I chose the source titled “Masao Takahashi Describes Incarceration at the Missoula, Montana, Department of Justice Detention Center.” The source is a written testimony by Masao Takahashi, a Japanese man that was arrested after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This testimony was at Takahashi’s Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) hearing in Seattle, on September 10, 1981. Takahashi was one of the thousands of testimonies given by the Japanese that were heard by the CWRIC which proved that the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War 2 was based solely on racial prejudice, the failure of political leadership, and war hysteria. In 1988 the CWRIC’s findings led to the passing of the Civil Liberties Act which
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Life for Japanese Americans was very difficult during World War 2 even though many of them that were interned in camps were American citizens. On page 672 the textbook mentions that Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 that was passed in 1942, authorized for all Japanese Americans to be put into internment camps. These individuals were persecuted because they were Japanese just like the group of people who made the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The textbook illustrates on page 672, that even after a military survey was conducted and found that Japanese Americans posed no danger to the United States, people continued to act hostile towards them. Japanese Americans were rounded up and stripped of their constitutional rights without any factual reasoning what so ever. Takahashi expands on this when he explains the police searching his house, “The FBI, along with four Seattle policeman, searched my house, ransacking closets. I was allowed to dress, but under observation even in my own morning toiletry.” When tragedy strikes, we are quick to blame each and every member of the associated race, religion, or culture for the attack instead of just the people involved. The attack on Pearl Harbor involved the entire country of Japan, but that doesn’t mean that every single Japanese had some role in the attack. This source helps us
Life for Japanese Americans was very difficult during World War 2 even though many of them that were interned in camps were American citizens. On page 672 the textbook mentions that Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 that was passed in 1942, authorized for all Japanese Americans to be put into internment camps. These individuals were persecuted because they were Japanese just like the group of people who made the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The textbook illustrates on page 672, that even after a military survey was conducted and found that Japanese Americans posed no danger to the United States, people continued to act hostile towards them. Japanese Americans were rounded up and stripped of their constitutional rights without any factual reasoning what so ever. Takahashi expands on this when he explains the police searching his house, “The FBI, along with four Seattle policeman, searched my house, ransacking closets. I was allowed to dress, but under observation even in my own morning toiletry.” When tragedy strikes, we are quick to blame each and every member of the associated race, religion, or culture for the attack instead of just the people involved. The attack on Pearl Harbor involved the entire country of Japan, but that doesn’t mean that every single Japanese had some role in the attack. This source helps us