Internment of Japanese Americans
Two months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 ordering all Japanese-Americans to evacuate the West Coast. This resulted in the relocation of approximately 120,000 people, many of whom were American citizens, to one of 10 internment camps located across the country in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. Traditional family structure was upended within the camp, as American-born children were solely allowed to hold positions of authority and older immigrants were deprived of respect.
Two months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 ordering all Japanese-Americans to evacuate the West Coast. This resulted in the relocation of approximately 120,000 people, many of whom were American citizens, to one of 10 internment camps located across the country in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. Traditional family structure was upended within the camp, as American-born children were solely allowed to hold positions of authority and older immigrants were deprived of respect.
The relocation of Japanese-Americans into internment camps during World War II was one of the most flagrant violations of civil liberties in American history. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, rumors spread, fueled by race prejudice, of a plot among Japanese-Americans to sabotage the war effort. In early 1942, the Roosevelt administration was pressured to remove persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast by farmers seeking to eliminate Japanese competition, a public fearing sabotage, politicians hoping to gain by standing against an unpopular group, and military authorities. Many were forced to sell their property at a severe loss before departure.
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5,589 Japanese immigrants renounced their American citizenship, although a federal judge later ruled that renunciations made behind barbed wire were void. Some 3,600 Japanese-Americans entered the armed forces from the camps, as did 22,000 others who lived in Hawaii or outside the relocation zone. The famous all-Japanese 442nd Regimental Combat Team won numerous decorations for its deeds in Italy and Germany.
Some Japanese-American citizens of were allowed to return to the West Coast beginning in 1945, and the last camp closed in March 1946. In 1988, Congress awarded restitution payments of $20,000 each to 73,000 survivors of the camps as compensation for the violation of their liberties.
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The War in the Pacific: The Allies Checks the Axis
Since the attack on Pearl Harbor, over two years would pass until the Allies reached their great turning point in the Pacific War: the defeat of the Japanese at Guadalcanal in February 1943. The Japanese were placed on the defensive as the U.S. began taking strategic bases across the central and southwest Pacific. By the summer of 1944, the Americans were nearing Japan.
Since the attack on Pearl Harbor, over two years would pass until the Allies reached their great turning point in the Pacific War: the defeat of the Japanese at Guadalcanal in February 1943. The Japanese were placed on the defensive as the U.S. began taking strategic bases across the central and southwest Pacific. By the summer of 1944, the Americans were nearing Japan.
On June 15, 1944, American forces invaded the island of Saipan, part of the Mariana Islands in the Central Pacific. Securing Saipan was of critical importance to the U.S.; its airfields would put the Army Air Force’s new B-29 bombers within striking distance of the main Japanese islands. For the Japanese, keeping Saipan was crucial in stopping the American advance.
It would go down as one of the biggest carrier battles of World War II. However, it was the civilian casualties that stunned American troops. As the battle came to an end, large numbers of civilians committed suicide, terrified of being captured by American forces. Japanese government officials exploited the suicides at Saipan to their advantage, calling those who took their lives heroes and encouraging the entire Japanese population to follow suit if the time came.
On February 19, 1945, American forces invaded the tiny island of Iwo Jima to secure airstrips for American B-29 flyers. They encountered 21,000 well-entrenched Japanese defenders. It would take the Marines over a month of fighting over an inhospitable terrain to dig out and overtake the Japanese. When the battle ended on March 26, 1945, as many as 7,000 Americans were dead and 24,000 wounded. Only 1,038 of the 21,000 Japanese defenders were captured alive.
By April 1945, the war in Europe had ended with Allied victory, but the Pacific theater was yet to see its deadliest days. The final land battle of World War II took place a mere 350 miles from the main islands of Japan. The U.S. planned that Okinawa, once captured, would serve as a staging area for an invasion of the main islands.
Okinawa saw 82 days of brutal warfare in horrific conditions at places like Kakazu Ridge, Sugar Loaf Hill and Kunishi Ridge. U.S. Marines and Army troops fought a bloody battle of attrition against an enemy concealed in intricate underground defense systems. When the island was finally secured, more than 12,000 U.S. soldiers and Navy personnel were dead or missing and more than 36,000 were wounded. Seventy thousand soldiers of the Japanese 32nd Army died on Okinawa, joined by as many as 100,000 to 150,000 civilians trapped in the crossfire
The bloodbath at Okinawa was a major factor in President Harry Truman’s decision-making about an invasion of the Japanese home islands. Would the Japanese never capitulate? How many more Americans would die before the war could end? The events of summer 1945 -- including the use of two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki --brought the war to a close before another land battle could take place.