Prejudice In Japanese Internment Camps
75 years ago, 120,000 Japanese Americans went from living peacefully in their homes, to living in constant fear and misery in prison camps. Their crime? Being of Japanese descent. Words will never be able to fully explain the horrors that the Japanese American internees went through, but in this essay, their experiences will be explained with respect and as much effort as possible.
Although anti-Japanese and anti-Asian prejudice has been engraved in America’s very bones for decades, the main cause of Japanese American internment camps was Pearl Harbor. In December of 1941, Japan bombed the U.S fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Within hours of the attack, FBI agents swept through Japanese communities in California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii, arresting anyone who was suspected to have had any sympathetic ties to Japan. These people were rounded up, questioned, then shipped off …show more content…
In an attempt to segregate “loyal” from “disloyal” men, the War Location Authority required the men to go through registration, in which they were given loyalty questionnaires. While some men found it easier to just fight in war, others resisted. Draft resister groups in multiple locations were formed, fighting together against the cruelty and unfairness of being drafted.
The draft resisters answered “no” to two specific questions on the loyalty questionnaires: question #27 and question #28. Question #27 asked, “Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?” Question #28 asked “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or other foreign government, power or
Although anti-Japanese and anti-Asian prejudice has been engraved in America’s very bones for decades, the main cause of Japanese American internment camps was Pearl Harbor. In December of 1941, Japan bombed the U.S fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Within hours of the attack, FBI agents swept through Japanese communities in California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii, arresting anyone who was suspected to have had any sympathetic ties to Japan. These people were rounded up, questioned, then shipped off …show more content…
In an attempt to segregate “loyal” from “disloyal” men, the War Location Authority required the men to go through registration, in which they were given loyalty questionnaires. While some men found it easier to just fight in war, others resisted. Draft resister groups in multiple locations were formed, fighting together against the cruelty and unfairness of being drafted.
The draft resisters answered “no” to two specific questions on the loyalty questionnaires: question #27 and question #28. Question #27 asked, “Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?” Question #28 asked “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or other foreign government, power or