Section 13.3 Internment of Japanese Americans Photo of internment camp with US flag in foreground

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