"...the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities..."
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Executive Order No. 9066 ("EXECUTIVE") Japanese-American onion farmer in Los Angeles County, CA. April 1942 ("Civil Rights")
First graders, some of Japanese ancestry, pledging allegiance to the American flag at Weill Public School, San Fransisco, California ("San Francisco, Calif., April")
"If all the Japs were removed tomorrow, we'd never miss them in two weeks, because the white farmers can take over and produce everything the Jap grows. And we don't want them back when the war ends, either."
- Grower-Shipper Vegetable Association ("Miller") "The great cry of 'Kick the Japanese out of the Yakima Valley' is not due to fear of sabotage, it is due to economic reasons."
- California Attorney ("Miller"). A Japanese farmer and his daughter view the strawberry farm they must leave on Bainbridge Island, in Washington, on March 23, 1942. ("World")
"Before the loan arrived, Manhichi was sent to the Walerga Assembly Center [a minimum security prison]. The Caucasian . . . returned the loan to the Farm Security Administration, clearing himself of his debt. . . . To this day, my dad never received a penny from that particular sale."
- Mr. Manhichi, a victim of government supported sale of Japanese-American property ("Miller") John Tateshi, a member of the Japanese American Citizens League, and a formerly interned Japanese American, reflecting on the passage of the Civil Liberties Act ("Qureshi")
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The internment of Japanese-Americans has been called the greatest case of racial-profiling in U.S. history ("Dresner"). The question is, was the U.S. government justified, and did it have the legal authority to imprison over 110,000 American citizens on the basis of their ancestry?
Obviously, the United States was taking war-time measures to prevent a possible Japanese-American led insurrection in the midst of one of the greatest wars in American history. To the United States, World War II was a great event in which every precaution should be taken to help the war effort. Whether or not the forced incarceration of 110,000 American citizens helped the war effort or not is highly debatable. In the words of the U.S. government under Executive Order No. 9066, "the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities" ("Executive Order"). The fact is, no concrete-evidence had existed up to that point of any Japanese-American disloyalty to the American government ("Japanese-American"). President Franklin D. Roosevelt had based his Executive Order solely on bad advice and popular opinion ("Japanese-American"). Another question exists towards the government internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, which is, if the ancestral descendants of the Axis powers present a national security risk, why weren't all Axis descendants interned? In other words, why were the Japanese-Americans the sole recipients of forced government incarceration in the name of national security? In a land in which equality is stressed, wouldn't one be predisposed to believe that equal treatment would mean that a specific group of people should not be picked on by the government? If the government truly believed that Japanese-Americans presented a national security risk on the basis of their ancestry, true government responsibility should have entailed equal treatment of all Axis power descendants, including the Germans and Italians. Evidence suggests that the forced internment of 110,000 Japanese-Americans was not political at all, but rather economically motivated, and was not a just act of government responsibility. Instead, the internment of Japanese-Americans may have been a government abuse of power, directed at removing the wealthy Japanese-American plantation owners from the West Coast, and giving their land to white farmers hungry for new lands. By 1942, Japanese-American farmers were responsible for 40 percent of all vegetables grown in California, and nearly 100 percent of tomatoes, celery, strawberries, and peppers ("Hansen"). They were the largest force in California's fruit and vegetable markets, with a per acre value of $279.96, in contrast to the average value of $37.94 for all California farms ("Miller"). The Farm Security Administration (FSA), which was charged with confiscating or selling Japanese farm holdings, had registered over 6000 farms totaling approximately 200,000 acres ("Hansen"). According to the Grower-Shipper Vegetable Association, "If all the Japs were removed tomorrow, we'd never miss them in two weeks, because the white farmers can take over and produce everything the Jap grows. And we don't want them back when the war ends, either." ("Miller"). Obviously, white farmers stood to gain much from the internment of the rich Japanese-American farmers, which they would pursue. In fact, the FSA received applications to acquire vacated farms from more than 2000 farmers ("Hansen"). More than 1000 Japanese farms, totaling 50,000 acres, would be transferred to new owners during March 1942 ("Hansen"). Clearly, the the largest drive towards Japanese internment was by white farmers desiring Japanese-American land. Put by one prominent California attorney, "The great cry of 'Kick the Japanese out of the Yakima Valley' is not due to fear of sabotage, it is due to economic reasons." ("Miller"). At some point, it can be presumed that the government was pressured by these white plantation owners, as put by the Japanese-American Citizens League in Seattle, which reported that reported "agitation being conducted by interests which would profit from removal of Japanese." ("Miller"). To make matters worse, the U.S. government actually assisted white farmers in the West Coast to acquire property of Japanese-American competitors for little to no charge ("Miller"). The United States government, through the Farm Security Administration, would supply "special loans" to white farmers, and upon finding a Japanese-American about the be interned, supply the white farmer with the loan ("Miller"). The white farmer would purchase the Japanese-American farm, and immediately after, that Japanese-American would be interned, preventing any money from reaching the Japanese-American for the sale of their farm ("Miller"). City real estate too was taken and wrested from Japanese-American ownership ("MIller"). At the war's conclusion, Congress permitted victims to seek compensation from the government, but failure to produce any documentary records demanded by the government was punishable by a $10,000 fine and five years imprisonment ("Miller"). Victims who had already lost thousands of dollars and several years of liberty to the federal government did not rush to take advantage of the offer, as terms were unfair and harsh if done improperly ("Miller"). The US government had again shirked its responsibilities and abandoned any hope of helping Japanese-American citizens. In 1988, the US government, under the direction of Ronald Reagan, signed the Civil Liberties Act, compensating the more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans that were interned during World War II ("Qureshi"). Apologizing for past actions on the behalf of the United States, Reagan allotted $20,000 for each surviving member of Japanese-American internment ("Qureshi"). Finally, the United States government had taken a step forward in atoning for its past mistakes, and taking full responsibility for its actions. Much of its success in passage is owed to the courageous and steadfast political campaigning of the Japanese-American community, such as those represented under the Japanese American Citizens League ("Qureshi"). Thanks to righteous government responsibility and a humility to apologize for its actions, justice was finally achieved as a small but sufficient monetary compensation was paid. |