In the aftermath to the japanese attack on Pearl Harbor why did the US government decide to move japanese americans living in hawaii and on the west coast to relocation centers?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, racism was a huge part of United States history and Blacks were not the only race to suffer unequal and prejudicial treatment. Asian-Americans did not become accepted as "true Americans" until the mid-1960s. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, many Americans saw the Japanese-Americans as a fifth column. This meant that they viewed the Japanese-Americans as secret spies for Japan and inherently disloyal to the United States. Strangely, from a modern perspective, German-Americans, Irish-Americans, and Italian-Americans, who were much more vociferous opponents of US Military policy in World War II were not even considered for discriminatory treatment, showing that this boils down to racism and fear of Asians more than it does legitimate security concerns.

In order to deal with this perceived loyalty, the President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. This order was used to round up Japanese-Americans all along the Pacific coast (the largest area of Japanese-Americans in the United States) and place them in internment camps. In 1944, the US Supreme Court upheld the validity of the camps on the grounds of necessary military action. Surprisingly, the Japanese-American response was not to riot or protest, but to actively seek to assist the United States military in World War II. To "prevent" the Japanese-Americans from being in contact with other Japanese, most Japanese-American units were sent to the Italian Front, where some of them earned the highest amounts of commendations and medals. After the war, the Japanese-Americans were released from the camps without any property of money from which to make a living. However, many of them were resourceful and able to sustain themselves in the following decades.

In the 1980s, the US Federal Government admitted its wrongdoing and compensated every family that still had a surviving member from the internment camps for this violation of their civil liberties.

Answer 2

American politicians feared that Japanese-Americans would be more loyal to their own ethnic group and hence, to Japan, than they were to the country in which they lived, America. There was no evidence for this and it was undoubtedly wrong to send the Japanese-Americans to internment camps; it is a blot on American history that this was done.

They were scared that the Japanese had spys on the east coast.

Answer 3

The government feared sabotage from within the Japanese-American community, and perhaps cooperation with the Japanese if the Japanese invaded the mainland US. The Japanese never had any intention of invading the mainland US, but this was not understood amid the hysteria of the early months of the war. The government also offered the public excuse that it was for the protection of the Japanese because many Orientals had been attacked on the street by angry US citizens, without worrying if they were Chinese or some other Oriental nationality other than Japanese. The fear of sabotage was fueled by the fact that the "fifth column" had just helped Hitler take over Norway a year or two earlier, as Norwegian fascists treasonably plotted with the Germans to betray their own country.

Answer 4

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor (7DEC1941) many Americans became Xenophobic towards people of Japanese heritage. There were unreasonable fears that these people would aid the enemy (although no proof was ever put forward of treason). In fact, there were Infantry Regiments used in Europe that were made up of Japanese Americans, some whom were highly decorated.

Answer 5

Because everyone in the world at that time was incredibly racist, Americans included. If the people that attacked us were of the "Japanese race" then everyone of the "Japanese race" is our enemy, or so they thought. People on both sides of the war confidently expected people to take sides based on their race, not on their nationality. And perhaps there were some who would have done (as the activities of the German-American bunds attest) but not all.