Japanese-American Influence On Pearl Harbor

Franklin D. Roosevelt once famously called December 7, 1941, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, “a date which will live in infamy”, but the period following December 7, 1941, Japanese Internment, would be just as infamous. Pearl Harbor was a devastating event. Japan launched a massive air strike on Pearl Harbor, a naval base in Hawaii, killing 2403 American citizens and many more were wounded. The bombs sunk eight battleships, four naval vessels, three destroyers, and demolished three light cruisers. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor to destroy the naval fleet in the Pacific Ocean, so it didn’t have to worry about being attacked by that fleet, and as revenge for the embargo that the United States placed on natural resources being exported to Japan. After …show more content…
There were preconceived ideas that since Japanese-Americans looked very similar to the Japanese, they were all in the same. According to Martin W. Sandler, The Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts made an official statement that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was aided by Japanese-Americans spies. When this was originally said, in the early 1940’s, there was no evidence of any aid from Japanese-Americans, and to this day, there has not been any evidence uncovered that supports his claim. The statement was made in a time of hysteria when many American public figures, such as Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts, openly stated that Japanese-Americans were aiding the Japanese people, and their only reasoning was that Japanese-Americans and Japanese citizens looked the same, so they must have been the same. Another public figure, The governor of Idaho, Chase Clark said, “A good solution to the Jap problem in Idaho-and the nation-would be to send them all back to Japan, then sink the island…” (Sandler 26). Americans were making assumptions that Japanese-Americans were the same as Japanese people. They were outraged by the bombing of Pearl Harbor and wanted to lash back at the people who they believed were really responsible for the tragedy. Both of these accounts show how other American citizens viewed Japanese-Americans and how they were very open with their prejudice. It was also …show more content…
It breached many parts of the Constitution, such as the Bill of Rights, and the United States eventually recognized this, 42 years after Japanese Internment ended. It is the government’s job to protect its citizens and in this instance, they didn’t. They imprisoned thousands of American citizens without any evidence. The FBI launched a formal investigation and found nothing against Japanese-Americans. The United States’ Attorney General Francis Biddle found that internment was based on the country 's hysteria and pressure on the government, not real data(Sandler 32). There was no evidence that Japanese-Americans were loyal to Japan, only evidence that they were loyal to the United States. Japanese Internment also violated the majority of the Sixth Amendment. Japanese-Americans should have been guaranteed: the right to a speedy and public trial, the right to be tried by an impartial jury, the right to be informed of the charged, the right to confront and call witnesses, and the right to an attorney by the Sixth Amendment. Japanese-Americans did not receive any of these right, and were immediately imprisoned. They did not get a trial because they wouldn’t have been found guilty of anything. The United States didn’t allow them any of these rights because if they did, there wouldn’t have been a conviction or internment at all. The right to be informed of the charges and having a trial were the most violated rights because if