Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:43 pm Post subject: Dear Miss Breed
It was necessary to isolate an immigrant minority in order to protect the majority of American citizens.
I'm not really sure that this isolation was necessary. It seems that the isolation only worsened the stereotypes and discrimination against Japanese immigrants. In the letters written to Miss Breed, it seemed that one of the problems was the separation from their homes in America were a big problem for the immigrants. This alienation and separation from their normal lives, reminded me of the Holocaust, obviously not to the same degree. But with the profiling and discrimination of the Japanese. Propaganda and alienation against the minority. It seems weird that there wasn't any isolation of any German or Italian immigrants. Was this just because the Japanese had been the ones to attack Pearl Harbor? Was it because there were more Japanese immigrants in America so they could have been more of a threat?
I think that the isolation of a minority was important in order to protect a majority of americans, but the way that it was executed was unjust. I think that America should have put more effort into determining who deserved to be in these "relocation" camps. One negative thing that they brought about was the unreasonable discrimination against a large portion of the Japanese people. Unfortunately, I dont see that not being the case even with a more selective process, but I also see this as being a by-product of war. Meaning that even without the camps there still would be that problem of racial profiling against the Japanese. All in all, i think that with a more selective process the "relocation" camps would do more good than harm for the American people.
In response to dakota's questions, In 1942 approximately 92,000 were Japanese, 315,000 were German, and 695,000 were Italian, referring to the number of enemy aliens in America. Based on these numbers I would have expected that the "relocation" of Japanese people would have been less severe, but in reality it was on a much larger scale than for other nationalities. I attribute this to the direct attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. I believe that in the mind's of Americans, the Germans and Italians were our enemies, but they hadn't attacked us on American soil. Only the Japanese had done this, and because of it I think that the disposition towards Japanese people was greater.
First of all, thank you for reminding me about what a dick Dr. Seuss really was.
Anyways, back on topic. I think the internment was institutionalized racism that was getting extremely close to what was going on in Nazi Germany with the Jews and several other groups. At least nobody was getting killed, but it is appalling to think what lengths the war drove both sides to. The propaganda in the front entitled How to Spot a Jap was nearly identical to the hate getting spread around Germany at the same time. From the "Key words" section, it seems as if the only group that may be slightly more likely to commit any sort of heinous deed would be the Issei, and even then it is not because of their race, but the education they may have received in Japan may lead them to do something unfortunate. Even then, to send them to an internment camp, or whatever you prefer to call them, was an extreme action to the highest degree.
I would not think that it was a racist decision that the USA decided to have concentration camp for only Japanese people and not for Germans or Italians. Although it seems superfluous to say this, but American majority could have been in a lot of trouble had the government let the Japanese minority to stay in their neighborhood because any kind of Japanese terrorist attack was very well possible in such desperate situation for Japan to give damage to the USA.
From the reading, the word 'concentration camp' didn't seem to make much sense either, because Japanese peopel were not forced to give themselves up from the society but only were hold back from the society for a short period of time. It was mentioned in the letter that the food and the shelter was provided and that spacious rooms were offered to the Japanese people. As Issac had pointed out, Germany or Italia was too busy dealing with only european line during WWII; however, Japan had taken bold route and attacked the American soil. The USA got damage by famous Kamikaze, the suicidal mission granted to Japanese polits. This is why the government must have felt like Japanese people should be incarcerated because they might carry out potential Kamikaze attack on civilians.
Suchan, I love your point. I think that the easiest explanation for the singling out of the Japanese (though I am a bit confused about what happened to German and Italian Americans) is Eurocentrism, racial prejudice against those whose ethnic background corresponded with the only non-white Axis power. However, as Suchan said, it seems rather clear that there was a fear of the Japanese culture as well, that of Bushido, honor, etc. The fact that the Japanese had so quickly and so decisively spread through east Asia and the pacific, ousting well-established, imperialist European powers, must surely have given the sense that the Japanese army was unstoppable. In addition, if I remember correctly, there was an isolated incident, the Niihau incident, in which some Japanese gentlemen, perhaps born there perhaps not, I do not remember, helped an imprisoned Japanese soldier escape. While this is quite clearly not grounds for the internment of an entire ethnicity, one can understand that the combination of racism, fear of Japanese militarism, nationalism, etc, and the fact that the Japanese were the only member of the axis to directly attack American soil, led to a perfect storm of foolish, reactionary legislation.
I agree with Suchan and Hardy. The Japanese American incarceration by the United States during World War 2 was rather the prevention of domestic terror attack than racial discrimination. The attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan led to devastating consequences for the US: 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 men were killed and 1,282 wounded. The Kamikaze, suicide attacks by Japanese military pilots were unexpected and shocking.(The Kamikaze could be based on what Hardy mentioned, Bushido and honor) The US must have learned from the battle the possibility of Japanese spy’s existence and another cruel attack by loyal warriors its territory. In fact, as 1942 US Army and Navy educational comic strip, How to Spot A Jap, shows, it was not easy to distinguish Japanese immigrants from a great number of Chinese in the US. Furthermore, selecting Japanese immigrants from Japanese Americans was burdensome to the US when another war with the Empire of Japan was very imminent.
Much of what I found myself writing down in the margins of the reading has been said. I agree with Christopher, it seems as if the United States first began attacking the Japanese immigrants in fear of them influencing the democratic structure of America. Japan was in a very different political and economic state at the time, and the United States was afraid of the uncertainty that this could evoke. Race as a propaganda technique, as you see in the political comics in the Dear Miss Breed packet. While America had been exposed to some immigration, the America of this time is not the one that we see today. America was booming in industry, and if the government told people that someone was going to threaten this success, citizens would surely attack the blamed. The wealthiest people, who were most effected by this booming industry, were the ones with the most influence, and so the discrimination towards Japanese immigrants spread throughout the country.
Some of the images in the reading, like "How to Spot a Jap," and the cartoon by Dr. Seuss (!) suggest that the gathering of Japanese Americans away from the Pacific Coast may have helped protect the minority from the majority. Notice how all the camps were hundreds of miles away from the centers of Caucasian population. If the internment was necessary to advance the war, it was because the majority, who would not see the Japanese minority among them, would be less fearful and would and focus more on the business of fighting the war.
It seems that a big part of this policy was racial or ethnic fear and discrimination. But the discrimination had an odd twist. Thje Chinese, who had been heavily discriminated against for decades before the war, had suddenly become America's friends, so that even their pysical features were described positivelky, but the Japanese were given exaggerated slanted eyes and buck teeth grins, even by Dr. Seuss.
The internmenrt may have prevented a few episodes of Japanese American espionage and sabotage, but its main purpose was to control two populations, the Japanese and the Caucasians, who could have gotten into deadly conflict, or at least this may be what worried the American government.
I agree that the isolation was somewhat neccessary, since Japan was approaching the United States as a possible threat to the country and the people, and it was to protect the majority of the Americans. However, it is true that the Japanese immigrants were harshly treated. The conditions of the camps were not to an extreme severity, but they were not exactly a sweet home. The sense of being discriminated against, and having to be forced to be separated from their friends, must have been a great disappointment, especially to the children, as mentioned in the letters to Miss Breed.
While I can understand the decision to inter the Japanese in camps in the sense that its origins are comprehensible, I have an issue with the idea that it really made sense in terms of some need for America to protect itself. While a few Japanese people may have taken it upon themselves to commit acts of terrorism against Americans, the same could be said of any group of people with whom we have had a sort of conflict. I don't hear calls to isolate all shia afghani immigrants, and while I understand the circumstances were different it was war etc etc it doesn't sit well. Also from the readings it seemed like one of the major justifications was that the Japanese-Americans could be spies, but I don't see how anyone is going to gather information just by being assimilated into a culture and not physically removed. I feel like that requires a higher degree of infiltration or whatever you call it.
I look at this situation the same way I view the death penalty. I am not in support of the death penalty because even though without it, there are some people who (in my eyes) deserve the death penalty (like serial killers or something else horrific), are let back into society and repeat what they have done previously. Having said that, there is always a chance that innocent people convicted of crimes they had not committed be killed through the death penalty. There is no way to regulate the death penalty if passed, and will ultimately leave room to abuse such a sever punishment. This relates to the internment camps set up by the U.S for the Japanese-Americans. This measure probably prevented a few terrorist acts, but also ruined the lives of many innocent people. There is no way to deem any of the Japanese-Americans trustworthy or untrustworthy. In my eyes, there are too many innocent lives being ruined and I am therefore against both of them.
Joined: 15 Feb 2011 Posts: 7 Location: United States of America
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:49 pm Post subject:
This was certainly a radical response from the US government. While it could be conceivable that there might be some isolated terrorist activities, or even espionage, relocating an entire ethnic population at their own expense and inconvenience hardly seems like the best course of action. Instead of doing this, the US government could have saved billions of dollars, or put that money towards a more sensible solution like counter-espionage efforts on the west coast. Although there might have been a handful of Japanese-Americans who would plot against the government, most of the hundreds of thousands shipped off were innocent. In my eyes this whole incident was fueled more by racial prejudice (as shown in political cartoons, editorials, etc) than by a legitimate threat of anti-American activity.
I essentially agree with what everyone has said. I also thought that it was interesting that in the Dr. Seuss picture, where it says "The Honorable 5th Column," we discussed in class that buildings don't have fifth columns, so it is as if the way of Bushido and honor, something that is so valuable to a Japanese person is almost mocked and ridiculed. All of the Japanese people in the picture, whether it be men, women, children, looked exactly the same. The same hat, the same clothes and the same face. It is essentially saying that all Japanese people are the same and therefore every single one of them is responsible for Pearl Harbor. I actually don't think that it was necessary to Put the Japanese people in the interment camps, because as Dakota said, this only brought more stereotypes and hatred towards the Japanese. It definitely made life more difficult for those who made it out.
I don’t think the isolation was necessary. It was reasonable for the US to take this action but not totally acceptable. The internment camp was wanted but not needed. It did reassure the US’s concerns, but it couldn’t prevent future problems. For the Japanese in America, no matter issei, nisei, or sansei, the US was their future home. Actually, I think the internment might have done negative effects. If a Japanese is loyal to the US, wouldn’t the internment camp destroyed their trust for the US? If the US is going to suspect them no matter they are loyal or not, why bother keep believing in this country?
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