In the US, many people were fearful of the Japanese, often seeing them as "spies" for a secret government rival and as a threat to the country's safety by invading the US and giving away the US military's secret plans.This eventually led to the US implementing Executive Order 9066, which stated that all Japanese Americans were not allowed to live freely in areas around the Pacific Coast and in military areas so that the US would be able to maintain its status as "a White man's country." As a result of Executive Order 9066 being put into play, Japanese Americans were forced to be sent to internment camps, which were usually located in horseracing stables in isolated desert areas with unpleasant weather conditions. Along the way to these camps, people lost basic rights and civil liberties, families, prized belongings, and for some Japanese, they lost $500 million dollars worth of businesses and homes.
At the camps, approximately 70% of the people were American-born Japanese, also known as Nisei. Houses at the camps were made up of 14 tarpaper barracks that had a laundry room, straw beds with blankets, and gender-neutral bathrooms, which were all shared by more than 200 people who made up the population of the barrack's residence.
Unlike the Nazi concentration camps, people at Japanese internment camps had more freedom; for instance, they could choose between serving in the army or living in the camp. At Nazi camps, people's only choice was to live in the camp, where the much harsher environment of shootings, deadly gas chambers, and slave torture would eventually cause the people there to die. Adults could work jobs and earn $5, and children could go to school. Additionally, they had more opportunities to relieve the hardships of the camp life. Families had medical care and were fed three meals per day in communal dining halls where they could meet and interact with other families; although the food was served in small portions and not very nutritious, it was a lot better than what the people at Nazi camps had: very little or no food for the majority of people. At internment camps, people found ways to entertain themselves, such as playing baseball and other team sports with each other or taking arts and crafts classes.sources used:
- http://www.ushistory.org/us/51e.asp
- https://www.nps.gov/manz/learn/historyculture/japanese-americans-at-manzanar.htm
- online textbook
Interesting post that provides a lot of information about life in American internment camps. I had no idea that children at the camps could still receive an education. I think it would also be interesting to mention the Japanese Prisoner of War Camps, as they were also quite heinous in treatment, and treated American POW's worse than the Nazis. Do you believe that the Allies should have bombed concentration camps like Auschwitz during the war?
ReplyDeleteFor more information on Auschwitz:
https://www.britannica.com/place/Auschwitz
This gave me a lot of information about the Japanese internment camps. Because the purpose of the camps were different, the people were treated differently. The Japanese camps were more normal than the Nazi camps, but many aspects of the prisoners' lives were still very harsh. For example, there were a lot of diseases as a result of unsanitary conditions and crowded spaces. Source: https://dp.la/exhibitions/exhibits/show/japanese-internment
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