Pearl Harbour: Its Effect on Equality and Racial Discrimination Within the Usa

Japanese fighter planes and midget submarines attacked Pearl Harbor, a United States naval base, on Sunday 7 December 1941. The surprise attack followed months of long negotiations between Japan and the United States of America, culminating with increasing tension, to climax with Secretary of State Cordell Hull's note. In the Hull Note, a proposition received by the Japanese government, the United States of America demanded that all troops be withdrawn from China and French Indochina. Japanese leaders were shocked by this and thought that it "...amounted to an ultimatum against Japan." (Hideki Tojo, No Date, http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/monos/150/150app03.html) Shigenori Togo, minister for foreign affairs, agreed with the evaluation of his prime minister, writing in his diary, "I was utterly disheartened, and felt like one groping in darkness. The uncompromising tone was not no more than I had looked for, but I was greatly astonished at its contents." (Togo Shigenori, 11/1941, http://www.enterstageright. com/archive/articles/1000pacificwar.htm) Responding to this threat, Japanese aircrafts attacked Pearl Harbor, destroying a number of ships and killing over 2400 men. The attack prompted change in racial discrimination and equality within the United States of America, in turn impacting the views of the whole world. German, African, and Japanese Americans saw the consequences within society, all recognizing it as the turning point it was.

The attack on the Pearl Harbor Navy base increased anti-German American sentiment within society. The majority of the United States society faulted Germany for starting WWII. The distrust had been born when the Germans had broken their side of the Munich Agreement of 1938, by seizing the parts of Czechoslovakia not already in their control. These anti-German attitudes were strengthened by Hitler's and Mussolini's declaration of war with the US. Within the US, German American's were shunned. In many cases they were interned in camps, and were seen as enemy aliens. Rose Marie Neupert was one of the many German migrants who were interned. She recalls that "After Pearl Harbor we had numerous visits from the FBI... In the summer of 1942, the FBI came to our home and arrested my mother..." (R Neupert, 03/2006, http://www.gaic.info/real_neupert.html) Pearl Harbor was the factor that started the internment of German Americans. This was not the only way they suffered. The German Americans that were able to stay in their homes were discriminated. Having lost their jobs, many struggled for survival. In many places intolerance for German immigrants were so strong that they weren't allowed to shop. They were treated with suspicion and often false trials condemning them of treason were held. In the years directly following the Pearl Harbor attack the effect was obvious, in society's actions to the German Americans and the setback of equal civil rights for all men. The other western countries followed the example set by the economical capital of the time. Throughout the world Germans were feeling the effect of their rise to power, and ensuing fall. However, the act sparking the most intense discrimination was the attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany's subsequent declaration of war, and mistrust of fellow countrymen by Americans.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor, and subsequent acts of African American military personnel, positively changed society's view of Black Americans. The role that individuals played during the attack and the effort put in afterward, by the 761st tank battalion and other units made purely of Negros, promoted a feeling of unity within the United States. Doris Miller, a black American, serving on the USS West Virginia was roped into carrying wounded and manning anti-aircraft machines, when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor. His brave efforts were awarded by a Navy Cross, the second highest military medal, making him the first decorated Black American soldier in US history. The man who presented Miller with his award, C W Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific