Effects of WWII on Civil Liberties: Japanese Internment

DIRECTIONS: Read the historical background, view each document and answer the questions that follow the document on the Answer Sheet. 

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the invasion of the west coast of the United States was a serious threat. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that forced persons of Japanese ancestry into 10 internment camps. The Western Defense Command of the United States Army decided that the military situation required the removal of all person of Japanese ancestry from a broad coastal strip. In the weeks that followed, both 110,000 American-born and alien Japanese residents were moved to internment camps from the entire State of California, the western half of Oregon and Washington, and the southern third of Arizona. The internment camps were permanent detention camps that held internees from March, 1942 until their closing in 1945 and 1946. Although the camps held captive people of many different origins, the majority of the prisoners were Japanese-Americans. Life did continue behind the barbed wire though residents had been deprived of their most basic rights. Japanese Americans recreated a community structure that enabled them to live as normal a life as possible. All of the relocation centers operated farms, and the food grown was often exchanged between camps. These Americans suffered a great wrong. The American Civil Liberties Union called it 'the worst single wholesale violation of the civil rights of American citizens in our history.' The country made a big and tragic error in 1942, but we learned from our mistakes, so we won't make them in the future.
Source: Smithsonian National Museum of American History - A More Perfect Union: Japanese-Americans & the US Constitution

Map of Japanese Internment Camps

Japanese immigrants were concentrated in a few cities on the West Coast and worked in a only a couple of industries: fishing and intensive irrigation agriculture. The map shows where and what they were producing in agriculture.

1.  Why did the government place only the Japanese-Americans living along the west coast in internment camps?

2.  What kind of farms did the Japanese own in California?

3. What happened to these farms when the Japanese-Americans were relocated to camps?

4. What civil liberties or individual freedoms did the Japanese-Americans lose when they were relocated into the detention camps?

5. How would you describe the living conditions at the internment camps?

Read paragraphs 2 and 3 of Lt. General L. T. DeWitt's letter of transmittal to the Chief of Staff, US Army, June 5, 1943, of his Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942. Answer the following questions.

6. Why did the US government feel they had to intern the Japanese-Americans?

7. Why didn't the US government intern Germans and Italians living in America?

Read the poem, That Damned Fence  - Anonymous Poem that Circulated at the Poston Internment Camp and answer the questions below.

8.  How did the Japanese-Americans feel about being imprisoned in the Internment camps?

9.  What phrases in the poem let you know how they felt about being at the camps?

Critical Thinking Directions

• Write a well organized essay that includes a strong introduction, body (topic and closing sentence for each paragraph), and conclusion that analyzes and interprets the assigned task Follow the RUBRIC when writing your report

• Use the information from the documents and the answers to the questions to support your response

• Do not simply repeat the contents of the documents

• Include details, examples or reasons to develop your ideas

• Utilize specific related outside information (your knowledge of social studies)

World War II changed the lives of everyone living in the United States. Write an essay explaining what happened to American-Japanese citizens in the USA during WWII?

Explain why you agree or disagree with what the US government did to the Japanese-Americans.  

The US is waging war on terrorism. Do you think they should intern all the Arab-Americans like they did the Japanese-Americans during WWII?