Imagine being torn from your house and stripped of your civil rights and liberties because of your race. This is what happened during World War II after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. The United States’ citizens and government officials were suspicious of the Japanese-Americans being disloyal to their country. This fear became the reason many people lived in military-style barracks surrounded by barbed wire fences and guards at an internment camp (Interview 2). What was life like to live there for the duration of the war? How did the Japanese-Americans feel? This topic was of interest to me because of the camp’s lasting effects on people and the government. Understanding the internees daily lives in WWII is difficult, but having knowledge and facts will help gain perspective.
In September of 1940, Japan took control of French Indochina, a country in which ended up being one of our allies. The United States chose to close all …show more content…
Because the camps were not completed, internees were often housed in stables, racetracks and buildings and various state fairs. After several weeks of living at a crowded assembly center, the Japanese-Americans traveled on another train to one of ten relocation centers. Tule Lake in California, holding almost nineteen thousand people, was the largest relocation center. (Japanese Americans at Manzanar). When internees arrived at Tule Camp, they received numbers to keep track of them. Like the center before, they were to live in poorly-built barracks with three or four other families and no furnishes. They were supplied with one army cot, one blanket and usually no mattress. Each family would get one room, and were separated from the other families in their barrack by a thin wall that did not reach the ceiling. The people within the barrack could hear yelling, screaming, and even snoring (Interview
In September of 1940, Japan took control of French Indochina, a country in which ended up being one of our allies. The United States chose to close all …show more content…
Because the camps were not completed, internees were often housed in stables, racetracks and buildings and various state fairs. After several weeks of living at a crowded assembly center, the Japanese-Americans traveled on another train to one of ten relocation centers. Tule Lake in California, holding almost nineteen thousand people, was the largest relocation center. (Japanese Americans at Manzanar). When internees arrived at Tule Camp, they received numbers to keep track of them. Like the center before, they were to live in poorly-built barracks with three or four other families and no furnishes. They were supplied with one army cot, one blanket and usually no mattress. Each family would get one room, and were separated from the other families in their barrack by a thin wall that did not reach the ceiling. The people within the barrack could hear yelling, screaming, and even snoring (Interview