A Brief Exmination Of U.S. Japanese Internment
UNFINISHED
During the study of Japanese Internment of World War II, I cannot help empathizes with the Japanese Nisei of the time. The Nisei were the second generation of Japanese Americans. They were born and educated in the United States. Despite the prejudice and insults and the resulting inferiority complex, the Nisei considered themselves proud Americans. This I know better than most other Americans, as I am a second generation Asian American and each day I trudge through the racism and prejudice and still I am proud to be an American. Thus, this dark chapter in American history strikes particularly close to home for me. But regardless of being a proud American or not, regardless of your history, your heritage, or your loyalties the American government can have American citizen stripped of their rights and properties and thrown in prisons and internment camps they would dubiously call evacuation sites. It is this dark of United States History to which we are to briefly examine.
The question posed before us is: "was the perceived need to intern Japanese-Americans a result of poor leadership, paranoia, or feelings of extreme ethnocentrism; or perhaps a combination of all those factors." The correct answer is be the latter, a combination of all those factors.
Months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, a report by Special Representative of the State Department Curtis B. Munson carried out an investigation regarding the loyalty of Japanese Americans. (Weglyn) The report was categorizes by their generations and educational background. The information gathered on the first generation of Japanese Americans is that "the Issei, or first generation, is considerably weakened in their loyalty to Japan by the fact that they have chosen to make this (the U.S.) their home and have brought up their children here. They expect to die here." (Weglyn)
The other categories are: the Nisei, second generation in the U.S. and their whole...
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