Japanese Internment Camps Research Paper

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Media Representation Versus Reality: Japanese Internment Camps Japanese Internment Camps were set up in order to relocate Japanese Americans who were suspected of being loyal to Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Propaganda in the form of newspapers, posters, and art work were displayed throughout the country to enhance the negative feelings toward Japanese Americans. Despite the airy reviews of the camps in newspaper articles from that time, the camps were actually very demanding on the mentality of those forced to live in them. Though at the time, the negative attitudes towards Japanese Americans seemed to be the result of the attack on Pearl Harbor, these feelings had been brought forth much earlier. From the time that Japanese citizens…show more content…
This article mentioned a man who called the “Japanese internment and prisoner of camps in the United States some of the cleanest in the world”. By describing the camps based on their cleanliness undermined the motive of the camps entirely, which was to punish Japanese Americans for simply being of Japanese relation. Also, though the camps may have been clean, they were lacking necessities, such as teachers for children and doctors (Sandler 74). There was suspicion that after the attack on Pearl Harbor all those of Japanese ancestry were supporting the enemy ("Praises Prisoner Camps.”). This is quite ironic considering that the unit that helped rescue Jews from the Nazi concentration camp , Dachau, was a Japanese American unit known as the 442nd Regional Combat Team (Sandler 5). This same article said that the internment camps were “particularly good, with none caring for more than 3,000 persons” "Praises Prisoner Camps.”). In reality there were more than 120,00 Japanese American forced into these camps. These people were all crowded together and were without many materials personal materials that they were forced to abandon when they were relocated to the camps (Sandler 50). The lower numbers printed in the newspaper made the camps seem less harsh to the other American people. Complete facts were omitted in newspapers in order to prevent excess morality questions. Newspapers…show more content…
Separating these Japanese American from the rest of society prevented them from being able to progress. Children lacked adequate education and when the people were finally released from the camps, they were unable to have successful lives (Sandler 84). It was even said that on the day that were allowed to finally leave the camp, it was raining and someone said that “even God was crying for them” (Brimner 46). Although each surviving camp member was awarded a certain amount of money, the family and time of those individuals cannot be given a monetary
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