JAPANESE CONCENTRATION CAMPS

Japanese concentration camps

Japanese concentration camps

Japanese concentration camps are often considered to be a subject of immense controversy and debate in the historical pages of the Second World War. The concentration camps are often considered to have played a significant role in shaping the domestic scenario of the Second World War. Because of this reason, it is imperative to acquire an understanding of the fundamentals of the Japanese concentration camps. This paper will attempt to highlight how the camps started and the outcome of the Japanese concentration camps. The discussion will seek to constitute the fundamentals that were present at the time when the Japanese concentration camps and the complications that came forth as a result of the development of those camps. The paper will also shed light on the characteristics of the camps and the impact that the presence of the camps had on the US.

The Joint Immigration Committee of the California Legislature sent a manifesto to California newspapers which attacked the ethnic Japanese, whom it alleged were totally un-assailable. This manifesto further argued that all people of Japanese heritage were loyal subjects of the Emperor of Japan; Japanese language schools, furthermore, according to the manifesto, were bastions of racism which advanced doctrines of Japanese racial superiority.

The manifesto was backed by the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West and the California Department of the American Legion, which in January demanded that all Japanese with dual citizenship be placed in concentration camps. Internment was not limited to those who had been to Japan, but included a small number of German and Italian enemy aliens. By February, Earl Warren, the Attorney General of California, had begun his efforts to persuade the federal government to remove all people of Japanese heritage from the West Coast (Howard, 2008). Those that were as little as 1/16 Japanese could be placed in internment camps. There is evidence supporting the argument that the measures were racially motivated, rather than a military necessity. For example, orphaned infants with one drop of Japanese blood (as explained in a letter by one official) were included in the program.

It would not be unfair to state that Pearl Harbor came as the last straw for the patience of the political machinery of the time. The attack on Pearl Harbor was followed by the Alien Enemies Act as well as Presidential Proclamations designating specific foreign nationals as aliens. These included Japanese, Italians and Germans. The enforcement of these regulations created way for the location and incarceration of aliens. The Japanese concentration camps are considered to be a byproduct of the wave of expulsions and incarcerations that followed.

Under related presidential proclamations, it became necessary for aliens to report all changes in names, addresses and employment to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Japanese citizens who were present in the US at the time were required to be confined to concentration camps. Perhaps one of the most immediate impacts of the concentration camps was the fact that a majority of the Japanese was ...