Japanese-American Internment Camps

Alister Borabo

2/8/18

APUSH

Japanese-American internment camps

Two months after the Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were sent to

internment camps in order to “regulate the conduct and movement of enemy aliens”. The traditional family customs were held now within camps and the American born children were raised with a double standard. The US government no longer trusted the Japanese-Americans whether they were born in the country or not. Though this sound like reasonable choice, it was unclear why internment camps were not for other races. Germany was just as much and possibly more of a threat compared to the Japanese. The racial and judgement based on skin color in America is revealed and can be seen in the country’s decisions in how they control certain situations.

The internment camps amounted to a mix of racism and practicality. Although the major

concern was that the American-born Japanese would be sabotaging and destroying the US military infrastructure to help Japan in the war, the Japanese were known for having divine loyalty to their country. However since California was having an Asian immigrant “problem” and the Japanese were often seen as second class, there was little to no backlash on the camps. Also since Asian immigrants were now recently migrating to America, it was easier to get them all to the internment camps.

On the other hand, it would have been extremely difficult to do so for Germans

and Italians, because so many Americans are of German and Italian descent, and it would be very difficult to track them all down. The Japanese were significantly smaller and less favorable compared to the Germans. There was also a double standard when it came to skin color, since there was little to none internment camps or deportations among the Europeans. Also since the Europeans carried the majority of the population, radical measure such as exclusion or detention would have carried a very heavy political cost.

When it comes to why German and Italian did not have the same treatment like the

Japanese such as internment camps and etc. The Japanese population was less in size than the Germans/Italians affecting the government’s reputation. Also the double standard of Europeans were most likely stood high as well.