Displacement

The incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War Two was an act now acknowledged to have been motivated by racial prejudice and cynical political expediency. In 1988, President Reagan issued a presidential apology to recognize this:

[…] a grave injustice was done to both citizens and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry by the evacuation, relocation, and internment of civilians during World War II. [...] these actions were carried out without adequate security reasons and without any acts of espionage or sabotage, and were motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership (“Civil Liberties Act of 1988.” Densho Encyclopedia).

In the decades leading up to World War Two, Japanese immigrants in the US were subject to increasing levels of anti-Japanese attitudes and discrimination. This discrimination was part of large-scale anti-Asian sentiment that had begun as antipathy for Chinese immigrants in the 1880s, widening to encompass immigrants from all Asian countries.

When the Imperial Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December 1941, political and military officials used pre-existing prejudices, combined with the fear generated by the attack, to demand the removal of Japanese Americans from their homes and communities. The evidence of significant earlier surveillance and study showed that that the Japanese American population posed little threat. Nevertheless, President Roosevelt ordered the mass removal of all those of Japanese descent, citing “military necessity” (Executive Order 9066. National Archives). In early 1941, approximately 122,000-125,000 men, women, and children, mostly from the West and West Coast, were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to “assembly centers” (such as Tanforan in California), before finally being in “relocation centers” (such as Topaz, Utah) for the duration of the war.

Much controversy still surrounds the terms used to describe these places. Documents of the time used the euphemistic term “relocation centers.” After the war, the more factual term “internment camps” became more common. Some groups use the term “concentration camps” to reflect the severity of the injustice enacted by the federal government on innocent people, approximately 80,000 of which were US-born citizens. The official definition of a concentration camp is “a place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard” (“Concentration Camp.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary). The use of this term in the context of Japanese American internship attracted criticism from elements of the Jewish community, who felt that this usage conflated the Japanese American experience with the larger-scale horrors and genocide of Nazi death camps. To avoid conflict, many historians and Japanese American activists have settled on the term “incarceration camps” as a compromise, with the understanding that concentration camp is still the most factually accurate term. Kiku Hughes uses the term “incarceration camps” in Displacement, and that is the term used in this guide.

The War Relocation Authority (WRA), established 10 incarceration camps in various locations across the West and Southwest. Conditions were appalling. The camps were isolated, poorly built, and exposed to the extremes of the weather. Internees were held under armed guard, behind barbed wire and surveilled by watchtowers. Living conditions, provisions, and basic services were extremely bad and internees were exploited as workers. The camps Topaz and Manzanar are the most familiar in popular consciousness, likely because of the books depicting experiences there. The Tule Lake camp is also infamous as the place the WRA sent “trouble-makers,” isolating the prisoners considered disloyal or disruptive to the other camps, such as those who actively protested their treatment. This also included the “no-no boys” —those who answered “no” to the two most controversial questions on the WRA’s ill-conceived “loyalty questionnaire.” On the basis of this questionnaire, some Japanese men were permitted to enlist in the US Army, and some were labeled disloyal dissidents (“Introduction to WW2 Incarceration.” Densho).

During this period, many white communities along the West Coast took advantage of the situation to buy up Japanese property, land, and businesses at rock-bottom prices or, in some cases, to steal them. The Japanese American community lost an estimated $400 million in property and business during their incarceration, the vast majority of which was never recovered, including items of personal and cultural significance (“Japanese American Incarceration.” National WW2 Museum).

Many Japanese Americans protested, and several took their cases to the Supreme Court. The case that finally succeeded was that of Mitsuye Endo, a young woman who argued before the Supreme Court that as a loyal American citizen, she could not be held against her will without cause. As a result, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of ending Japanese incarceration in January 1945. In 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, issuing a presidential apology and rewarding compensation to the 80,000 survivors of the camps.