For years, the Japanese had struggled to become an accepted race in the United States. Because the Japanese looked differently and spoke differently, Americans were hesitant in allowing them to become part of their society, least of all citizens. Years passed and finally Americans began to tolerate the Japanese living in the United States. However, on December 7, l941, this tolerance was ripped apart as Japan committed the unthinkable act of attacking Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Up until this point, the U.S. was not at war with Japan, but World War II had been raging in Europe for almost 2 full years. This attack caused the United States to declare war on Japan, and thus the United States was thrust into World War II.

Americans were both outraged and fearful. Old prejudices resurfaced, and Americans began to distrust the thousands of Japanese Americans that were living in the U.S. at this time, most of whom were living on the West coast. The attack sent a wave of terror through the Japanese American community. Japanese homes were being attacked, and beatings were reported on the California streets. The Issei, Japanese citizens living in America , were shocked at this treatment. At the same time, they were ashamed that their homeland had attacked the United States. Animosity in America grew, so on February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt ". . .giving the War Department authority to define military areas in the western states and to exclude from them anyone who might threaten the war effort." The West coast was considered a military area, and the Japanese-Americans were the threat. Thousands of West coast Japanese Americans, many of whom were U.S. citizens, were forced to leave their homes and most of their possessions, and move to a relocation camp simply because they looked like the enemy. This confinement was known as Internment.

The United States was not justified in imprisoning the Japanese Americans in camps during World War II.

Decades before World War II, anti-Asian attitudes were prevalent on the West Coast of the United States. In the early l900's, many Japanese workers arrived in California from Hawaii, attracted by higher wages. They came with very little money and purchased small plots of barren land in order to farm. The farms became profitable and began to provide vegetables and different types of berries to California. Americans became angered and jealous over the success of the Japanese. Not only did the Japanese improve the quality of farm products, but they were also able to keep the prices down. The Japanese were accused of taking the best farmland. They were also accused of discouraging " . . . our domestic labor market by working at subsistence wages." Because of their economic success and their yellow skin, many cities on the West Coast began to pass laws isolating the Japanese from the American society. These Japanese lived in separate neighborhoods and their American born children (Nisei) had to attend segregated schools. Pressured by this anti-Japanese attitude, the U.S. government was forced to get a "gentlemen's agreement" with Japan stopping Japanese men from coming into the U.S. followed by a "ladies agreement" prohibiting women from entering the United States.

In 1913, California passed the Alien Land Law of 1913 which stopped Issei from buying land and limiting their land leases in California. California finally succeeded in stopping Japanese immigration altogether when Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924. This stopped all Japanese immigrationto America. Furthermore, the United States stood firm and prevented the Issei from getting their American citizenship.

When World War II started, the Issei were living in our country for over fifty years, and they were still denied American citizenship. Mits Koshiyama's parents came to America in the early 1900's. She believed that they would have gotten their citizenship if they had been accepted into the American society. The Californians disliked the Japanese, and the government made many laws so her parents would stay aliens. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, American hatred for the Japanese was renewed. West Coast Americans now thought they were able to accomplish a long time goal; that is, to rid the West Coast of the entire Japanese population. The President, influenced by anti-Japanese attitudes, signed Executive Order 9066. Under the direction of military commander Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, thousands of Japanese American citizens and their alien parents were removed from "a military area" and sent to relocation camps. Two-thirds of the evacuees were American citizens, while the rest were the Issei who had been denied their U.S. citizenship. Not only was there no trial or hearing, but the Japanese did not even know what crime they had committed. These citizens of the U.S. were denied the rights described in the U.S. Constitution. The excuse to remove the Japanese-Americans from the West Coast was that it was a military necessity, and that they were considered a threat to national security. The U.S. was unsure of their loyalty. However , in 1942, American Intelligence stated that there were no convictions of espionage or sabotage by Japanese Americans living in the U.S. Then the government said that these Japanese Americans were put in relocation camps in order to protect them from anti-Japanese acts.

When the Japanese fleet was defeated by the U.S. Navy, which put an end to any threat of a West Coast invasion, it was obvious that the cause for internment was due to racism. Up until this point only about 17,000 Japanese-Americans were relocated ; however, 93,000 more Japanese-Americans were sent to the camps. Ironically, there were l50,000 Japanese Americans living in Hawaii that might have constituted a danger, but no evacuation had been ordered because they made up 40 percent of their population , and they were needed to work in their industries.

Mike Masaru Masaoka was hired by the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) to help the Japanese Americans who were to be relocated. He felt it was in their best interest to go along with the evacuation and detention plan because of the mood of the U.S. So anyone with one-eighth Japanese blood was to be evacuated and relocated into one of ten relocation centers that were located in Arizona, California, Arkansas, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, and Utah.

Most of the people that were interned were babies, school aged children, and the elderly. Many Nisei tried to destroy anything that showed they were of Japanese heritage so they wouldn't appear to resemble or be associated with the enemy. Mary Kageyania actually built a bonfire and destroyed stacks of sheet music that was written on rice paper because she was afraid that Americans might think it was a code. While the Japanese Americans were trying to dispose of their possessions, General DeWitt was putting an evacuation plan into motion. After a voluntary migration plan failed, because people in the inland states feared the Japanese, General DeWitt sent the Japanese Americans, against their will, to the relocation camps. When Hideo Murata, an Issei Veteran of the U.S. Army in World War I, was told that he would have to move, he thought it was a joke. When he realized he would have to move to a camp, he killed himself.

The relocation camps were supposed to be temporary sites and were located near cities that had a large Japanese-American population. They were built in mountain and desert locations so that the Japanese-Americans were isolated. Many families were separated during the relocation process. When the Japanese-Americans arrived at the camps in 1942, the camps were not ready for the internees nor were the internees ready for the camps. Old men left Los Angeles wearing Hawaiian shirts and Panama hats and were forced to live in an area much colder than California. There were continuous dust storms. The internees were forced to live in small barracks that had open ceilings and bare floors. Each barrack had six rooms, each measuring 20x25 ft. Drinking water was scarce and the food was inedible. Their only source of heat was a gas stove. They had no privacy as the barracks were separated by blankets, and the bathrooms were located outside. While the Americans were denouncing the Nazis for imprisoning the Jews in concentration camps, the Americans were imprisoning Japanese in camps.

The Japanese Americans tried to make their camps bearable. Since people had a wide variety of skills at these camps, they were hired to work. Top wages for the internees for skilled labor was nineteen dollars a month, an unskilled laborer started at eight dollars a month. Schools opened up at the camps, and the Japanese tried to live as normal a life as they could. Some violence broke out at camps, but the first major outbreak occurred in 1943 at all ten camps. The War Relocation Authority (WRA) decided to issue a loyalty questionnaire. Anyone in the camps over seventeen was required to answer it. The purpose of the questionnaire was to separate the loyal Japanese Americans from the disloyal ones. The loyal Japanese Americans would be allowed to leave the camps and resettle in the Midwest or eastern part of the U.S., or enlist in the U.S. military. The disloyal Japanese Americans would be moved to a harsher camp at Tule Lake in California. The problem with the questionnaire arose over two questions, number 27 and number 28. Question 27 asked if they would be willing to serve in the U.S. armed forces. Question 28 asked them to swear allegiance to the U.S. and renounce their Japanese citizenship. The questionnaire split the camps communities into two groups, the yes-yes group and the no-no group. Many Issei were both confused and resentful towards the questionnaire. A yes answer to question 28 renounced their Japanese citizenship, but since they could not become U.S. citizens, they would be a people without a country. The Nisei were angry because they were forced to choose between their country, the U.S., and their parents' country. Furthermore, the Nisei felt that they shouldn't have to answer the questionnaire because they were U.S. citizens, and they had broken no law. They did not feel that they had to take another pledge of allegiance after their rights as U.S. citizens had been taken away from them. Shi Nomura, who was a Nisei, said that her rights had been denied to her and her family and now they were being asked "...to prove our loyalty to a country that turned its back on us."

The questionnaire proved to be fruitless as a test of loyalty because many Japanese Americans based their answers on the effect it would have on their family. It was a bitter experience for Ben Takeishi and his family. He and his family answered no-no to the questions because they wanted to stay together as long as they could. They were all sent to Tule Lake.

Of the 75,000 adults that answered the questionnaire, only 8,500 answered no-no. This included 5,700 Nisei, who were American citizens. They renounced their U.S. citizenship because they had been imprisoned without a trial.

After the questionnaire had been filled out and loyal Japanese had been identified, an all Nisei military unit was formed by Secretary of State Stimson. President Roosevelt approved this plan, and he wrote that ". . . no loyal citizen of the United States should be denied the democratic right to exercise the responsibilities of his citizenship, regardless of his ancestry." This was less than a year after he signed Executive Order 9066. The all Nisei military unit, the 442 nd., ending up earning seven Presidential Distinguished Unit Citations and 18,143 individual decorations. Commander Stilwell praised the loyalty of the Nisei troops and said that no injustice should be done to these people.It would defeat the purposes of why they fought. It took blood to prove that Japanese Americans were as loyal as any other Americans.

By 1944, the American attitude towards the Japanese-Americans and the tide of the war had changed. Because of the accomplishments of the Nisei soldiers, the attitude of the American government began to change toward the Japanese Americans. By 1944 most of the loyal residents of the camps had been sent elsewhere to work. The only people that remained in the camps were the elderly and the children. General DeWitt was gone. At this point Attorney General Francis Biddle urged President Roosevelt to close the camps as they were dangerous to our American principles. On June 2, 1944, Harold Ickes also recommended that the camps be closed because there was no longer a danger to national security. He felt that exclusion was unconstitutional. Roosevelt did not act on their recommendations until he was reelected in 1944 because he felt the release of Nisei would anger Californians, and he needed their votes to win the election. One month after Roosevelt's reelection, the War Department announced that the internees would be free to return to their home states. This was ironic because in 1942 they were forced to go to the relocation centers and once they got used to the camps, they were forced to leave. The Japanese Americans were forced back to hostile environment. They were unsure of how their home states would react to their return. They feared physical violence and most had no homes to return to at this time. By March 21, 1946, all camps were closed.

Japanese Americans were innocent victims of racism. All of the protection of individual rights were ignored because the U.S. government said it was involved in a military crisis and the government acted on West Coast prejudices. The Constitution was violated because the Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes and relocate in prison camps. Most Japanese Americans went quietly to the camps, however over one hundred individuals protested because they felt their rights as citizens had been violated. They broke curfews and refused to leave the "restricted areas". Unfortunately, they were arrested and convicted. Many could not afford to appeal their cases due to lack of funds. Fortunately, four Japanese Americans were chosen as test cases by the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) to test the constitutionality of their forced evacuation and confinement .

The first case involved Minoru Yosui, who was a Nisei. Yosui was an attorney and worked for the Japanese Consul. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, Yosui was encouraged by his father to enlist in the U.S. military. His father, an Issei, was then taken to an internment camp. Yet Yosui reported to military duty but was not accepted because he was Japanese. He decided to return to his home state of Oregon, and he found out that all persons of Japanese, German, and Italian ancestry had to obey a curfew from 8:00 p.m.- 6:00 a.m. They had to stay within a five mile radius of their home or business. Yosui felt this was unfair because the curfew was for certain citizens only and the order was based on ancestry alone . Yosui broke the curfew and was arrested. After he was released on bail, he disobeyed an order to report to an evacuation center. He was again arrested and sent to a camp in Idaho where he awaited his trial. At his trial in Portland, he was found guilty and was sentenced to a year in jail and a $5,000.00 fine. While he was in jail his case was brought all the way to the Supreme Court of the U.S., but they upheld the original decision. He was sent back to the camp in Idaho where he was then drafted for military service. Although Yosui was treated unfairly, he still encouraged his fellow Nisei to ,"Have faith in America ."

Gordon Hirabayashi, another Nisei, challenged the curfew because it only restricted Japanese Americans citizens during wartime. He also refused to register for evacuation. Hirabayashi prepared a four page statement to hand to the FBI when he was apprehended. Hirabayashi's statement expressed his anger. He said that the order denied people of Japanese descent the right to live. He went on to say that sixty percent of the internees were American citizens and were imprisoned without due process and their civil rights were denied. He felt if he registered for evacuation he would be giving up all the principles that he stood for. Like Yosui, Hirabayashi was arrested and put in jail. At his trial Hirabayashi's attorney, Frank Walters, argued that the curfew and evacuations orders violated the due process clause of the fifth amendment, and it denied the Japanese Americans the right of equal protection of the law. Hirabayashi was found guilty and spent three months in jail. Hirabayashi's case reached the Supreme Court who once again upheld the lower Court's decision. Hirabayashi was very disappointed with the Court's decision because he felt the Supreme Court would uphold the Constitution.

Fred Korematsu, another Nisei, remained in his home town and violated the evacuation orders. He decided to change his name and his appearance through minor plastic surgery to try to elude the police. He was arrested and was forced to go to the evacuation center. He decided to fight his case because he felt his rights were violated. He was found guilty because of his refusal to leave an evacuation area. His case went before the Supreme Court and was upheld by a 6 to 3 vote. Although Korematsu lost, the three dissenting justices felt that this was a case where a citizen was convicted, based solely on his ancestry, because he refused to be imprisoned in a concentration camp. They felt this was legalizing racism.

Mitsuye Endo's case was the fourth test case and hers proved to be different. She was a Nisei who represented a symbolic, loyal American . Her case was unique because she was a woman and because she didn't challenge the curfew nor the exclusion orders so she didn't risk criminal penalties. Her challenge began after she reported to the Tanforan Assembly Center, "... and was based on the civil procedure of a habeas corpus petition." She claimed that it was unconstitutional to hold her at a detention center. Endo's case made it to the Supreme Court. The Justice Department, who represented the government, realized that winning this case was hopeless. The Supreme Court ruled in Endo's favor and said that the WRA had no right to keep loyal citizens imprisoned indefinitely. The court ruling came the day after the WRA decided to close the camps.

In 1983, Fred Korematsu filed a petition to correct a judicial error in his conviction. He felt his conviction was a complete miscarriage of justice. Hirabayashi and Yosui also filed similar petitions as to their convictions. In 1984, Judge Marilyn Patel overturned Korematsu's conviction. She said that the facts about military necessity were distorted and at least one individual was guilty of racism. The other two convictions were also reversed.

After the camps were closed, the Japanese Americans returned to their homes on the West Coast of the U.S. to find they had nothing. Not only had they lost their freedom and their jobs, but eighty percent of their privately stored goods were either sold or stolen. They lost approximately $400 million worth of property, and the total losses of property and income during the Internment period was estimated at nearly $6.2 billion. Left over prejudices still plagued the Japanese Americans. When the camps closed in 1945, Sumi Seo decided to return to the West Coast. She was given $25 by the WRA and a train ticket. When she arrived in Los Angeles, her former landlord refused to rent her an apartment, and she later found out that her furniture was stolen.

Prejudices began to dissipate when Mary Masuda's brother, a hero who died in the war, received a Distinguished Service Cross. General Stilwell, Commander of the Nisei troops, personally presented Mary with the medal. The publicity generated by this action helped to pacify anti-Japanese attitudes. However, it wasn't until the late 1940's that the U.S. Government realized what they had done to the Japanese was wrong. Laws were passed to help the Japanese recover what they lost in the war so they could rebuild for the future. President Truman passed the Japanese American Claims Act of 1948, giving $131 million in land claims to the Japanese Americans. In 1952, the Walter McCarren Act was passed by Congress which gave thousands of Issei their United States citizenship. In the same year, the Alien Land Law was declared unconstitutional, and the Issei finally had the right to own their own land.

. Although the Japanese Americans had been in the U.S. for over fifty years, they were still building their lives. The internment left the Japanese Americans homeless, unemployed, and with the problem of planning their future, issues that faced the Issei when they first moved into the U.S. They had lost millions of dollars in income and property and now they wanted to be compensated for their losses. In 1947, Edison Uno, who as a teenager spent years in a camp, demanded redress and reparations because the U.S. Government had violated his constitutional rights. In 1978, Clifford Uyeda began a national movement to obtain monetary damages for the Japanese Americans who had been imprisoned during World War II. In March of 1983, a lawsuit was filed by the National Council for Japanese American Redress claiming that there hadn't been any military necessity during World War II that caused the imprisonment of thousands of Japanese Americans. Federal Judge Oberdorfer dismissed the case because of the Statute of Limitations. He did, however, acknowledge that there was evidence of misconduct by the U.S. Government in regard to military necessity. Although the lawsuit was not successful, it did cause the government to act. In 1983, a Commission was formed to investigate Executive Order 9066. It concluded that the Japanese Internment was illegal and morally wrong. In 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, which issued a national apology to the Japanese Americans admitting that they had been imprisoned because of racism, poor leadership, and war hysteria.

In 1989, President Bush signed a bill that gave each internee a tax-exempt, one-time payment of $20,000 in retribution for its inhumane mistake. The U.S. had finally admitted that it had interned many U.S. citizens and denied them their civil rights. Besides the monetary payment, the government pardoned any person who violated the restrictions placed upon Japanese Americans as a result of the internment. Although the Japanese Americans had been stripped of their homes and their possessions, and their rights had been violated, they never lost their self respect. They held on to their pride and dignity. "The evacuation did not disgrace those who went but those who sent them."