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Japanese Internment Camps
After the US was bombed at Pearl Harbor, Japanese internment camps (also called War Relocation Camps by the US government) were set up in parts of Canada and the US. Thousands of Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians were relocated to these internment camps, which were disbanded in 1945.
484 Questions
Why did roosevelt decide to move people to Japanese ancestry to internment camps?
Franklin Delano Roosevelt intention with the Japanese internment was to round up and control all persons of Japanease ancestry in the USA, after Japan attacked the USN fleet at Hawaii, on December 7th, 1941. This was because of a fear that these person might do acts of sabotage, such as setting fires, or attacking civillians. They were collected and shipped to isolated camps in the mountains, or the desert, men women and kids, all together. Some camps had up to 10,000 people in them In actual fact, the Japanese-Americans proved to be very loyal and when they were given the chance to become American soldiers they fought well, but not in the Pacific theatre. They all served in Europe, far from Japan.
What was the date on which the Japanese entered the internment camps?
See website: Japanese-American internment camps.
Why were the Japanese interment camps establish?
The American government feared that Japanese-Americans could spy for the Imperial Army, so they held them in internment camps.
As to why the government feared that Japanese-Americans would spy, it came down to racism. Asians were viewed with much more suspicion and were considered a lesser race at the time. Which was completely unfounded, but it was the attitude the mostly-white US at the time. (As a note, remember that there were actually far more German- and Italian-Americans in the United States at the time, none of whom were interned in camps).
Could a situation such as the internment of Japanese Americans of World War 11 take place today?
Could a situation such as the internment of Japanese Americans during World War 11 take place today? If so,under what circumstances? If you do not feel this could happen,explain why.
How were the people treated inside the internment camps?
Not good. There were 10 interment camps located in 7 states. Depending on the location within that state would depend on how hot it got in the summer or how cold it got in the winter. Over 120,000 Japanese of American descent were interred in these camps. They were housed in tar paper covered wooden framed barracks with no modern plumbing or cooking facilities, they were heated with pot bellied stoves. Latrines were used for toilets (try using one of those on a cold winter day). Mess halls were where they ate. The one near Delta, Utah (Topaz, opened Sept., 1942) housed 8,000 internees (overcrowding). It had extreme heat of 100's plus in summer and below freezing temperature in the winter. The camps were closed after the war and the last one closed in 1946.
Why were thousands of US citizens put in an internment camps during World War 2?
Fearing that Japanese living in the United States would help Japan, the government gathered up almost 120,000 Japanese-Americans and resident Japanese aliens and placed them in internment camps. Some people remained in the camps for over three years.
What year were the Japanese released from the internment camps?
The camps were dissolved over a period of many months from April to November, 1945 and some individuals (non-US citizens) remained in the camps as late as April, 1946 pending deportation to Japan.
In January, 1945, the US Supreme Court upheld the exclusion of Japanese-Americans from military zones, but ruled that US citizens of Japanese descent could not be detained in camps.
What happened to Australian POWs in Japanese camps?
Australians had the highest survival rate of all the allies held by the sadistict japanese. Even though they had the highest survival rate, only six people survived in the Sandakan Death March.
Where were the internment camps located in the US during World War 2?
In the US, there were three types of "internment camp": WCCA Civilian Assembly Centers, WRA Relocation Centers, and the DOJ's Internment Camps. The Pacific coastal states of California, Oregon, and Washington had quite a few camps, but there were also camps in New Mexico, Texas, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana.
See the related Wikipedia link listed below for more information:
In the consintration camps for the Japanese hjow many died?
During the Holocaust there were absolutely no concentration camps that were for anyone else except for the Jews.
Answer:
Although not identified as concentration camps for Japanese immigrants to the US and Canada, several thousand citizens of Japanese origin had their property seized and were relocated to locations under strict government control. Similar camps were set up for citizens of other ethnic origins.
Data on the number of deaths at the camps are hard to determine. It is usually stated that "some" died due to harsg treatment and emotional and physical stress.
How many Japanese people were killed in the concentration camps?
None. Before and during World War Two, Germany operated what is called 'Concentration Camps'. During the war these German concentration camps became mostly extermination or death campsdesigned to murder the inmates, primarily Jews. Some camps also sent out inmates to be used as slave labor. All the German camps were operated in total violation of international law and well outside all standard norms of behavior. Japan was an enemy of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth countries, China and several other countries. Japan was an ally of Germany during the war. The Germans did not put the Japanese in these concentration camps. In the United States, many Japanese were placed in either 'Internment Camps' or 'Relocation Centers', depending on their legal status. Both types of camps or centers were operated in accordance with international law. Those foreign nationals from enemy countries (in the US when the war started) were interned in the Internment Camps only as long as the war lasted, and were freed at the end of the war. In some instances internees were repatriated (returned) back to their home country during the war, in exchange for US citizens being held in enemy countries. No internees were killed by the US.Japanese-Americans, either US citizens or Resident Aliens, were sent to US Relocation Centers, only if they lived on the west coast of the continental United States. After arriving at the camp they were free to leave to any part of the United States, except the "west coast exclusion zone". No Japanese-Americans were killed at relocation centers. Unfortunately there are many myths and misconceptions about the relocation and internment of Japanese in the US. Japanese-American citizens and legal aliens were not relocated from Hawaii, the mid-west or the east coast of the United States. Only those living in the west coast areas were subject to this government action. This government action was upheld by the US Supreme Court upon a legal challenge. There was a great deal of mistrust of the Japanese & Japanese-Americans. Many Japanese-Americans openly voiced support for Japan against the US. Secret 'MAGIC' intercepts of Japanese diplomatic coded traffic by the United States government revealed that many Japanese-Americans were assisting the enemies of the United States. The US government was not able to determine all the details of which persons were traitors, so many remained under suspicion. Japanese-Americans were released from these centers based on various criteria, some well before the end of the war, others later near the end. Most of the Japanese-Americans that were in these centers the longest were from families that were unwilling to swear allegiance to the United States. They were allowed to leave if the joined the US military, or to go to college, or to temporarily move to the areas outside the 'exclusion zone'. The exclusion zone was removed shortly before the end of the war. Any people still in the relocation centers was free to return to their west coast homes.
Was the treatment of Japanese Americans in the internment camps reasonable?
That is a question that can only be answered as a personal opinion rather than a definitive response. IMO, it was indeed wrong as the vast majority of the internees were American citizens who were guilty of absolutely nothing. They were also forced to forfeit their businesses and land holdings, albeit later a pathetic show of reparation was made by the U.S. government. Many of the internees later renounced their American citizenship in protest. There were other nationalities interred as well such as German and Italian, but not in the same large number. Canada also had internment camps established in British Columbia for persons of Japanese origin.
Why did Japanese Americans get sent to internment camps?
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, it was widely believed that Japanese citizens would somehow sabotage the war effort or begin spying (supposedly in hope of establishing the Japanese Empire in the US).
Politicians took this one step further and separated those of Japanese descent from the rest of the populace, to prevent what they thought might happen.
The Japanese were very active in the Pacific from the early 1900s with the backing of Britain, US and etc. After the massacres the Japanese Imperial Empire did to the Pacific continent the Countries backed out for their support of the expansion of the Japanese empire. Come 1942 when Pearl Harbor was attacked, it was easily conceived that Japanese American sleeper cells could have been in place for years.
The paranoia of a sleep-cells, the fact that the Japanese were out to conquer at whatever cost, the American government saw enough possibilities of Japanese infiltration as American citizens that they felt they had no choice but to take no chances and lock up the Japanese Americans.
National Security
It was not the fact that it was war it was the fact that the Japanese were so efficiently conquering that they US did not take the chance of trusting its own Japanese American citizens.
On a lighter note, the biggest farm owner in Colorado is Japanese and the Japanese have a wonderful life in Colorado and Southern California.
The country did make it easy for these victims to move and live in these areas however all their previous homes and businesses were taken away.
What happened once the Japanese were in the Internment camps?
Most camps were very hard to live in. People had small houses that could have anywhere from 1 to 3 families living in them. Most camps had very little food that was given out to people in very small amounts for 48 cents per meal. Because of this, many people were malnourished.
When they were brought to the camps, they could only bring what they were wearing and what they could carry. Many lost possessions and many could not keep their homes or farms.
Compared to POW Treatment
Nobody was tortured in the US camps where Japanese people were held during the war. Nobody was beaten to death, nor were they forced to work as slave labour. Nobody was executed for being "lazy". Nobody went blind from vitamin deficiency, or lost a leg to gangrene.
The American, British, Canadian, Australian, and Indian soldiers who were prisoners of the Japanese government WERE beaten to death, and starved to death, and worked to death, and so were the civilian women and children that were also captured by the Japanese army. The difference in treatment was huge and the number of western POWS who died in Japanese camps was a disgrace.
And here is more input:
- I don't recall ever hearing that anyone was close to starving in the "camps"; sounds like an exaggeration. However, these internment camps were surrounded by barbed-wire fences and guard towers. There were armed guards. The barracks were hastily-constructed tar-paper covered structures with multiple families assigned to live together with no privacy. Meals were eaten in mess halls. Toilet facilities were in a separate building, with no partitions between them. Yes, if you're going to compare prison camps, conditions for the Japanese-Americans during WWII were not as bad. They made the best of their forced situation by trying to create a sense of normalcy with sports and dances for the kids. But the American government had every reason to make apologies to the internees, many of whom were US citizens deprived of their legal rights. Many lost their homes and businesses. Higher education and career paths were interrupted or abandoned due to the circumstances. They were looked upon as traitors in their own country, where not even a single incident of treason was found to be committed by Japanese Americans.
- 62% of the people held in the Japanese concentration camps were United States Citizens. They were not soldiers sent to our country to kill us unlike the people held in internment camps in Japan. You can try to deny this fact but they definitely weren't there to serve them milk and cookies.
The United States government actions were un-American and more importantly unconstitutional, regardless of the ruling of Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black.
- They internees did have small portions, but the only reason people died was of poor sanitation and lack of the proper nutrients in the food.
- While the living conditions were austere, the Japanese Americans certainly were not treated inhumanely in respect to food. In fact they were allowed to eat in dining halls spread out within their blocks, and they were even allowed to utilize more than one dining facility if they desired. In respect to the above writers contention that 48 cents per meal was near starvation levels one needs to consider that in 1942 $19 per month was considered a pretty fair wage and that a good breakfast in a restaurant cost 35 cents. Every Japanese Internee was offered a job if they could work and room and board were not taken out of their wages. Every camp had a hospital which was on par with hospitals located in combat to soldiers and sailors, so the contention that internees expired due to lack of medical attention is also meritless. These facilities were so good in fact that local municipalities competed for their equipment at the end of the war. When one attempts to make a comparison with the conditions that Americans and other national lived under in both the German and Japanese POW camps abroad is not a feasable argument either and cheapens the suffering of the Holocaust by a wide margin.
- There is always the condition of not being able to become a doctor, of not being able to fullfill your dreams. And once those camps were done, there were still the ramifications of being a Japanese American, of not having been trusted as loyal. The condition of the camps was still the condition of being trapped someplace, imprisoned without having comitted a crime. Whether other people suffered more or not, doesn't mean that it wasn't suffering to be ripped away from your friends and school and home. FDR had good reasons, that doesn't mean that it was fair to these Americans.
- It is true that during the war, a number of Japanese-Americans could not get livesaving medical care because they were not transported to hospitals outside the camps. They could not visit their families in other camps, and had little or no contact with non-Japanese friends. Although the camps did serve to reduce bloodshed from racial incidents, the internees were essentially deprived of control over their own lives for up to 4 years. The wartime propaganda campaign deemed all Japanese to be not just un-American, but inhuman, and this was reinforced by wartime atrocities. However, as shown by the combat valor of Japanese-American soldiers, the families of these immigrants were just as loyal as German-Americans and Italian-Americans.
What are Japanese American interment camps?
Japanese internment camps were meant to house any Japanese Americans whom "posed a threat" to the American Government or people during WWII. Though this sounds innocent, the Americans took total liberty in putting any Japanese they could get there hands on in there.
What group was placed in internment camps in the US during World War 2?
I think you are referring to the WWII Japanese internment camps. After Pearl Harbor, it was thought that Japanese-American citizens could not be trusted, so they were rounded up and forced to live at various "camps" around the U.S. until the war was over. See the Related Links below.
Were Italians held in internment camps during World War 2?
*Yes Italy did have concentration camps... here is a link to some but you will have to scroll down past camps in Germany. http://www.dpcamps.org/dpcamps/italy.html *Yes. One of the most famous ones was Riseria di San Saba.
What did the people in Manzanar Internment camp eat?
most camps served the Japanese fruit syrup poured over rice, stew, and organ meats such as kidney, heart and liver.
How many Japanese Americans died in internment camps during World War 2?
Over 200 People died. Its was a Very sad and horrid thing for America the Great to do! :( Lets NEVER do this again!
According to documentary information on History Channel not many POW's taken by the Japanese came out alive and they were treated very badly. The Germans treated POW's better if they played by the rules.
2nd Answer:
The question is, how many of those who died would have died, anyway, had they been left in their homes and hometowns? Certainly, a good number of them were sick to begin with, or were very old. In fact, the records of that time show that the Japanese, German, and Italian interns died at about the same rate as the rest of American people, and of the same things. The 82,000 Japanese interns that survived were paid $20,000 each for them or for their descendants to a total of $1.6 billion.
Also, there was never an order to intern all Japanese Americans. The order was to keep them out of sensitive military areas, and areas where sabotage would be easy for them to accomplish. The Army interpreted the entire West coast as a sensitive area. Tens of thousands of Japanese Americans had to endure moving away from the sensitive areas. Those who refused were interned.
Also, let's not forget the thousands of Italian and German Americans who were sent to internment camps, mostly in Montana and Texas!!
In some ways, the prisoners of the Germans were treated worse than prisoners of Japan.
On the other hand, some 20,000,000 Russian soldiers and civilians died in WWII, compared with 6 million German soldiers, a couple million Poles, at least 6,000,000 Jews, 407,000 Americans, and 387,000 from the United Kingdom. Heck, Stalin ordered millions upon millions of his own Russian countrymen executed.
Only the countries of Iran and Turkey had fewer people killed in the war than the number of interned Japanese American who died of various non-war causes. For that matter, more Japanese American soldiers were killed while defending America than were lost in US Japanese internment camps. I honor them.
The marvelous thing was the extremely LOW Japanese American intern death rate.
What was a Jewish relocation camp?
They were basically concentration camps. The Nazi's first started moving or relocating Jews and others to different areas. Kind of the like what the Americans did to the Indians. These relocations camp soon where not just a new home to Jews they were their last homes. Many died relocating, being worked to death, and just being murdered because the Nazi's wanted to.
AnswerThey were basically concentration camps. The Nazi's first started moving or relocating Jews and others to different areas. Kind of the like what the Americans did to the Indians. These relocations camp soon where not just a new home to Jews they were their last homes. Many died relocating, being worked to death, and just being murdered because the Nazi's wanted to.Why were Internment camps set up for Japanese Americans?
Japanese and Japanese Americans living on the US west coast were placed in internment camps on the claim that spies and sabatouers could be hiding among them.
Since Japanese and Japanese Americans living in Hawaii and in the US east of the Mississippi were not forced into camps, and since no American citizens of German or Italian descent were placed in internment camps, the actual reason is more likely related to racial stereotypes and anti-Japanese hysteria.
Which camps were both labor and death camps?
In this answer the term death camp is taken to mean extermination camp, and not simply a concentration camp with a high death toll.
All extermination camps used some inmates as labourers to help with corpse disposal and some other tasks.
There were two dual camps of this kind:
Auschwitz - A part of Auschwitz-Birkenau (also referred to as Auschwitz II) was an extermination camp, while Auschwitz I, III and the satellite camps were extremely harsh concentration camps.
Majdanek - This camp was one of the very worst camps. It was both a very harsh concentration and it alsohad a section that was used for extermination.
When were internment camps established?
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, anti-Japanese politicians and writers suggested that a credible threat of espionage and sabotage existed, and convinced President Franklin D Roosevelt that people of Japanese descent presented a threat to the military security of Hawaii and of the US west coast. He issued an executive order, and more than one hundred thousand people were forcibly relocated to the "War Relocation Camps". It is now widely held that this was a huge mistake, based largely on racial bigotry; and in 1988 Congress passed legislation apologizing on behalf of the US government. Even at the time, many Americans protested that the process was wrong. FBI Director J Edgar Hoover, a staunch defender of US security, opposed the internment following exhaustive investigations; and US Justice Department officials reported at the time that the justifications were based on "willful historical inaccuracies and intentional falsehoods."
Why did the US place Japanese citizens in internment camps?
The Japanese government was so deceitful in the way they set up the U.S. for the Pearl Harbor bombing that it was difficult for the country to trust Japanese immigrants. Japanese diplomats were in the middle of peace talks and giving assurances that they had no intention of taking over Hawaii when they bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. The U.S. had been suspicious before then since Japanese troops had taken several other Pacific Islands, but Japan was very convincing in their efforts to assure U.S. politicians that there would be no attack.
On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, when the nation was told that Pearl Harbor was being bombed, there was an immediate suspicion of everyone who looked Japanese, much as there is now suspicion of anyone who looks Middle Eastern. Only back then there was no effort to convince people that not all Orientals were trying to kill Americans.
It was a different, less enlightened time.
The belief was that if the nation could keep the Japanese away from anything critical to the nation, we wouldn't have to worry about what they would do if they were lying to us as the Japanese Government had done.
