Background
- After the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), fear of espionage and racial prejudice led to widespread suspicion of people of Japanese ancestry throughout the Americas.
- Governments across the hemisphere responded with internment, deportation, and property confiscation, often justified as security measures.
- These actions reflected both wartime paranoia and pre-existing anti-Asian sentiment, revealing racial inequality in democratic societies.
Definition
Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941)
- On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Japanese Americans
- In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, allowing the military to remove people from designated “military zones.”
- More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from the U.S. West Coast to War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps.
- About two-thirds were U.S. citizens, known as Nisei, while the rest were Issei (Japanese-born immigrants denied citizenship).
- Families were confined in isolated camps such as Manzanar (California) and Topaz (Utah) with poor living conditions and limited freedom.
- Korematsu v. United States (1944) upheld the legality of internment, though it was later condemned as unconstitutional.
- Many internees lost homes, farms, and businesses due to forced sales or confiscation.
- The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 formally apologized and granted reparations to surviving internees.
Definition
Executive Order 9066
- Law authorizing the removal of Japanese Americans from military zones.
