Essay On Japanese Internment

The Internment of Japanese Americans during WWII When most people think of World War II they think of the Jewish genocide and other events happening in Europe. What some Americans do not know about is the internment and treatment of Japanese Americans during that time. Many American citizens were taken from their homes with only the small possessions they could carry and taken to camps in the desert. Sociologically, it is important to look at this event and understand why citizens of the same country can act like a certain group does not belong. Tensions began to rise between white and Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Rumors, fueled by racial prejudice, were spread about the Japanese Americans wishing to sabotage the …show more content…
Although the younger generation have very few memories of their experience, their parents greatly impacted them. Parents became isolated and did not speak of the events that happened in the camps with their children (Holsapple, 1999). Because of this, children had low self-esteem, pressures to assimilate, loss of Japanese culture, and experiencing unexpressed pain of their parents (Nagata, 1993). It was impossible for the younger generation to know the severity of the internment because of their age at the time and how the older generation tried to block the events from their memories. Post-traumatic stress symptoms were prevalent in this older generation as they experienced unexpected and disturbing flashbacks of their time of internment (Ina, 1999). Heart problems have also been reported from Japanese Americans who were in internment camps. "Survey information found former internees had a 2.1 greater risk of cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular mortality, and premature death than did a non-interned counterpart (Ina, 1999). These heart conditions were more than likely caused by the stress and anguish the Japanese American citizens had to endure during their stay in the