Argumentative Essay On Japanese Internment

Executive Order 9066 issued the following Japanese Americans living on the West Coast to be imprisoned, taken away from their friends and homes. It was that very day on February 19, 1942 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zone making way for the deportation of Japanese Americans to internment camps. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, all backs were turned to those of Japanese descent; were they (the Japanese) with us or against us? Legion amounts of people questioned the loyalty of the Japanese. This negativity caused officials to conclude that the Japanese residing in the United Stated were untrustworthy and to be placed in internment camps. This essay will discuss the inequality that the Japanese Americans faced during the ever so intense battle during World War II era and why the internment camps on the West Coast were unnecessary. To start with, putting only people of Japanese descent was merely an act of racism due to the fact that their homeland attacked or threatened the very being of the United States. In a short article titled, Japanese-American Internment was an Unnecessary and a Racist Act it states that according to historian Cary McWilliams that, “War makes for harsh measures, but we cannot justify the evacuation even as a war measure. No such measure was taken against German or Italian nationals.” This illustrates that in the midst of the war, the only nationality that was treated immorally was the Japanese. Whereas, the Germans and Italians in America were not looked or acted upon in a cruel manner when it was their home country that was fighting against America. If one nationality is disciplined for going against the United States, then all the nationalities should be punished too for battling America. Furthermore, focusing on the Japanese Americans compared to the Japanese in Japan, the Japanese Americans in retrospect posed no real threat to America itself. As mentioned before, the article called Japanese-American Internment was an Unnecessary and a Racist Act acknowledges former internee, Edison Tomimaro Uno, stating in his own words, “ Our unjust imprisonment was the result of two closely related emotions: racism and hysteria,” he continues claiming that the Japanese Americans being relocated for their own protection was “sheer hypocrisy” , denying that the Japanese Americans posed a national security menace or threat. In lieu, Uno calls the relocation a crime attributable to “ racism [and] economic and political opportunism.” To clarify, Americans had told the Japanese that this action of relocating them in internment camps was for their protection, when in reality it was out of the Americans’ own ignorance. Putting the Japanese-Americans in the camps was futile because they posed no danger or threat to their fellow Americans …show more content…
One last reason why putting Japanese internment was futile is that during the war, a mass majority of the men fighting were the Japanese. In the short text titled Japanese-American Internment was an Unnecessary and a Racist Act it states, “ In fact, more than 25,000 Japanese Americans served in the armed forces during World War II, and the all Japanese-American 442nd combat team inflicted more casualties and received more decoration that any other comparable unit.” The deeds that the Japanese-Americans carried out were for their country. Not Japan, but the United States. There has been no record of any Japanese disloyalty or sabotage. If the Japanese-Americans were so ominous and perilous, then why were they the most decorated combat team and risked their very own lives to protect and defend a country that excluded and isolated …show more content…
Americans vehemently feared and despised anything Asian, perceiving them; the Japanese to be the more atrocious war mongers. This fear lead to the Japanese-Americans to be relocated in the internment camps. The internment camps, however, was an uncalled-for action because it was an act of racism, the Japanese did not pose as a threat and exhibited their loyalty by fighting for America in World War II. It was not until the war ended that the last Japanese internment camp came to an end in the year 1945, allowing all Japanese Americans to be free. This moment in our country's history was a significant and critical event to remember so that future generations do not make the same