Executive Order 9066: Unjustified Lanz Domingo Humanities 11 Ms. Hou & Mr. Barclay 22 May 2015
Domingo 1 In the early 1900s, drastic changes in Japan s economy resulted into a storm of Japanese people migrating to United States seeking better economic opportunities and wealth. Some of them planned to permanently migrate and leave Japan. However, many Japanese, mostly young adult males, planned to only stay temporarily because they intended to fly back home once they earned copious amounts of money. As the population of Japanese people in the United States abruptly increased, several anti-japanese movements developed and expanded across western America. The main goal of the anti-japanese movements was to end the incoming tide of Japanese immigrants. Although these movements were unsuccessful to completely halt the immigration of the Japanese, they were able to provoke more people, involving few politicians, to hate the newcomers. Years later, the surprise attack of Japan s regime in Pearl Harbor triggered a dramatic growth of resentment against all the Japanese descent in America. Following the Pearl Harbor attack, the American military critically deemed all Japanese, whether alien or citizen, as a potential threat to the people of United States. Thus, the Executive Order 9066 was implemented by the government to discriminately exclude and imprison a hundred thousand innocuous people, merely because of their Japanese bloodline. Essentially, the long egregious history of racial prejudices against the people of Japanese descent pushed the American regime to discriminately incarcerate all Japanese in America. The immigration of numerous Japanese people to America was caused by the new Japanese government s attempt to practice modernization aiming for the growth of its antiquated country. The modernization involved the growth of business industries and armed forces, which was financially supported by the increased taxes of landowning people (Ng 2). Many farmers were forced to either sell or surrender their land to the government because they cannot afford to pay for it any longer. As a result, numerous farmers migrated to America seeking for
Domingo 2 better opportunities for themselves outside Japan. Between the years of 1885 and 1924, the bulk of Japanese immigrants came [to the United States]. This short time period of Japanese migration...gave the community distinct generational groupings (Ng 4). The first wave of immigrants were named Issei, which in English, translates to the first generation. Additionally, their children were called Nisei, which in English, translates to the second generation. The generation of Issei remained insular. Most Issei brought their customs, traditions and religions, which set them apart from the mainstream. These factors made them an easy target of racism (Brimner 14). As the number of Japanese in America had multiplied, anti-japanese movements were immediately established because most Americans perceived in the Japanese the same menace in the Chinese immigrants of 1850s. Unfortunately, most Americans did not differentiate Asian immigrants they were all deemed the same. Racism and other forms of resentment that had been around in the United States even prior to the great immigration of the Japanese, contributed to the rise of xenophobia. When the Chinese started rushing into the United States in 1850s, numerous Americans learned to despise the Chinese immigrants after a vast number of workingmen had accused the immigrants for stealing all the resources and jobs that were meant strictly for American citizens. Workingmen who hated Chinese people had formed some influential associations or movements aiming for the rescission of the Chinese immigration (Daniels 7). Eventually, in 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by the Congress, which completely ceased the immigration of people of Chinese descent. Based on statistics, the Japanese immigration began only after the 1882 act was approved in the Congress (Daniels 7). However, several anti-asian sentiments had revitalized to target the Japanese. Leaders of the crusades saw the Japanese as a similar threat in the Chinese workingmen; therefore, they immediately revived these groups to raise awareness about the peril
Domingo 3 of the Japanese in America. The racist sentiments of these anti-asian people were egregiously powerful and strong that even the political decisions were surprisingly influenced by racial belief. The decisions made by the government that were inspired by ethnic hatred had caused the Japanese Americans to experience harsh racial discriminatory orders and laws. The growth of xenophobia within the United States terribly influenced the state government s view towards the immigrants, which caused many state legislatures to politically attack the Japanese. The anti-japanese movements had played a fundamental role to the rise of xenophobia in the United States because they were able to persuade countless people, including the politicians, that the Japanese were are as dangerous as the Chinese. The millionaire mayor of San Francisco, James D. Phelan, attacked the immigrants with his speech stating that the Japanese are starting the same tide of immigration which we thought we had checked in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act; he went on to say, The Chinese and Japanese are not bona fide citizens. They are not the stuff of which American citizens can be made (Daniels 9). Mayor Phelan was not the only politician that had displayed hatred towards the Japanese Americans. Several state legislators on the west coast had also expressed an enmity towards the immigration of the Japanese. The politicians in California posed a racist sentiment against the immigrants from Japan after favoring the anti-japanese crusades with their resolution. They insulted the Japanese immigrants by deeming them as undesirable...to become Americans as mere transients [who] do not buy land a blight on the [state s] prosperity (Daniels 10). Despite the growing animosity in the United States, people from Japan continued to migrate to America. However, as their number constantly increased, the resentment towards them grew even more. The public had even demanded the government for something to be done about the Japanese problem within the United States (Brimner 13). The difficulties of the Japanese people being
Domingo 4 assaulted politically heightened when the state legislatures began posing laws that discriminated against them. Over the years of ever-growing xenophobia in the United States, the Japanese in America continued to experience more prejudicial treatment from the xenophobic Americans. The animosity had become increasingly rampant that it caused the Japanese people to be politically discriminated through the laws enacted by the United States legislatures. A law that discriminated not only against the Japanese, but also all Asian immigrants, was the Naturalization Act of 1790. It gave a guarantee of citizenship to free, white persons, but it discriminately rejected all the aliens and immigrants who were not a white descent from becoming a naturalized citizen (Ng 9). Nearly a hundred years later after the Naturalization Act was approved, legislators revised the statute and allowed the people of African descent and American Indian descent to become qualified for citizenship. However, only the Asian people were not eligible for citizenship because they were not considered in the category of free, white [persons] or African descent (Ng 9). The statute denied the rights of all Issei immigrants to become naturalized citizen solely because they were Asians and not white. Wendy Ng described the story of Takao Ozawa, an Issei who wished to acquire American citizenship, but he got rejected merely due to his ethnicity: In 1914, he filed an application for U.S. citizenship. His application for citizenship was denied because the court declared that Ozawa was in every war eminently qualified under the statutes to become an American citizen except that he was not white. Ozawa decided to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here, he told the Court that he was a true American...The Court handed down their decision. Ozawa was not entitled to naturalization citizenship simply because he was not Caucasian. (Ng 9)
Domingo 5 All the Issei immigrants, the first generation of Japanese foreigners, became politically powerless in the United States because they were considered aliens and ineligible to become American citizens, which led to further racial prejudice. Since they were powerless when the State legislatures started approving laws that discriminated against them, the Japanese community, especially the Issei, could barely do anything to prevent it. Thus, the racial prejudices against the Japanese Americans remained and became increasingly profound. The animosity had become more severe causing all Japanese immigrants and their descendants to be legally discriminated through laws enacted by racist legislators. Most of the discrimination against the Japanese Americans occurred along the western coast. A controversial incident occurred in California in 1906 when the San Francisco School Board mandated an order for the children of the Japanese race...to attend the separate Asian schools to which children of Chinese ancestry had already been relegated (Robinson 15). Because of the given order, ninety-three boys and girls of Japanese descent were forced to attend the city s Chinese school (Cooper 18). The board declared that their goal for the segregation order was to mitigate the overwhelming immigration of the Japanese (Robinson 15). This action was reported to the Japanese government, which triggered an outrage in their home country. However, it was resolved years later by the Gentleman s Agreement: An agreement between both the government of Japan and United States that rescinded the segregation order and limited the immigration of the Japanese to America. Although its goal was to mitigate the tension in the west coast, the discrimination continued to occur because the agreement did not resolve them; in some ways, it made them worse (Daniels 13). Subsequent to the segregation incident, another controversy occurred after the state politicians barred all the people born in Japan, who cannot acquire American citizenship, from possessing real property. Nearly all the Issei farmers and landowners
Domingo 6 lost their land after the California state legislature approved the Alien Land Act of 1913, which denied Asian immigrants who were ineligible for citizenship, from owning agricultural lands. Since the Issei immigrants were prohibited from naturalization, all Issei landowners in California were...forced to lease their farms, to rely on white friends or agents to hold their property for them as the legal owners (Robinson 23). These state and federal statutes that displayed racial prejudice and discrimination against Japanese descendants were the byproduct of the tremendous xenophobia across the United States. The surprise attack of the Imperial Japanese Army at Pearl Harbor propelled the xenophobia to its greatest pinnacle causing further racial prejudices directly against the Japanese people in America. The bombing created an irrational widespread hysteria and suspicion about the speculation that the Japanese in America posed a danger menace for America. In the weeks after the Pearl Harbor was bombed, Americans started to suspect the Issei and Nisei as cultural traitors who could not be trusted with anything of importance (Daniels 26). Even the military commander DeWitt and the Secretary of War Stimson do not trust the loyalty of the Japanese people, whether citizen or alien, because they both feel that an attack on the West Coast was imminent and that the Nikkei [All Japanese in America] would help the enemy (Oppenheim 41). DeWitt and Stimson s assumption was mainly based on rumors that were associated with ethnic hatred because all Japanese people living on the western America displayed behaviors that does not threat the national security. Naval intelligence officer, lieutenant commander Kenneth Ringle stated that after careful investigations on the west coast there was never a shred of evidence found of sabotage, subversive acts, [or] spying on the part of the Japanese people (Daniels 26). The attack of the Empire of Japan on Pearl Harbor caused many Americans to be
Domingo 7 terrified against the Japanese, because they believed that all Japanese in America were a menace for the nation s security. The Japanese people in America faced further prejudice treatment from the federal authorities after the United States Department of Justice attempted to eliminate and preclude the fabricated Japanese menace. The Japanese were treated prejudicially when the FBI agents were authorized to raid thousands of innocuous Japanese properties and homes, without the consent of the owner. The purpose was to investigate and confiscate all necessities and evidences that displayed threat against the security of America. Even though the agents found no suggestion of spying in any of the homes they searched, they arrested and sent several thousand Japanese people to faraway prison because the government said these people might be dangerous spies or saboteurs (Cooper 2). Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston was a seven year-old Nisei little girl back then when his father was arrested by the FBI agents. She recalled the moment when the FBI came to her home and took away her father. The federal agents sent Mr. Wakatsuki to Bismarck, where he was imprisoned with hundreds of other Japanese aliens (Cooper 3). The Japanese aliens that were put in prison were mostly Issei immigrants who were forbidden by the Naturalization Act to acquire American citizenship. Since the Issei generation were not and could not become American citizens the authorities deemed them all as enemy aliens (Daniels 49). For that reason the federal agents took and imprisoned all Issei Japanese aliens who are ineligible for citizenship solely because they were considered enemy aliens. The prejudice activities faced by the Japanese were the result of the government s attempt to do something about the peril of the Japanese. The mass hysteria across the United States caused the strong demand of the mass exclusion of all Japanese on west coast because the public were terrified of the speculated
Domingo 8 Japanese peril. The American public demanded for the total removal of anybody of Japanese ancestry, citizen or not living on the western coast for they posed danger to the national security (Brimner 13). Soon, several military authorities found the idea of the Japanese exclusion prudent because they believed that all the people of Japanese descent, whether immigrant or citizen, are dangerous and threatening to the safety of America. Military authorities like Lieutenant General John DeWitt wanted to exclude the Japanese aliens as well as U.S.-born Americans of Japanese ancestry because they considered all persons, whether aliens or citizens dangerous as potential saboteurs (Takaki 343). The Secretary of War Henry Stimson supported the mass removal of the Japanese aliens by justifying that their racial characteristics are such that we cannot understand even the citizen Japanese (Takaki 343). Even the Nisei Japanese, the second generation, were deemed threatening to the nation s security only because they were descendants of the Japanese immigrants. As a result, the military authorities included them to the planned removal of all people of Japanese descent. Dewitt believed that it was necessary for the Nisei Japanese to be excluded because the Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second and third generation Japanese born on United States soil the racial strains are undiluted (Takaki 344). Since all Japanese people were considered a threat for the safety of the United States, the American public and national authorities believed that the removal and incarceration of all people of Japanese ancestry were the best prevention for the Japanese menace. The assumption of the military authorities on the Japanese menace was primarily based on speculations and animosity towards the Japanese because the evidences recorded by the State Department of America did not match to their convictions. The head of the Western Defense Command General Dewitt and the Secretary of War Henry Stimson believed that the Japanese
Domingo 9 citizens and Japanese aliens posed a menace to the nation s security; however, the intelligence reports of the State Department counteracted their assumption. State Department representative, Curtis Munson was hired by the President to monitor Japanese Americans...and on the threat of Japanese-American disloyalty (Robinson 119). Munson wrote a 29-page report about the Japanese on west coast, which countered the conviction of the military officials. Munson wrote to the President that [t]here is no Japanese problem There will be no armed uprising of Japanese The Japanese are hampered as saboteurs because of their easily recognized physical appearance. It will be hard for them to get near anything to blow up if it is guarded ; rather, the Japanese [on the west coast are] almost exclusively a farmer, a fisherman, or a small businessman (Brimner 24). The Munson report proved that the Americans should not feel threatened by the Japanese because there is no Japanese menace. The report also proved the Japanese should not be considered as an enemy nor a threat to the national security. After the past years of racial prejudices activities against them, all persons of Japanese lineage faced the most devastating experience when the American regime passed the Executive Order 9066 that discriminately incarcerated Japanese immigrants and citizens. Thousands of civilians on the west coast were excluded from their homes and were incarcerated to faraway prisons by the American authorities solely because they were Japanese descent. All people of Japanese ancestry were...removed from California and were put somewhere else under guard the government confined [110,000] persons who were guilty of nothing other than being ethnically Japanese (Daniels 46). Although the Executive Order 9066 made no mention specifically on the removal and imprisonment of any particular race, it gave the military and war officials the authority to legally exclude and imprison any persons that are deemed dangerous (Takaki 344). When the order was signed by President Roosevelt and approved in the
Domingo 10 Congress, the military and war commanders legally imprisoned 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry alone. Even though the Executive Order was applied and implemented for all the civilians in America, the war and military authorities incarcerated only the people of Japanese descent. Subsequent to the approval of the order, the head of the Western Defense Command General DeWitt sought permission to use his powers under the order to exclude all German and Italian aliens that were deemed threatening to nation s security; however, the government declined to approve indiscriminate mass removal of any other group except for the Japanese (Robinson 128). Despite the number of German and Italian aliens deemed suspicious in the United States, the President did not approve General DeWitt s request to remove West Coast Italian and German Aliens (Robinson 111). The German and Italian aliens remained on the west coast while the Japanese people were sent to the faraway prison camps. Germans, Italians, and Japanese were all considered threatening by the national authorities to America s security; however, the Japanese descendants were the only ethnicity that were discriminately removed and incarcerated into prison camps. What propelled the United States government to exclude and imprison all persons of Japanese ancestry was the long atrocious history of racial discrimination in America directly towards the Japanese. The racial prejudices against the Japanese can be traced back in the early 1900s when their population in America started increasing. Anti-Japanese movements and sentiments were developed by Americans because they perceived the Japanese as a threat to America. The movements and sentiments were powerful enough to create a tremendous xenophobia in the United States, which led to further prejudicial treatment towards the Japanese. The animosity was so strong that it caused discriminatory laws to be enacted, which discriminated against the Japanese in America. The already atrocious xenophobia in the United
Domingo 11 States met its greatest pinnacle after the Pearl Harbor attack, which triggered mass hysteria in America. The severe hysteria on the Japanese menace triggered the strong demand for the mass removal and internment of all Japanese on the west coast. Eventually after the years of racial discrimination against them, the people of Japanese descent faced the worst disastrous experience after being removed and incarcerated by the xenophobic American regime. Ultimately, the heinous history of prejudices and discrimination towards the ethnic group of Japanese drove and impelled the American government to discriminately intern and imprison all persons of Japanese lineage in United States.
Domingo 12 Works Cited Brimner, Larry Dane. Voices from the Camps. New York: Franklin Watts, 1994. Print. Cooper, Michael. Fighting for Honor: Japanese Americans and World War II. New York: Clarion Books, 2000. Print. Daniels, Roger. Prisoners without Trial. New York: Hill and Wang, 1993. Print. Ng, Wendy. Japanese American Internment during World War II: A History and reference guide. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002. Print. Oppenheim, Joanne. Dear Miss Breed. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2006. Print Robinson, Greg. By order of the President: FDR and the internment of Japanese Americans. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003. Print Takaki, Ronald T. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston: Little, Brown, 1993. Print. Yancey, Diane. Life in a Japanese American Internment Camp. San Diego: Lucent Books Inc., 1998. Print