Japanese Americans in WW2

Imagine being born and growing up in a country you love, only to be put in a detention center because of your race or ethnicity. When we think of collective punishment, we usually recall Nazi Germany and its labor and extermination camps for the Jews, Slavs, the Roma, and other minorities. Yet, self-professed liberal democracies engaged in collective punishment, too, at this time. The relocation of an estimated 120,000 Japanese Americans, most of whom were citizens, to internment camps during the Second World War is one of the most prominent examples of human rights violations.

Fig. 1 - "I am an American" sign in Oakland, California, was put up the day after the Pearl Harbor attack by Dorothea Lange in March 1942. The owner, a University of California graduate, was kept in an internment camp for the duration of the war. Source: Library of Congress (no known restrictions on publication).

Japanese Americans Before WW2

The broader historical context of the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II involves racism, nativism, and legal measures to curb immigration.

American Society and Immigration

Interning Japanese Americans during the Second World War is an extreme example of broader societal attitudes toward immigration, Otherness, and formal legal structures supporting such attitudes.

Even though the U.S. is usually considered a country of immigrants, not all immigrants were created equal. The United States was born from British, French, Spanish, and Dutch colonial projects. As a result, people of European descent had higher social status than African slaves and Indigenous Americans in the past.

Over time, waves of immigration into the New World were no longer limited to Europe and began to include East Asians. 19th-century Japanese, Chinese, and Korean immigrants held a variety of jobs, including:

• Railroad industry on the mainland;
• Hawaii sugar plantations.

Due to cultural differences, racism, nativism, and the fact that the Chinese worked for less pay than others, the U.S. introduced the following legislation:

• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
• Immigration Act of 1917
• Immigration Act of 1924

The 1882 law banned immigration from China for ten years and was extended later.

The Immigration Act of 1924 was passed during the Presidency of Calvin Coolidge. The act prevented all immigration from Asia except the American colony of the Phillippines.

Other Precedents

The treatment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War in the U.S. is not the only example of hostility toward immigrants in the context of a war.

During World War I, an estimated 8 million Americans of German descent lived in the country. Since Germany was an enemy of the U.S. then, wartime propaganda reflected this sentiment. As a result, the government and public reacted in cruel ways toward German Americans, including:

• censorship;
• prohibiting the German language;
• scrutiny of German American associations;
• libraries removing German-language books;
• the decline in the popularity of German dog breeds like dachshunds;
• interning individual Germans;
• individual cases of lynching.

There were similar anti-German riots in Britain targeting those of German descent. This behavior demonstrates the collective scapegoating of immigrant communities and mass hysteria.

Fig. 2 - Anti-German protest in Baraboo, Wisconsin, June 13, 1918. Photo by Ephraim Trimpey. Source: Library of Congress.

Japanese Americans: Involvement in WW2

Most Japanese Americans were called Nisei, the second generation, to signal their American citizenship through birth. First-generation Japanese Americans were called Issei.

During World War II, they could be divided into the following groups:

• soldiers who were investigated and cleared as loyal to the U.S.;
• civilians were interned for the entire duration of the war;
• civilians were interned and then removed as dedicated to the U.S.

World War II

The Second World War began on September 1, 1939, with Nazi Germany's attack on Poland. The Second Sino-Japanese War started two years earlier, on July 7, 1937. When Japan attacked the United States on December 7, 1941, by striking Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the U.S. officially entered the war the next day. As a result, the two wars merged into one. Americans fought in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North Africa until victory in May 1945 over Nazi Germany and in September 1945 over Japan.

Fig. 3 - School girls at the Manzanar Relocation Center in California, by Ansel Adams, WWII. Source: Library of Congress (no known restrictions on publication).

Japanese Americans: Forced Relocation and Internment Camps

Executive Order 9066 came into effect when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it on February 19, 1942. The forced relocation of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans began, especially from the west coast, due to its geographic proximity to Japan. Many of them lost their property as well.

Timeline

Living Conditions in Camps

There were ten "war relocation centers" for Japanese Americans:

• Amache (Granada), Colorado
• Gila River, Arizona
• Heart Mountain, Wyoming
• Jerome, Arkansas
• Manzanar, California
• Minidoka, Idaho
• Poston, Arizona
• Rohwer, Arkansas
• Topaz, Utah
• Tule Lake, California

The government deliberately had the camps constructed in remote areas with an inhospitable climate. The facilities featured barbed wire and armed guards. Communal housing was rather basic: barracks without insulation using coal-burning stoves to stay warm. However, families were allowed to stay together.

Fig. 4 - Japanese American camp, war emergency evacuation, Tule Lake Relocation Center, Newell, California, 1942-1943. Source: Library of Congress (no known restrictions on publication).

Regarding lifestyle, the interned could perform specific jobs while the children attended school. There were also Church and extracurricular activities. The relatively humane treatment of Japanese Americans does not account for the psychological trauma they experienced by being viewed and treated as enemies in their own country. There were also some exceptional cases of shooting the captives.

Japanese Americans: Opportunities in WW2

There were not many opportunities for Japanese Americans during World War II. While they were isolated in detention centers, the U.S. government began an investigation to determine their loyalties. Those that passed the assessment were allowed to:

• leave the camps and start working on the east coast or in the midwest;
• leave the camps to be temporary workers on the west coast;
• join the military.

Not Just Japanese Americans

The United States was not the only country to mistreat its citizens of Japanese descent during the Second World War. Canada also maintained its internment camps.

Like the U.S., many Canadians of Japanese descent lived on the west coast of British Columbia. During the war, the government:

• relocated 22,000 Japanese Canadians to internment camps;
• took away their land and property for auction;
• offered relocation away from the Rocky Mountains or deportation to Japan in 1945.

Many of these were second-generation Japanese who had never set foot in Japan. For them, Canada was the only home. Nonetheless, 4,000 Nisei ended up in Japan through Canadian deportation.

Japanese Americans: Service in WW2

Japanese Americans, cleared by the government as loyal citizens, were able to join the war effort. Estimates range from 17-33,000. Some joined the 442d Regimental Combat Team formed in 1943-1944. This group was the single most highly decorated of all Americans in World War II. Others joined the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion. This unit freed the Dachau Nazi death camp prisoners in a twist of irony. Like African Americans, the Japanese units were racially segregated.

Fig. 5 - Two color guards and color bearers of the Japanese-American 442d Combat Team, November 1944, France. Source: U.S. Army, Wikipedia Commons (public domain).

Japanese Americans After WW2

After World War II and camp closures, some Japanese Americans could not return home because anti-Japanese sentiments persisted for some time. Japanese Americans also experienced significant psychological trauma of being viewed as enemies in their own country.

Apologies and Civil Rights

In the United States, the redress movement to obtain justice for Japanese Americans began within the context of the Civil Rights Movement. This movement led to:

• President Gerald Ford repealed Executive Order 9066 in the 1970s and called internment a mistake;
• the establishment of the Japanese American Citizens League;
• passing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 under President Reagan compensated each victim with $20,000.
• George H. W. Bush apologized to Japanese Americans.

In Canada, it was not until 1988 that the country's government offered a formal apology and compensation.