Name:___________________Period:___________Date:____________

The Faces of the Home Front: Japanese Interment Packet

Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 February19, 1942 and authorized the internment of over 110,000 Japanese Americans to last the duration that America would be embroiled in WWII. At the time of the order, the nation already had a large anti-Asian sentiment, which greatly escalated due to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Many citizens, especially along the West Coast, feared another attack was imminent. Many believed that Japanese Americans were still loyal to Japan and would act as spies or commit acts against the U.S. that would help Japan. This idea was further provoked into the minds of Americans due to the government propaganda that depicted the Japanese as less than human, barbaric in nature, and a great threat to the national security of the country. When the order was announced that Japanese Americans, many of whom were American citizens, had to relocate to an interment center, they were forced to leave their schools, jobs, homes, churches, communities, and whatever possessions they could not carry. Japanese American citizens that had been in the military were temporarily ejected and those that wanted to join the military to help fight for America were denied and labeled enemy aliens. After time passed and the government and some citizens stopped viewing the Japanese as a threat, they were allowed to join the military and fight for their country, even though their families remained locked up in internment camps. Over 33,000 Japanese American men and women voluntarily signed up for military service, although they were relegated to segregated units.

Over the course of this lesson, you will take notes on the Japanese Internment

Lecture, examine Executive Order 9066 and the government’s justification for Japanese internment, and analyze propaganda employed by the media to support the government’s justification and further stereotypes against the Japanese. Then you will hear from internees their experience of persecution and internment, evaluate their living conditions, and learn about their treatment. The knowledge you attain, combined with the work you do in this packet, will help you to complete the culminating assignment for this unit, which will be an essay on Japanese Internment.

Part One

Based on your prior knowledge and the information discussed so far, fill out the What Do I Know Section of your Japanese Internment K-W-L handout sheet. Then take time to think about what you don’t know about the subject or about what you would like to learn more about and complete the What Do I Want to Know Section. Take good notes about the lecture and complete each part of this packet, using the information we cover to complete the What Have I Learned section of the handout. Use the notes you take on each section to help you complete the How Do These Sources Differ section of the handout.

Make sure you take good notes along the way and complete all of the assignments in this packet. They will be of great help to you when it comes time to write your essay.

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Vocabulary:

1.) Issei:    a Japanese who immigrated to the U.S. or Canada after 1907 and was not eligible until 1952 for citizenship; any Japanese immigrant to the U.S.

2.) Nisei:       a person of Japanese descent, born and educated in the U.S. or Canada.

3.) Kibei: a Nisei who has gone back to Japan for some or all of their education

4.) Espionage:    the act or practice of spying; the use of spies by a government to discover the military and political secrets of other nations.

5.) Sabotage:    Destruction of property or obstruction of normal operations, as by civilians or enemy agents in time of war, treacherous action to defeat or hinder a cause or an endeavor; deliberate subversion.

6.) Internment:    confinement during wartime; the act of confining someone in a prison (or as if in a prison); placing private property in the custody of an officer of the law.

7.) Barracks:living quarters

8.) Compliance:    the act of conforming, acquiescing, or yielding; conformity;

9.) Alien:    a resident born in or belonging to another country who has not acquired citizenship by naturalization

10.) Propaganda:   information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

11.) No No Boy:Someone who answered no to question 27 or 28 of the loyalty questionnaire, they

were they sent to a stricter internment camp.

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Part Two:Carefully read and analyze the following documents, then answer the questions below.For homework select one of the documents and use it to fill out the Primary Source Analysis Sheet. Be prepared to discuss it next class.

Document A:

1.) Who are the Nisei and how does Munson describe them?

2.) How does Munson describe the differences of Japanese Americans that live on the mainland versus those that live in Hawaii?

3.) Does Munson view Japanese Americans as a threat? Why or why not?

Document B:

1.) What were the Japanese-Americans instructed to do?

2.) What could they bring?

3.) If you were only allowed to take from your home the items you could carry, what would you bring?

Document C:

1.) What was Lt. Gen. J.L. DeWitt’s justification for the relocation of Japanese-Americans?

2.) What other groups might these justifications have applied to?

3.) How does what Dewitt’s letter say differ from the information from Munson’s report?

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Document A: The Munson Report

In October and November of 1941, Special Representative of the State Department Curtis B. Munson, under Roosevelt's orders, carried out an intelligence gathering investigation on the loyalty of Japanese Americans. His report concluded that Japanese Americans are loyal and would pose little threat. He wrote: "There is no Japanese `problem' on the Coast ... There is far more danger from Communists and people of the Bridges type on the Coast than there is from Japanese."

These are excerpts from that report.

1. The ISSEI -- First generation of Japanese. Entire cultural background Japanese. Probably loyal romantically to Japan. They must be considered, however, as other races. They have made this their home. They have brought up children here, their wealth accumulated by hard labor is here, and many would have become Amercian citizens had they been allowed to do so. They are for the most part simple people. Their age group is largely 55 to 65, fairly old for a hard-working Japanese. The Issei, or first generation, is considerably weakened in their loyalty to Japan by the fact that they have chosen to make this their home and have brought up their children here. They expect to die here. They are quite fearful of being put in a concentration camp. Many would take out American citizenship if allowed to do so. The haste of this report does not allow us to go into this more fully. The Issei have to break with their religion, their god and Emperor, their family, their ancestors and their after-life in order to be loyal to the United States. They are also still legally Japanese. Yet they do break, and send their boys off to the Army with pride and tears. They are good neighbors. They are old men fifty-five to sixty-five, for the most part simple and dignified. Roughly they were Japanese lower middle class, about analogous to the pilgrim fathers.

2. The NISEI -- Second generation who have received their whole education in the United States and usually, in spite of discrimination against them and a certain amount of insults accumulated through the years from irresponsible elements, show a pathetic eagerness to be Americans. They are in constant conflict with the orthodox, well disciplined family life of their elders. Age group -- 1 to 30 years. There are still Japanese in the United States who will tie dynamite around their waist and make a human bomb out of themselves. We grant this, but today they are few. Many things indicate that very many joints in the Japanese set-up show age, and many elements are not what they used to be. The weakest from a Japanese standpoint are the Nisei. They are universally estimated from 90 to 98 percent loyal to the United States if the Japanese-educated element of the Kibei is excluded. The Nisei are pathetically eager to show this loyalty. They are not Japanese in culture. They are foreigners to Japan. Though American citizens they are not accepted by Americans, largely because they look differently and can be easily recognized. The Japanese American Citizens League should be encouraged, the while an eye is kept open, to see that Tokio does not get its finger in this pie -- which it has in a few cases attempted to do. The loyal Nisei hardly knows where to turn. Some gesture of protection or wholehearted acceptance of this group would go a long way to swinging them away from any last romantic hankering after old Japan. They are not oriental or mysterious, they are very American and are of a proud, self-respecting race suffering from a little inferiority complex and a lack of contact with the white boys they went to school with. They are eager for this contact and to work alongside them.

3. The KIBEI -- This is an important division of the NISEI. This is the term used by the Japanese to signify those American born Japanese who received part or all of their

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education in Japan. In any consideration of the KIBEI they should be again divided into two classes, i.e. those who received their education in Japan from childhood to about 17 years of age and those who received their early formative education in the United States and returned to Japan for four or five years Japanese education. The Kibei are considered the most dangerous element and closer to the Issei with special reference to those who received their early education in Japan. It must be noted, however, that many of those who visited Japan subsequent to their early American education come back with added loyalty to the United States. In fact it is a saying that all a Nisei needs is a trip to Japan to make a loyal American out of him. The American educated Japanese is a boor in Japan and treated as a foreigner...

...the Hawaiian Japanese does not suffer from the same inferiority complex or feel the same mistrust of the whites that he does on the mainland. While it is seldom on the mainland that you find even a college-educated Japanese-American citizen who talks to you wholly openly until you have gained his confidence, this is far from the case in Hawaii. Many young Japanese there are fully as open and frank and at ease with a white as white boys are. In a word, Hawaii is more of a melting pot because there are more brown skins to melt -- Japanese, Hawaiian, Chinese and Filipino. It is interesting to note that there has been absolutely no bad feeling between the Japanese and the Chinese in the islands due to the Japanese-Chinese war. Why should they be any worse toward us?

Due to the preponderance of Japanese in the population of the Islands, a much greater proportion of Japanese have been called to the draft than on the mainland. As on the mainland they are inclined to enlist before being drafted. The Army is extremely high in its praise of them as recruits... They are beginning to feel that they are going to get a square deal and some of them are really almost pathetically exuberant….

The story was all the same. There is no Japanese `problem' on the Coast. There will be no armed uprising of Japanese. There will undoubtedly be some sabotage financed by Japan and executed largely by imported agents... In each Naval District there are about 250 to 300 suspects under surveillance. It is easy to get on the suspect list, merely a speech in favor of Japan at some banquet being sufficient to land one there. The Intelligence Services are generous with the title of suspect and are taking no chances. Privately, they believe that only 50 or 60 in each district can be classed as really dangerous. 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. There is far more danger from Communists and people of the Bridges type on the Coast than there is from Japanese. The Japanese here is almost exclusively a farmer, a fisherman or a small businessman. He has no entree to plants or intricate machinery.

In case we have not made it apparent, the aim of this report is that all Japanese Nationals in the continental United States and property owned and operated by them within the country be immediately placed under absolute Federal control. The aim of

this will be to squeeze control from the hands of the Japanese Nationals into the hands of the loyal Nisei who are American citizens... It is the aim that the Nisei should

police themselves, and as a result police their parents.Document B: Evacuation Notice

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WESTERN DEFENSE COMMAND AND FOURTH ARMY — WARTIME CIVIL CONTROL ADMINISTRATION — Presidio of San Francisco, California, May 3, 1942

INSTRUCTIONS TO ALL PERSONS OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY

Pursuant to the provisions of Civilian Exclusion Order No. 33, this Headquarters, dated May 3, 1942, all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien, will be

evacuated from the above area by 12 o’clock noon, P. W. T., Saturday, May 9, 1942.

No Japanese person living in the above area will be permitted to change residence after 12 o’clock noon, P. W. T., Sunday, May 3, 1942, without obtaining special permission from the representative of the Commanding General, Southern California Sector, at the

Civil Control Station...

The Following Instructions Must Be Observed: 1. A responsible member of each family, preferably the head of the family, or the person in whose name most of the property is held, and each individual living alone, will report to the Civil Control Station to receive further instructions. This must be done between 8:00 A. M. and 5:00 P. M. on Monday, May 4, 1942, or between 8:00 A. M. and 5:00 P. M. on Tuesday, May 5, 1942.2. Evacuees must carry with them on departure for the Assembly Center, the following property: (a) Bedding and linens (no mattress) for each member of the family; (b) Toilet articles for each member of the family;(c) Extra clothing for each member of the family; (d) Sufficient knives, forks, spoons, plates, bowls and cups for each member of the family; (e) Essential personal effects for each member of the family.All items carried will be securely packaged, tied and plainly marked with the name of the

owner and numbered in accordance with instructions obtained at the Civil Control Station. The size and number of packages is limited to that which can be carried by the

individual or family group.3. No pets of any kind will be permitted. 4. No personal items and no household goods will be shipped to the Assembly Center.5. The United States Government through its agencies will provide for the storage, at the sole risk of the owner, of the more substantial household items, such as iceboxes, washing machines, pianos and other heavy furniture. Cooking utensils and other small items will be accepted for storage if crated, packed and plainly marked with the name and address of the owner. Only one name and address will be used by a given family.6. Each family, and individual living alone will be furnished transportation to the Assembly Center or will be authorized to travel by private automobile in a supervised group. All instructions pertaining to the movement will be obtained at the Civil Control Station.

J.L. De Witt, Lieutenant General, U. S. Army Commanding

Document C: Letter from General DeWitt

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A portion of Lt. Gen. J.L. DeWitt’s letter of transmittal to the Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, June 5, 1943, of his Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast

1942.

1. I transmit herewith my final report on the evacuation of Japanese from the Pacific Coast.

2. The evacuation was impelled by military necessity. The security of the Pacific Coast continues to require the exclusion of Japanese from the area now prohibited to them and will so continue as long as that military necessity exists. The surprise attack at Pearl Harbor by the enemy crippled a major portion of the Pacific Fleet and exposed the West Coast to an attack which could not have been substantially impeded by defensive fleet operations. More than 115,000 persons of Japanese ancestry resided along the coast and were significantly concentrated near many highly sensitive installations essential to the war effort. Intelligence services records reflected the existence of hundreds of Japanese organizations in California, Washington, Oregon and Arizona which, prior to December 7, 1941, were actively engaged in advancing Japanese war aims. These records also disclosed that thousands of American-born Japanese had gone to Japan to receive their education and indoctrination there and had become rabidly proJapanese and then had returned to the United States. Emperor-worshipping ceremonies were commonly held and millions of dollars had flowed into the Japanese imperial war chest from the contributions freely made by Japanese here. The continued presence of a large, unassimilated, tightly knit and racial group, bound to an enemy nation by strong ties of race, culture, custom and religion along a frontier vulnerable to attack constituted a menace which had to be dealt with. Their loyalties were unknown and time was of the essence. The evident aspirations of the enemy emboldened by his recent successes made it worse than folly to have left any stone unturned in the building up of our defenses. It is better to have had this protection and not to have needed it than to have needed it and not to have had it – as we have learned to our sorrow.

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Primary Source Analysis Sheet: Document

Document:______

1.) What type of document is this?

2.) Who wrote it? When?

3.) What audience is the document written for?

4.) List three things the author said that you think are important and explain why you believe they are important:

5.) Why do you think this document was written?

6.) What evidence in the document helps you know why it was written? (Quote from the document)

7.) List two things the document tells you about life in the United States at the time it was written.

8.) Write a question to the author that is left unanswered by the document:

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Part Three

Propaganda is essentially the creation/management of ideas, opinions, and attitudes by direct manipulation through social suggestion. Images created during war reveal tensions and conflicts among nations and among citizens. During WWII propaganda was used to portray Japanese people as ruthless, barbaric, and animalistic. By dehumanizing the Japanese and instilling fear in the minds of Americans, WWII propaganda posters promoted cultural and racial hatred that led to a major backlash against Japanese in the U.S. even though many of them were citizens.

Analyze the following war propaganda posters and political cartoons, then answer the questions below.

1.) Examine Image A and B. What message are these images trying to convey? What are they trying to say is the reason that it is important to buy war bonds?

2.) Examine the two faces in Image B. American public would generally know that the first one is Hitler but who is the second person supposed to be? Why do you think that racist stereotypes are used to portray the Japanese man but not Hitler?

3.) Examine Image B. What words would you use to describe the Japanese man in this picture? If you were a white man in America at this time seeing this image how would you feel? If you were a white woman at this time how would that image make you feel?

4.) Image C is from a comic book aimed at children. What message does this convey to young white Americans? What message does this convey to young Japanese American children? If you were a Japanese American child and your classmate brought this comic book to school how would it make you feel?

5.) What is Image D trying to say? How would this cartoon serve as a justification for Japanese internment?

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Part Three: Images

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Image B

Image A

Image D

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Image C

Part Four

For this segment of the lesson we are going to be watching three different video clips. The first one is Japanese Relocation (1943) created by the U.S. Office of War Information, the second is a clip from The War: Episode 1 which was directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, and the third is Fred Korematsu: A Civil Rights Hero produced by The Working Group. Pay special attention to the message that each video is trying to portray (and make sure you are taking notes on your K-W-L handout sheet about what you are learning and how the sources we are covering are different).

Take notes on the video clips and be prepared to discuss the following:

1.) Why was each one made? What message are they each trying to convey?

2.) Do you think the creators of each were effective in getting their point across?

3.) What kinds of things do you see? What’s going on?

4.) How are the white Americans portrayed? How are the Japanese portrayed?

5.) Do you think Japanese Americans posed a real threat to national security?

6.) How would you feel if one day you were labeled a foreigner and an enemy even though you were born in America, went to school in America, even worked in America?

7.) Do you believe Fred Korematsu was a hero or a criminal?

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8.) What did you find the most interesting from each video?

Part Five

There are many photographs from this period in history. Examine the following photographs and answer the questions below.

1.) Analyze Photograph 1. What message does this convey? What feelings does it evoke?

2.) Look at Photograph 2. Does this look like an enemy that needs to be forced from his home in the name of national security?

3.) Examine Photograph 3 and 4. Describe what daily life would have been like in these situations? Do these photographs present a different image of internment camp life than the Japanese Relocation video we watched? How would you feel having left your comfortable home, with your own room, and having to live like this?

4.) Examine Photograph 5. Interment camps had school classes for various grades of students where they were taught the same subjects they would have been studying had they not been in internment camps such as math, grammar, American history. How would you feel studying U.S. Government and the Constitution while you were being imprisoned because of your race?

5.) Photographs 6 and 7 show young Japanese Americans trying to make the best of their situation and engaging in the normal activities that they love. What other kinds of activities do you think they engaged in in an attempt to try and have a normal life even behind a barbed wire fence?

6.) Which of these photos do you believe best represents our discussion on Japanese internment and why?

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Photograph 1

This sign was placed on the front of a store owned by a Japanese American shortly after Pearl Harbor.

Photograph 2

A young boy on a train taking him to an internment camp.

Photograph 3

This scene shows one type of barracks for family use. These were formerly the stalls for race horses at the Tanforan Relocation center.

Photograph 4

Evacuees wait in line for the second lunch shift. They carry with them their own dishes and cutlery in cloth bags to protect them from the dust which they, themselves, individually wash after the meal.

Photograph 6

Photograph 7

Part Six

Homework: The following links will take you to interviews with Japanese Americans that faced evacuation and interment during WWII at this tumultuous time in American history. Listen to at least two (although the more you listen to the more insight and information you will gain, which will help you in writing your essay). Select one and complete the Primary Source Analysis Sheet. Use the information you have learned from both to complete the Comparison Chart. On the left list aspects of life before relocation, on the right list aspects of life in internment camps, and in the center list aspects of life that occurred in both instances. Be prepared to discuss these next class.

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Photograph 5

Children in internment camps still go to school.

-Interview with George Takeihttps://youtu.be/4N7oaJ9pvVs

-Interview with Albert Bunji Ikedahttps://youtu.be/hztlh_-XbR4

-Interview with Sam Mibuhttps://youtu.be/g4FmcsyJP6M

-Interview with Kazuko Fujishimahttps://youtu.be/PPbtcqoBWFQ?list=PLW6VIukf_zQhKFnysHa9YEb5J30QpU4NG

-Interview with Bessie Masudahttps://youtu.be/Z31iLSt7YYE?list=PLW6VIukf_zQhKFnysHa9YEb5J30QpU4NG

-Interview with Tsukasa Matsuedahttps://youtu.be/zZsuPNGof5M?list=PLW6VIukf_zQhKFnysHa9YEb5J30QpU4NG

-Interview with Robert Yadahttps://youtu.be/SJpJEnvJGSA?list=PLW6VIukf_zQhKFnysHa9YEb5J30QpU4NG

-Interview with Toru Saitohttps://youtu.be/BTAF6IzwJY8?list=PLW6VIukf_zQhKFnysHa9YEb5J30QpU4NG

-Interview with Sam Ozakihttps://youtu.be/Jq51ZBOoF0Y?list=PLW6VIukf_zQhKFnysHa9YEb5J30QpU4NG

-Interview with Ruth Kawana Yonemotohttps://youtu.be/S-sCq8kDz78?list=PLW6VIukf_zQhKFnysHa9YEb5J30QpU4NG

Primary Source Analysis Sheet: Interview

Interview with:____________________

1.) What does the interviewee say about discrimination after Pearl Harbor?

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2.) What does the interviewee say about preparing to relocate to the internment camp?

3.) What does the interviewee say about life in an internment camp?

4.) List three things the interviewee said that you think are important and explain why you believe they are important:

5.) What is the importance of this oral history? How does the firsthand account change the emotional impact in hearing about Japanese internment?

6.) List two things the document tells you about life in the United States at the time it was written.

7.) Write a question not covered by the interview that you would like to ask the interviewee:

8.) How does this oral history support, contradict, or add to your understanding of Japanese internment?

Japanese Internment Compassion Chart

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At Home In Camp