Japanese Internment Camps Research Paper

1004 Words5 Pages
Japanese-Americans were one of the many discriminated during the second World War. Japanese-Americans are Americans who are of Japanese descent. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan, most Japanese-Americans were wrongly accused of remaining loyal to Japan. They were oppressed by the Americans, just because of their ancestry. They succumbed to the discrimination of Americans and the government by being forced to move to an internment camp, face the terrible conditions of the camps, and then many post war discriminatory problems after they were released. Japanese-Americans were forced to relocate into one of the ten internment camps. On February 19, 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order on the relocation of…show more content…
They stayed in military style barracks, and if the housing was not yet completed, then they would stay in temporary housing, such as a stable at a nearby racetrack. The camps were surrounded by barbed wire and armed soldiers, who would, if an internee tried to get away, shoot them. Instead of offering a sense of security, they seemed to be there as an intimidator. And in some records, there were cases of Japanese-Americans being shot for the simple act of resisting an order. The camps were often overcrowded, holding over 8,000 people. Internees shared a small space with many others, and no privacy was available. The food was produced in mass amounts, similar to army-style grub. It was usually served in a mess hall by fellow evacuees. Also in the mess hall was another 250-300 Japanese-Americans that were also there for the meal. Ricco Villanueva Siasoco and Shmuel Ross say in an article that “According to a 1943 report published by the War Relocation Authority, (the administering agency), Japanese Americans were housed in ‘tarpaper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind’” (“Japanese Relocation Centers”). The winters were very cold, and summers very hot. They had to sleep under as many blankets as they were provided. Eventually, the only way internees could leave was when the government decided to allow men to leave if they were to enlist in the army. Many of them felt that this was their chance to finally prove their loyalty to the U.S., because before they felt as though they were being accused of assisting Japan in bombing America. So, to prove their loyalty to the United States, some of the evacuees went into one of the two all-Nisei regiments. Many of them were killed trying to prove themselves, and maybe even their families as well. After facing so many problems in the concentration camps, the imprisoned
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