Manzanar Argumentative Essay

Is the U.S.A justified in sending Japanese residents to Manzanar and other camps like it? Yes, the U.S. was at war with Japan and they had to take precautions because they were worried that the Japanese would interfere with the war. The treatment the Japanese had at the camps is not justified though, they lived in humiliation and poor living conditions. Also it was wrong for the U.S. to hold the loyal Japanese citizens against their will. Of course the U.S. would be justified to hold Japanese residents in concentration camps. They feared that since Pearl Harbor was already attacked by Japan, that the Japanese in America would also help them. “They especially looked at the people who had boats or houses that had radios with a short-wave band, and high aerial on the roofs.”-pg. 7. America saw the boats as a threat, that they could be used as help transporting oils of the coast to the enemy. They also saw every radio owner as “being used for signaling planes or ships or indicate loyalty to the Emperor.”-pg. 7. In order for the U.S. to feel comfortable and not take the chances of being …show more content…
“The barracks were built of one thickness of pine planking covered with tarpaper. Gaps showed between the planks, and as the weeks passed and the green wood dried out, the gaps in the wood widened. Knothole gaped in the uncovered floor.” -pg. 20 and 21. The homes weren’t the only things that were humiliating. In order to use the latrine, people would go at night to avoid going during the day. The people were very modest and this was agony for them, sitting down in public, with strangers, and no stall between them. However, it is understandable that the U.S. was at war with Japan, so why give the people who they are at war with better living conditions than they already gave them? Well, these Orientals were loyal citizens of the United