Section 13.3

Internment of Japanese

Americans

Photo of internment camp with US flag in foreground

Objectives

• Identify Executive Order 9066

• Identify and describe Korematsu v US (1945)

• Understand reasoning behind the internment

• Understand why, today, E.O. 9066 stands out as an improper act by our govt.

Post 9/11• After 9/11 hundreds of people of

Arab decent (some US citizens, some illegal aliens) were rounded up and held without access to legal council. José Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Chicago on May 8, 2002. He was accused of being a terrorist, designated an illegal enemy combatant and transferred to a military prison. The US government argued that because he was an Illegal Combatant he was thereby not entitled to the normal protection of U.S. law or the Geneva Conventions.

• Do you thinks that’s right?

Above: NY Times headline from 9/12/01; Below: photo of Padilla

How did the US government restrict “Aliens of Enemy Nationality”?

• After December 7 the US government restricted “aliens of enemy nationality”– Couldn't travel without

permission, enter strategic areas, possess shortwave radios, guns, maps

– Restrictions were lifted from Germans, Italians on Columbus Day 1942

• For 127 thousand Japanese they remained

• Issei- 47 thousand Japanese aliens in US

• Nisei- 80 thousand Japanese-Americans

Above: map of western US with camps; Below: notice to Japanese to report for relocation

Describe the attitude Americans had toward the Japanese after Pearl Harbor.

• Viewed as “A Fifth Column”– Disloyal group who aids the

enemy

• Backstabbers

• “A Jap's a Jap. The only good one is a dead one!”

Above: cartoon implying Japanese-Americans were traitors, about to blow up places in the US; Below: cartoon with rat-faced Japanese intended to inspire Americans to buy war bonds

What was Executive Order 9066?

• Authorized military commanders to designate "military areas from which any or all persons may be excluded."

• Allowed them to relocate 120 thousand Japanese-Americans into Internment Camps

Above: young, sympathetic Japanese with suitcases headed to camps; Below: barracks at one of the camps

Describe the Internment Camps• Army placed them in

“assembly centers” or War Relocation Centers

• Usually in remote areas• Manned by armed guards• Sites lacked basic sanitation• tar paper-covered barracks

without plumbing or cooking facilities

• Some only allotted $.45 for food per person, per day

Map showing camps of various kinds, all out west

Read “Background of the Case”• Discussion Question:

Should a president have special powers in times of war?– Ex.

• Patriot Act• Power to deny “enemy

combatants” Constitutional or Geneva Convention protections

• Power to spy phone calls without a court order (National Security Agency or NSA)

• Power to seize foreign citizens in foreign nations and hold them indefinitely as suspected terrorists

                                                   

Above: Mr. Korematsu after the war; Below: Korematsu and family in transit

Read “The Court’s Decision”

• Highlight or underline the reason for the Court’s decision. How did they justify their decision?

• Do you agree?

Portrait of FDR

Read “Dissenting Opinions”• Highlight or underline

Justice Murphy’s reasons for dissenting.

• Which Constitutional amendments did he cite?

Photo of Justice Murphy

One of the more blatantly anti-Japanese signs on display in the US