Discrimination is a form of prejudice against different groups of people. One event in American history that illustrates discrimination and unfair treatment toward a certain group of people was the signing of Executive Order 9066 which affected the Japanese-Americans during World War II. On December 7, 1941, two years after the start of World War Ⅱ, there was an attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Navy Air Service. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the President of the USA, called the day “a day that will live in infamy.”¹ But, the day the President signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, has lived in greater infamy. An examination of the reasons behind the signing of the Order, the treatment of the Japanese-Americans in the concentration camps, and how the Order violated Japanese-Americans’ rights under the American Constitution proves that Executive Order 9066 was an outrageous form of discrimination and hatred from the American government toward Japanese-Americans.
Some historians argue that the signing of Executive Order 9066 was a sensible military strategy. American soldiers were mistreated, beaten, and starved to death by the Japanese on April 9, 1942, during the Bataan Death March which took five days to finish. Thousands of American and Filipino troops died in this march. “Some have argued that mistreatment of American soldiers by the Japanese army- for instance, the atrocities of the Bataan Death March- justifies or excuses the exclusion and detention of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident Japanese aliens.”² The public showed great racism towards Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbour due to misplaced anger. “In addition, there was the threat of public retaliation against the Japanese-American population.”³ It was believed that the signing of the Executive Order was necessary to maintain national security and to keep the Japanese from having another attack. “The successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities.”⁴ Despite these reasons, the signing of Executive Order 9066 has proven to be an act of injustice and prejudice toward Japanese Americans.
The reason that the Americans had to show discrimination toward Americans of Japanese descent is one of the reasons why the signing of Executive Order 9066 was insensible. The attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into the war. “Eight battleships of the US Pacific Fleet were present at Pearl Harbor that morning, and it was Japan’s intention to destroy each of them. The purpose? To keep the Americans from meddling in the conflict taking place more than 3,000 miles across the Pacific.”5 This attack killed more than 2400 Americans. It brought fear, anger, and panic to the Americans and they needed to take action and someone to blame. They displayed angry behavior and discrimination towards Japanese Americans because a lot of people believed that another attack would be launched on the mainland with military aid and support from the Japanese-Ameicans. People printed stories on the news targeting the Japanese-Americans and blaming them for the actions of Japan, a country which some of them have not been to. The attack on Pearl Harbor gave Americans a reason to show discrimination toward Japanese Americans. “Anti-Japanese sentiments had been developing in the U.S. long before WWII had even begun. To most Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, all Asian immigrants posed a threat to the American standard of living and to the racial integrity of the nation.”6 There were complaints from the military leaders on the West Coast that some people from large Japanese communities could be working with the Japanese military and planning more attacks on the U.S. This was without any proof. “According to Adams, the Office of War Information reported in June 1943 that Nazi agents and not Japanese Americans had helped Japan bomb Pearl Harbor.”7
Executive Order 9066 gave the US War Department the authority to place Japanese-Americans in military areas where the Secretary of War gave them certain restrictions. They declared the Pacific Coast a military area and two-thirds of the people sent there were citizens of America. After the signing of Executive Order 9066, the Japanese-Americans had to be relocated and they were sent to concentration camps. Life was not easy for the people living there. The families did not have privacy, adults could not make enough money to provide for their families, and they were expected to get food by farming, but the soil was arid, the temperatures were extreme, they were not given good food, and anyone who tried to escape was shot by the guards. “The few Japanese Americans who were ‘accidentally’ killed by American troops were ‘just as dead as the millions of Jews who were killed deliberately by the Germans…’”8 History puts the placement of Japanese-Americans in concentration camps as their “relocation”, but they were forced to leave their homes and live in terrible conditions in these isolated, guarded and fenced centers. People who refused to go to these concentration camps and people who missed the curfew were arrested. “The war-time measures applied to Japanese Americans were worse ❲than other small groups of people who were also targeted like the German and Italian residents❳ and more sweeping, uprooting entire communities and targeting citizens as well as resident aliens.”9 After the war ended, the US had no reason to hold Japanese-Americans in concentration camps anymore, but “there were debates as to leaving a number of them in the camps because they had exhibited disloyalty to the U.S., a nation that had unfairly held them prisoner for several years.”10
Since the end of the war, America and the whole world saw that what was done to the Japanese-Americans was a great injustice and a complete violation of their rights under the US Constitution. To this day, Americans are ashamed of the actions of their government to isolate Japanese-Americans and make them live miserable lives in concentration camps all because they feared they might be helping Japan plan another attack, without any proof. This led to great losses suffered by the Japanese Americans. “Many lost their homes and businesses as a result of the internment.”11 The directive remained official policy until December 1944. Most of these people were American citizens and their rights were violated when Executive Order 9066 was signed. “The order suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus and denied Japanese Americans their rights under the Fifth Amendment, which states that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process.”12 The order was justified by President Roosevelt by calling it a ‘military necessity’ and declaring Japanese-Americans were a threat to America’s security. After the attack, many of the rights were denied to Asian Americans but were granted to the white population of Americans including immigrants. At this time this was not seen as racism. “No charges had been filed against these people nor had any hearing been held. Evacuation was on a Racial, or, perhaps more accurately, on ancestral grounds. It was the 'largest single forced migration in American History…'”13
The signing of Executive Order 9066 has proven to be an act of injustice and a violation of basic human rights. The reaction of the American citizens after the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan and their discrimination toward anyone of Japanese descent clearly illustrates prejudice and so does the signing of Executive Order 9066 because there was no proof that Japanese-Americans were helping Japan plan another attack on America. The Japanese-Americans lived in harsh conditions in the concentration camps with little food, water, and shelter, and some were killed trying to escape these harsh conditions to get a chance at a better life. As American citizens, most of the people that were relocated had rights under the Constitution which were violated in more than one way when they were told to leave their homes by force. When President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, it went against everything America ‘stands for’ and is built upon which is freedom, justice, and equality because it violated the rights of the people based on mere suspicion and pressure from the population.