Japanese American Internment Speech
Japanese American Internment Speech
As we all know after the tragic bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Americans blamed the Japanese, even the Japanese Americans who had nothing to do with it. Americans feared that their American Japanese neighbors who potentially could be spies and saboteurs that helped pave the way for an invasion by the Japanese military.
Before I move further in into this topic I would like to introduce myself. Good afternoon I am Patrick Kennedy and today I am to explore and create a better understanding of the mistreatment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066. This order authorized the evacuation of all people who deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland. In the next 6 months, over 100,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were moved to assembly centers. These, “law-abiding Japanese American citizens were herded into remote internment camps, losing their jobs, businesses and social standing, while an all Japanese American division fought heroically in Europe”(Brokaw). They were then “evacuated” to and confined in isolated, fenced, and guarded relocation centers, more commonly known as internment camps. These camps were in meager and barbaric conditions. The Japanese Americans were forced to live in empty shacks called "barracks". More than one family shared these harsh, barracks like quarters. Barracks didn't have cooking or plumbing utilities of any kind. Beds were cots, toilets were unsanitary, and internees lived on a budget issued at only 45 cents per day. Barbed wires and armed guards surrounded the camps. Schooling and socializing was very limited. Internees faced physical and emotional distress. The few of those internees that ventured outside camp limits were shot and killed. Other internees died or faced extreme physical problems due to the lack of medical care provided. Many internees suffered from depression, severe insecurity, feelings of helplessness. No amount of compensation could undo or make up for what had been done.
Those who try to justify imprisonment of the Japanese Americans argue that putting the Japanese Americans in internment camps was to ensure national security. Though there is no justifying rounding up 100,000 American Japanese, which was an overreaction and ignored the fact that achieving satisfactory security existed. Military guards could have