Japanese Americans during WWII

Oh, so in today's lesson, we're gonna be learning about

the japanese americans during the World War Two era.

And more specifically on what we'll be talking about more

is um, the, about so what exactly was going on

during this time in the uh, in the World War

Two and how japanese americans were dealing with it.

We'll also be looking at the stories of some primary

sources of people who actually went through it.

The timeline of the events that occurred during World War

Two and also the impact that these uh situations lead

to these people and how they had to overcome different

barriers and the aftermath of the families that were taken

into these different situations.

So for the about page, we're gonna be looking in

the synopsis as well as the results.

So, to start us off at this point in history,

we are living in 1941.

Uh this is during the attack of Pearl Harbor, which

came as a shock to many Americans.

Uh, not for the fact that it was just the

beginning of war, but also that it was a surprise

attack uh, and that it was executed very precisely.

Uh, No one was really prepared for it.

And when it did happen, no one knew really how

to deal with it.

Uh, And so this is what led to suspicions being

swept through America about who could have planned it.

If it was an inside job and if it was

an inside job, how are we going to deal with

it and protect the nation?

And this is what led to blame to Japanese americans

that they were spies within our country.

And because of this, America was in fear for its

own safety and decided to take action.

And this is what led to the internment of the

Japanese americans.

So what the internment was was as a general, about

120,000 Japanese Americans were forced to move from their homes.

And this also occurred in Washington Oregon, California and Arizona.

Uh, and they were sent to various camps.

They separated their families, many of them lost their jobs

and businesses and also many of them had to lose

what their family had built from their generations of moving

to the America.

Uh, let alone the inhuman actions that were taken by

the government in the process of relocation and the conditions

of each of the centers, you can almost claim that

they are treated like slaves at one point in time.

So as a result to this, this led to the

alien enemies act and the presidential proclamations 50-5, 250-6 and

252 7 to be created designating Japanese german and italian

people to be enemy aliens.

At this point, anyone who had a german italian or

japanese background was arrested and interned.

Uh huh.

So at this point we're gonna be taking a look

at some of the stories and I have two stories

here that I need more on the personal end.

One of them is going to be explaining about a

young gentleman who talks about his experiences leading up to

the war joining the war and then his family situation.

And then the other video is many years after the

signing of the bill and his experiences with being a

part of it.

So I have a few pictures here to kind of

represent just the chaos that was happening right around the

beginning of 1941 when everything started going down.

So in the top left hand corner you can see

all the chaos of them having to be evicted from

their homes and their towns and just having to pack

all their belongings as they went along.

Top right hand corner shows different families being separated.

So in this image here you see the wife with

her kids and the husband at this point has probably

been arrested and sent to a separate camp.

And then the bottom corner or the bottom photo right

there shows all the buses lined up for them getting

ready to be transported to their first camps.

Mhm. Uh huh.

So in this first story it's about a man named

Tasha you have to take and his sister Mitsui May.

Um and uh and they discussed Tasha's decision to join

the U.

S. Army um in hopes of being able to visit

their father.

Um So in the story it was a so Taj

Jackson uh not to take was a second generation japanese

american who was born in Seattle Washington.

His father, Jack was also an employee for the U.

S. Immigration and Naturalization services as an interpreter for over

20 years.

So he had already been deemed as a U.

S. Citizen and was born on U.

S. Territory In December of 1941, Jack, the father was

arrested and sent to the Department of Justice Camp while

his family was sent to Puyallup Assembly center Washington and

then the Minidoka Ohio incarceration camp.

After a few years, Tosh decided to volunteer for the

U. S.

Army. It wasn't until 1944.

So three years after when Tasha's mother and siblings would

be then relocated to the same camp, their father was

at uh in Crystal city texas internment camp.

So here's a quick video to explain just the situation

that was presented at the time.

So in this video, he is an older gentleman.

Um and he explains just the excitement that he had

when he was presented that they were going to first

sign off on the bill to get rid of all

the camps, to families go back to their own territories

and just to let american citizens be american citizens again.

So now we're gonna go ahead and take a look

at the timeline of events.

I don't have everything put on here, but I do

have the major events in sequence.

So if you take a look at the first events,

uh, we see here that on December 7 1941 is

when we first get announced that the attack on Pearl

Harbor has just happened.

So the attack on Pearl Harbor, local authorities and FBI

begin To round up the leadership of the Japanese Americans

communities and within 48 hours, 1,291 a sigh are in

custody. These men are held under no formal charges and

family members are forbidden from seeing them.

Most would spend the war years in enemy alien internment

camps run by the Justice Department.

So as we move on into february 25th, 1942.

So a few months after the navy informs japanese, american

residents of Terminal Island near Los Angeles harbor that they

must leave within 48 hours.

They are the first group to be removed in mass.

So this is when they started to clear out towns,

clear out states.

And then this is the 1st 1st instances where we

see all the japanese being rounded up and taken on

trains and buses to be sent to these different camps.

Yeah. Then we go to April 13 of 1943.

So almost a year later And this is where we

start to get into more of the hatred side of

things. So we see her in the image that a

lot of homes are being vandalized and that not many

people are wanting Japanese in America because of the events

that are happening with the war.

So on 13 April 1943 we get a direct quote

from General John L.

Dewitt who was the head Western Defense command.

Um and he had this to say.

So it was a JAP is a Jap.

There is no way to determine their loyalty.

This cast is to us vulnerable.

No Jap should come back to this coast except on

a permit from my office.

And this wasn't the first man to claim these different

regards. Multiple people in the army deemed that japanese were

not safe for America and that at any moment they

could be lethal or could be almost like a terrorist

within the country.

Mhm. Then we moved to 1945 on August six.

this is when the atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima

and then three days later a second one dropped on

Nagasaki. This is the tide of the war when everything

would come to an end.

Um so the war in the Pacific would end on

August 14.

And then we see here in the newspaper article that

Japanese has found the Japs have finally quit within the

war and they were the last ones to finally end

the war.

Germany had quit a few months prior.

Then in june of june 30th 1947 we see that

the U.

S. District judge Luisi Goodman orders at the petitioners In

the Wayne Collins Suit of December 13 1945 be released.

Native born american citizens could not be converted to enemy

aliens and could not be imprisoned or sent to Japan

on the basis of re inauguration.

These 102 on two persons are finally released from the

Crystal City texas and Seabrook farms New Jersey on september

6th 1947.

So here we are finally receiving that a lot of

the camps are deemed to be inappropriate and that all

of them should be set free and back to their

homes. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh huh.

On July 2nd of 1948, President Truman signs the Japanese

American evacuation claims act, a measure to compensate Japanese Americans

for certain economic losses attributed to their forced evacuation.

Although some 28 million was to be paid out the

provisions of act, it would be largely ineffective even on

the limited scope in which it operated.

Mhm. And then last we look at the impact that

it had on the japanese americans.

So we see here that there are two different types

of impacts that were caused on japanese americans during this

time of war.

So we see that there are physical and mental sides

to both the stories.

So for some of the physical aspects that were causing

the japanese americans was the loss of weight, cardiovascular disease,

cardiovascular mortality, premature death and psychological loss of english.

And then for the mental aspects, we see that they

had low self esteem, a celebrated loss of Japanese culture,

loss of language.

And then the biggest one was the silence in their

mind from the camps.

Uh not being able to speak about the trauma that

they have been going through at that time.

Yeah.

Japanese Americans during WWII

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