December 7,1941 a day which will live in infamy. These words marked the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States entry into the war. Fear brewed in the general American population as the war waged in the Pacific and in February 1942 Executive Order 9066 was passed to relocate 122,000 Japanese Americans on the west coast into internment camps to locations being: Topaz Internment Camp (Utah), Colorado River Internment Camp (Arizona), Gila River Internment Camp (Arizona), Granada Internment Camp (Colorado), Heart Mountain Internment Camp (Wyoming), Jerome Internment Camp (Arkansas), Manzanar Internment Camp (California), Minidoka Internment Camp (Idaho), Rohwer Internment Camp (Arkansas), Tule Lake Internment Camp (California). These camps were made as a means to increase surveillance against potential espionage. The WRA (War Relocation Association) hoped to have life in these camps normalized with their own form of governmental body with voting, jobs, and an inmate security force.

Unfortunately, hindsight is always 20/20. Looking back, the actions we took out of fear of the Japanese became eerily close to what the Nazis did to the Jews. These people that were put into these camps were in many cases unable to pay for their mortgages and defaulted on their homes and properties during this time of confinement. When they were eventually released from these internment camps, they found themselves unable to go back to their old jobs. Even if they were to work in an internment camp, they would only be paid a fraction of the average American wage. They had to live in military style barracks and had to live off rationed food.

Japanese internment camps were a clear example of discrimination based solely on race in American history. This blatant discrimination and harassment toward these people have largely been overlooked by the de facto reasoning that America were the glorious victors of World War 2, they were the ones that saved the world from imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. However, this is far from the truth. It is important to recognize that during times of war a nation and its people often turn to extremely racist and bigotry measures to secure their own safety.

The relocation of Japanese Americans is eerily similar to the relocation of Native Americans, yet the former is often glanced passed in American education, while the latter has gained much notoriety and significance.

Sources: 

Kessler, L. (1988). Fettered freedoms: The journalism of World War II japanese internment camps. Journalism History, 15(2-3), 70–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/00947679.1988.12066665

National Archives and Records Administration. (n.d.). Japanese-American internment during World War II. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation.