Friday, October 4, 2013

Japanese American Internment


For this research paper, I am choosing The Japanese American Internment and the war relocation camps that followed during World War II. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, a huge sense of racism swept the nation and almost all Japanese-Americans were stripped of their property and relocated into miserable and abusive internment camps. This controversial part of our history needs to be reevaluated and further taught more prominently as it is a major shortfall in our American history. I also believe that it is a major lesson in history that can still be applied to today's society. For example, just because America was attacked by Arabic Islamic terrorists on September 11, 2001, does not mean that American-Arabs or Muslims shared any part of the anti-American sentiment that the terrorists did. It is an important lesson because it proves that America must respect and not look down upon the ethnicity that America happens to be at war with or had been attacked by. To assume that the Japanese-Americans living in America in 1942 were spies and had anything to do with the attacks on Pearl Harbor was plain speculation based off racist ideals and no solid facts, yet Franklin D. Roosevelt signed off on the internment of Japanese-Americans. It is a shameful event in American history indeed, but it is a lesson worth teaching.

1 comment:

  1. I do think that due to stereotypes, people get scared. And in times of war, I can understand why people are scared of other races (like the Japanese since they did bomb Pearl Harbor). I think there are many instances in history throughout the world where countries imprisoned other nationalities. Unfortunately, that is how a country could stay safe- there could be a mole inside the country planning an attack. While this does need to be taught more, could you think of ways in which we could be more accepting of other cultures we are at war with today?

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