Japanese internment
Japanese Internment
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor filled the American population with fear. Thousands of US men were killed, and equipment destroyed. The United States Government believed that the Japanese were working to organize peace, but when President Roosevelt said that “America was suddenly and deliberately attacked” by Japan, American neighbors were quick to share their worries and pleas for something to be done. Japanese Americans were feared because they were thought to be spying for their “homeland.” To try and regain control of the spiraling Americans, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, removing Japanese citizens from their homes across the country, specifically the West Coast, and moving them to what were essentially prison camps. Over 120,000 Japanese Americans were sent to and lived in these internment camps. Because of the harsh conditions and the threat of a higher security camp, only four people are known and documented in their attempts to speak out against the crime that was being committed. Just one of these people was released, but she was responsible for the imminent release of the imprisoned Americans.
Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, Min Yasui, and Mitsuye Endo were the four Americans who are famous for challenging the prison officials and the courts. Endo was born in Sacramento, California, on May 10, 1920. She was fired from a government job after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. In 1942, she challenged her dismissal along with other fellow Japanese American employees. During this time, her house was taken, along with her job. She was sent to Tule Lake. Eventually, she was spotted by a lawyer, James C Purcell, as an ideal plaintiff to fight the Japanese internment injustice. Fred Korematsu was a similarly aged Japanese immigrant who was born in 1919 in Oakland, California. Korematsu was arrested on the street because an officer had realized he was avoiding reporting to the internment camp. Fred paid the bail and was released, but then another officer stopped him while he was walking out and told him that his right to bail was void. He was then sent back to the Topaz Internment Camp.
Endo made her way through many courtrooms, and eventually, the government offered her a release from the concentration camp. To try and shush her up, however, Endo decided to remain incarcerated and continue to fight for justice. Later in 1945, the Supreme Court ruled that the government “has no authority to subject citizens who are concededly loyal to its leave procedure” (“U.S. Reports: Ex Parte Endo, 323 U.S. 283 (1944).”) and this marked the end to the internment camps. WhilstWhilest Korematsu, who was arrested, was trying to clear his federal record in 1988, a judge offered him a pardon, but he said, “I don’t want a pardon. If anything, I should be pardoning the government.”
The aftermath of Japanese Internment following the attack on Pearl Harbor and its effects were long-lasting. Now that the people were freed, they had to go somewhere, and they couldn’t just return to their lives before the Internment. The lives of so many Japanese Americans were affected for many years. Almost 40 years later, in an effort to make up for these crimes committed by the US government, President Ronald Reagan issued a formal apology and compensation of an almost laughable $20,000 in 1988 with his signing of the Civil Liberties Act.
The actions taken by these two Japanese American individuals and the others affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of incarcerated American citizens. Because Endo was the daughter of two immigrants, born in the country, and had never been to Japan, her lawyer, James C Purcell, thought that she would make the most compelling case. And maybe that was true; however, it’s not just about how Endo was received by the government and the courts. It’s about how hard she worked in America, and for America, before and after her case.
Bibliography
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