Transcript World War II: Japanese Americans • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BJjo0BCb Go&feature=email • Attack on Pearl Harbor strikes fear along West coast – Pacific fleet destroyed – Fear that.

World War II:
Japanese Americans
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BJjo0BCb
Go&feature=email
• Attack on Pearl Harbor strikes fear along West
coast
– Pacific fleet destroyed
– Fear that Japanese in America could aid in
potential invasion
• 120,000 Japanese on West Coast
– 2/3 Nisei – born in the U.S. (first generation)
• Issei – born in Japan
• Feb. 14, 1942 Lt. Gen. DeWitt recommends all
Japanese be moved to interior of U.S.
• Feb. 19, 1942 – FDR signs Executive Order
9066, authoring removal
– All areas west of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada
mountains
• The camps
– 110,000 people moved
– 10 relocation camps in desolate areas
– Often less than 10 days notice
• Indefinite period of time
• Little baggage
• What do they do with homes, farm, property?
• Life in the camps
– Cheap housing
• 6 families/barrack
• No running water or toilets in barracks
– Harsh environment
– Fenced and guarded by army
• Korematsu v. United States, 1944
– Supreme Court upheld decision in support of
removal
Nihonmachi (Japantown) after the mass removal
Courtesy of the Museum of History & Industry (Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, number PI28065)
Nihonmachi (Japantown) after the mass removal
Courtesy of the Museum of History & Industry (Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, number PI28065)
Japanese Americans boarding train for Manzanar,
California
Courtesy of the Museum of History & Industry (Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, number PI-28058)
Barrack Interior
Courtesy of the Museum of History & Industry (Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection,
number 86.5 (1), Puyallup-Japanese Colony)