This action was already out of hand but for the police to put these people through tough living conditions and make them suffer was completely out of hand. People who were placed in these camps had to sleep on the ground in freezing cold tents that weren't warm nor comfortable. These people also weren't given lots of food. The food that they did get wasn't great and it was in small portions. To put these people through these challenges after they didn't do anything was very uncalled for.
I found it interesting that people’s grandparents that fought in the war don’t mention what has happened. This relates to me because my grandfather fought in the Vietnam War and I’ve never mentioned anything about it to him because I know he wouldn’t like it. What I found was the same trend of someone else's grandparents from WWII that didn’t like talking about it. “[They] never spoke to her grandparents directly about their WWII experiences at Poston, Granada, and Tule Lake concentration camps because [they] knew it was a sensitive subject and feared they wouldn’t want to talk to her about it.” Later the quote goes on saying that her grandparents passed away and some of that history was lost. Overall it made me think if I should ever ask about it to him or not because it was an important piece to American History.
An idea that stuck with me came from the quote, "After stays ranging from a few weeks to a few months, Japanese Americans were moved to ten concentration camps run by a newly created federal agency, the War Relocation Authority (WRA)." This shows that we were moving people around like objects while also fighting people who were doing it, when Nazis pushed people into camps it was wrong but for America it was seen as justified. Although these camps varied in harshness and in purpose they had the same core idea, which was to hold people that the general public was scared of.
An idea that stuck to me in this link was immigration issue within the Japanese. After Pearl Harbor occurred and the Japanese were imported to America, they were faced with Discrimination.Most of the Japanese citizens were laborers to work on sugar plantations and were treated terrible. "Much of the discrimination Japanese immigrants faced stemmed from federal laws prohibiting Japanese and other Asian immigrants from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens". These were forms to prevent Japanese citizens to even be able to be stabilized and live in the United States.
After reading the article I think a bit less of our country. We always talk about how bad the concentration camps were in Germany, and the internment camps weren't as bad as the concentration camps, but we were still being very terrible and racist towards the Japanese. I think that we did not handle the situation in the right way AT ALL. Just because of someone's heritage does not mean that someone is a "threat to national security".
After reading some of the articles on the Japanese Internment camps, one thing that struck me was the fact that the U.S. made concentration camps for the Japanese. I think that it is sad that the Japanese were discriminated against and labeled, “disloyal” if they “...refused to give unqualified ‘yes’ responses...” when they were asked a bunch of questions. It is unfair that Japanese were discriminated against just because their origins are in Japan. America is supposed to treat all equally, but the Japanese were not treated fairly during WWII, and it was simply because of their origins.
This is in the time period of the book. pearl harbor and WW. there is a quote that is talking about "After the bombing of pearl harbor" so this is to me what shows that this is the same time period. There are alot of facts about pearl harbor also just like in the book its very detailed.
Some ideas that stuck with me through reading the resource is that a lot of people were punished for an attack that they didn’t do. Not only a few people, but if they found anything to link you to what Japanese then you would automatically get sent into an internment camp. The resource states that “120,000 Japanese Americans—adults and children, immigrants and citizens alike” were all taken and put into these camps where they were tortured and punished. I find this sad that these people were treated like unloyal people just from being from a place that choose to bring violence to a place that was at peace. Blaming those who chose to migrate here for a better life shouldn’t have been blamed for something their previous country did.
What struck me in this article was that we would incarcerate people that are citizens just because of there ancestor because we wanted t be safer than sorry, even though we have amendments about equal protection. Our country is all about equal and freedom but its not free when you put people in incarceration for there ancestry. I kinda felt disappointed of our country while reading this article, and confused of why we are still questioning about what an american looks like or what an american is.
While reading the Densho Internment Camp links I noticed the harsh judgement that evil existed within all Japanese Americans due to fear from the events at Pear Harbor, resulted in the cruel treatment of Japanese Americans and their incarceration in internment camps. The government began "rounding up what were now 'enemy aliens' within hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor" due to a mass fear that had resulted from the attack. The Japanese Americans "lived in blocks of barracks with communal bathrooms, laundry facilities, and dining halls. Many cited extreme weather, dust storms, the lack of privacy, and inadequate food as among the many travails of living behind barbed wire." These conditions only surface in prison settings or worse. The Japanese Americans were treated as less than humans because of their racial background that happened to be the same nationality as those that attacked Pearl Harbor. These citizens are not the same people that attacked Pearl Harbor and they shouldn't have been penalized for another's decision no matter what.
It bothers me immensely that America detained an entire race of people simply because of the way they looked. Why is it that America thought that only people of Japanese decent could spy for Japan? These people, who had done nothing wrong, were being treated as criminals or less than human. These containment camps were meant to be a form of appeasement for the people of America, meant to lessen their fear and anxiety. However, these camps were built on a foundation of suffering for the people it harbored. Originally, the idea was to provide a sort of home away from home for the Japanese-Americans until conflicts between Japan and America were resolved. The four drafty walls and a leaky roof they were forced to live in could hardly be called that. It is profound that something of such cruelty could be allowed in America, land of the free and home of the brave. The worst part is that not one Japanese-American has ever been accused of spying.
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