History Mini-Lesson of the Moment Vol. 2
Roosevelt’s List: The Japanese-American Concentration Camps
Take American history in the 20th century? You may only know the story because of your own curiosity. Take it in the 21st? The story to you was probably no more than a one-paragraph blip in the midst of your textbook’s World War II Unit.
Call them “internment camps,” call them “war relocation camps,” or call them “concentration camps” as many lawmakers of the time did - whatever the name, the result was the same: over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry living in the United States - the majority of them American citizens - were forced from their homes and imprisoned in barbwire fenced and military guarded camps during World War II.
The purpose of FDR’s so-called “wartime necessity” that was Executive Order 9066 was to rid the West Coast of any people who may have been sympathetic to the Japanese cause, with the Census Bureau illegally providing confidential information for their rounding up and imprisonment. Congressman John Rankin of Mississippi expressed a widespread sentiment when he said of the order: “I’m for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska, and Hawaii now and putting them in concentration camps. … Damn them! Let’s get rid of them now!”
While they certainly were not made for systematic slaughter like Nazi Germany’s concentration camps, many Japanese-American families who had been locked up lost their homes, personal possessions, pets, and vacant businesses during their up to four years spent in the camps. During this time, families were subject to military barrack style housing, described by the War Relocation Authority in 1943 as “tar paper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind.” Dusty from being in the midst of the desert - which was always either too cold or too hot - internees had access to camp schools, hospitals, and post offices, but were forced to abide by camp-determined curfews and share not only living quarters, but a mess hall, bathroom facilities, and laundry areas.
President Ford would make a proclamation in 1976 stating that “we have learned from the tragedy of that long-ago experience forever to treasure liberty and justice for each individual American, and resolve that this kind of action shall never again be repeated.” Yet, the U.S. government would not officially apologize until 1988, when President Reagen signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. This provided $20,000 in reparations to those still surviving who had been placed in the camps, due to the government’s “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership” during World War II.
Vol. 1: The Emerald Gem: Bare-Knuckle Boxing in 19th Century England
