Japanese Internment
Unit Question: What was the American response to Japanese Internment?
BACKGROUND NARRATIVE: HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL
Imagine your family was given six days’ notice to pack all of your belongings and move to an
unknown place. You are only allowed to take what you can carry. Everything else must be sold
and left behind. For five days you watch your parents sell all your things. Some buyers offer a
fair price, but many take advantage and buy your family’s effects at a fraction of their worth.
You’re forced to take your clothes and other necessities instead of your prized possessions. You
give your favorite games to your best friend and say goodbye. She is acting strangely. You know
she is sad, but also seems confused and withdrawn. You wonder what she has been hearing on
the radio and from other people.
You watch your neighbors, who you
once considered friends, turn their backs
and ignore your troubles. Some of them
even call you names and shout at you
from across the street. Many seem
sympathetic, but do nothing but look at
you with pity. You load your few
suitcases into your neighbor’s van. He
doesn’t know what to say, but at least
he’s there to support you in his own way.
The drive is silent until you approach the
government holding area. Then your
neighbor and your parents break down in
tears as the neighbor promises to take
care of your pets and fight for your quick
return.
This scenario was reality for Japanese Americans in the spring of 1942. The American
government cleared the West Coast of Japanese families and moved them into internment camps.
The question we will be exploring asks how people who saw this happening reacted.
Background
Few Japanese lived on the American mainland before they began immigrating in large numbers
in the late 1800’s. In Japan, industrialization pushed farmers off their land. Many of the
dispossessed moved to America seeking new opportunities. American businessmen were
looking for cheap labor to build the railroads and work long hours in the fields. The Chinese had
met this need, but in 1882, their immigration was suspended by the Chinese Exclusion Act. The
Japanese quickly took their place. In 1890 the census counted 2,039 Japanese in the U.S. Two
decades later there were more than 72,000, including 40,000 in agriculture, 10,000 railroad
workers, and 4,000 cannery laborers.1
The first wave of Japanese immigrants were young men, ready to work. Most of these men
planned to make their fortune and go back to Japan. But this shifted in the early 1900’s, when
many decided life in America was better than Japan, even with the prejudices. The young men
began settling down and starting families. Many Japanese Americans rented or leased land and
were incredibly successful at yielding large amounts of fruits and vegetables on small plots of
land. They frequented Japanese businesses that began to cluster in pockets in west coast cities.
Japanese Americans rarely had to look outside of their own ethnic group for anything, including
marriage.
At least part of this ethnocentrism was a result of prejudice. As the Empire of Japan gained
power in the Pacific, Japanese Americans gained success and influence in their new country, and
many whites resented them. The tradition of discriminating against Asians that began with the
Chinese continued with the Japanese, as state and federal governments passed laws limiting their
rights. These laws banned Japanese immigrants, or Issei, from owning land and restricted their
leases. It was nearly impossible for Japanese Americans to get professional jobs in businesses
outside their community. Ineligible for citizenship themselves, the Issei focused their hopes on
their children. This first generation of Japanese born in America, or Nisei, embraced both their
cultural background and their adopted country. Both generations focused on hard work and
education as the keys to success. But often even that wasn’t enough, and many educated Nisei
could not find jobs in the areas in which they studied. Still, the Nisei continued to accept many of
the American ways while blending them with their ethnic traditions and identities.
World War II
World War II brought more problems for Japanese Americans. The war first involved European
nations, when Germany invaded Poland, leading France and Britain to declare war. Other
countries began to choose sides, forming opposing coalitions known as the Axis (Germany, Italy
and Japan) and Allies (Poland, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union). The United States chose
not to get directly involved, instead continuing
the policy of isolationism it had adopted early
in its history. Most Americans believed this
was a European conflict and did not see the
need for the U.S. to get embroiled. That all
changed on December 7, 1941.
That morning, the Japanese launched a surprise
air attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Much of
the U.S. Pacific Fleet was stationed there, and
the Japanese Empire did not want the fleet
interfering in their plans to conquer European
colonies in Southeast Asia. The attack was
indeed a surprise, causing many U.S. losses.
Four navy battle ships were sunk and another
four damaged. The Japanese also sunk or damaged smaller ships and aircraft. In total, about half
of the pacific Fleet was damaged or destroyed. The human costs were also severe, with 2,402
men killed and 1,282 wounded.2 The devastation shocked and outraged Americans.
The attack on Pearl Harbor struck fear into the hearts of many Americans who suddenly came to
view the Japanese American presence in their country as a threat to national security. A day
after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. The
resolution was approved, with only one representative voting against it.3 On the west coast,
particularly, many citizens believed the Issei and Nissei were loyal to Japan. Large numbers of
Japanese Americans on the coast combined with traditional prejudices led to cries for action.
People worried that a Japanese “5th column”* could seemingly strike at any time. President
Roosevelt suddenly had a decision to make about what to do with the thousands of Japanese
Americans living in the United States.
The Decision to Intern
In the days immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor the FBI arrested approximately
1,200 Japanese aliens within the United States, and President Roosevelt came under increasing
political and public pressure to do something about the Japanese population in California. Fiery
newspaper columnist Westbrook Pegler wrote that “The Japanese in California should be under
armed guard to the last man and woman right now, and to hell with habeas corpus until the
danger is over.”4 Walter Lippman, another prominent newspaper columnist joined Peggler in his
cries, claiming “Nobody’s constitutional rights include the right to reside and do business on a
battlefield.”5 Columnist Henry McLemore took it a step further, declaring:
"I am for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast to a point deep in
the interior. I don't mean a nice part of the interior either. Herd 'em up, pack 'em off and
give 'em the inside room in the badlands... Personally, I hate the Japanese. And that goes
for all of them."6
As the days continued, more and more newspaper columnists would join Peggler and Lippman in
their cries for action, stoking public fear and creating a frenzied and anxious state among the
general population calling for Roosevelt to take action against the Japanese.
In addition to the pressure from newspaper columnists and the public at large, Roosevelt also
faced mounting political pressure from Congressmen. Senator Harly Kilgor wrote to Roosevelt
on the 19th of February urging him to put the Japanese, “under military law, permitting their
removal, regardless of their citizenship rights, to internal and less dangerous areas.” 7 As
pressure from politicians grew Roosevelt also encountered military advisers who recommended
the exclusion of persons of foreign descent, including American citizens, from sensitive areas of
the country. Military General John L. De Witt was the most prominent and forceful among them
saying,
*
The Japanese 5th column was a term used to describe the common perception that there was a large group of
Japanese forces who were loyal to Japan but lived in the United States and could rise up at any moment.
I don't want any of them [persons of Japanese ancestry] here. They are a dangerous
element. There is no way to determine their loyalty... It makes no difference whether he is
an American citizen, he is still a Japanese. American citizenship does not necessarily
determine loyalty... But we must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped
off the map.8
In the weeks leading up to the decision to intern, Roosevelt faced a terrified public and a forceful
and vocal group of politicians, military advisors and newspaper columnists all crying for him to
intern Japanese Americans.
There were however, those who urged the president to exercise restraint and argued that
internment was unconstitutional. Attorney General Francis Biddle repeatedly pressed the
president not to carry out an internment order. In the weeks after Pearl Harbor, Biddle chided
the newspaper columnists for stoking public anger while at the same time warning Roosevelt not
to bend to pressure from Congress and the hysteria being created by outspoken columnists.9
Biddle was joined in his attempts to steer the president away from internment by his assistant
James R. Howe, who denounced the proposal to intern Japanese Americans as unconstitutional,
and believed that it was being forced on the administration by irrational public fear. 10
As you can see, the decision
to intern was certainly not
an easy one. However,
despite the protests of the
Justice department, on
February 19, 1942, President
Roosevelt caved in to
political and public pressure
and signed into law
Executive Order 9066
granting the War
Department broad powers to
create military exclusion
areas. By 1943, more than
110,000 Japanese
Americans had been forced
from their homes and moved
to camps in remote inland
areas of the United States.
Today, the decision to intern Japanese Americans is widely viewed by historians and legal
scholars as a grave mistake. In fact, no Japanese were ever convicted of espionage or sabotage.
In 1988, the US congress passed legislation which officially apologized for the internment on
behalf of the U.S. government. The legislation said that government actions were based on "race
prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership".11 The U.S. government eventually
disbursed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to Japanese Americans who had been interned
and their heirs.
Citations
1
Takaki, Robert. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. New York:
Penguin, 1989.
2
Full Pearl Harbor Casualty List, available at http://www.usswestvirginia.org/ph/phlist.php
3
One Vote Against War With Japan. Ask the Editors. Infoplease, June 21, 2011
http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/one-vote-against-war-japan.html.
4
Peggler, Westbrook. “The Los Angeles Times, February 16, 1942
5
Lippman, Walter. American Columnist February 1942
6
Neiwert, David. The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right. 2009,
page 195
7
Sen. Harley M. Kilgore. Letter to President Roosevelt, February 19, 1942:
8
Mullen, Fred. "DeWitt Attitude on Japs Upsets Plans," Watsonville Register-Pajaronian,
April 16, 1943. p.1
9
Memorandum to the President from Attorney General Francis Biddle, February 17, 1942
10
Memorandum from James H. Rowe, Jr. to Grace Tully, February 2, 1942
11
100th Congress, S. 1009
Photo Credits:
Japanese Internment Order, http://www.dontknowmuch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/orderposting.gif.
Attack on Pearl Harbor, http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ww2-pix/pearl.jpg
Japanese Internment Camps Map,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/4/4b/20100301145638!Map_of_World
_War_II_Japanese_American_internment_camps.jpg
BACKGROUND NARRATIVE: MIDDLE SCHOOL LEVEL
Unit Question: What was the American response to Japanese American internment?
Imagine your family was given six days’ notice to pack all of your belongings and move to an
unknown place. You are only allowed to take what you can carry. Everything else must be sold
and left behind. For five days you watch your parents sell all your things. Some buyers offer a
fair price, but many take advantage and buy your family’s effects at a fraction of their worth.
You’re forced to take your clothes and other items you need instead of what you want. You give
your favorite games to your best friend and say goodbye. She is acting odd. You know she is sad,
but she also seems confused and quiet. You wonder what she has been hearing on the radio and
from other people.
You watch your neighbors, who you
used to think were friends, turn their
backs and ignore your troubles. Some
of them even call you names and shout
at you from across the street. Many
seem concerned, but do nothing but
look at you with pity. You load your
few suitcases into your neighbor’s van.
He doesn’t know what to say, but at
least he’s there to support you in his
own way. The drive is silent until you
approach the government holding area.
Then your neighbor and your parents
break down in tears as the neighbor
promises to take care of your pets and
fight for your quick return.
This scene was real for Japanese Americans in the spring of 1942. The American government
cleared the West Coast of Japanese families and moved them into internment camps – camps
were prisoners of war were forced to live. The question we will be exploring asks how people
who saw this happening reacted.
Background
Few Japanese lived on the North American continent before the late 1800’s. Then, as Japanese
industry grew, it drove farmers from their land. Many of the homeless moved to America
looking for new chances to succeed. American businessmen were looking for cheap labor to
build the railroads and work long hours in the fields. The Chinese had been doing this, but in
1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act stopped them from moving to America. The Japanese quickly
took their place. In 1890 the census counted 2,039 Japanese in the U.S. Twenty years later there
were more than 72,000, including 40,000 in farming, 10,000 railroad workers, and 4,000 cannery
workers.1
The first group of Japanese moving to America were young men, ready to work. Most of these
men planned to get rich then go back to Japan. But this changed in the early 1900’s, when many
settled down and started families. Many Japanese Americans rented or leased property and were
incredibly successful at growing large amounts of fruits and vegetables on small pieces of land.
They used Japanese businesses that began to bunch up in areas of west coast cities. Japanese
Americans rarely had to look outside of their own ethnic group for anything, including marriage.
At least part of this ethnocentrism was a result of prejudice. As the Empire of Japan gained
power in the Pacific, Japanese Americans gained success and power in their new country, and
many whites disliked them. The tradition of discriminating against Asians that began with the
Chinese continued with the Japanese, as state and national governments passed laws limiting
their rights. These laws banned Japanese immigrants, or Issei, from owning or renting land. It
was almost impossible for Japanese Americans to get skilled jobs in businesses outside their
community. The Issei were forbidden from citizenship themselves, so they focused their hopes
on their children. This first generation of Japanese born in America, or Nisei, appreciated both
their cultural background and their adopted country. Both generations focused on hard work and
education as the keys to success. But often even that wasn’t enough, and many educated Nisei
could not find jobs in the areas in which they studied. Still, the Nisei continued to accept many of
the American ways while mixing them with their ethnic traditions and identities.
World War II
World War II brought more problems for Japanese Americans. The war first involved European
nations, when Germany invaded Poland, leading France and Britain to declare war. Other
countries began to choose sides, forming opposing groups known as the Axis (Germany, Italy
and Japan) and Allies (Poland, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union). The United States chose
not to get involved, instead continuing the policy of isolationism it had adopted early in its
history. Most Americans believed this was a European conflict and did not see a reason for the
U.S. to get involved. That all changed on December 7, 1941.
That morning, the Japanese launched a surprise air
attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Much of the U.S.
Pacific Fleet was based there, and the Japanese
Empire did not want the fleet interfering in their
plans to take over European colonies in Southeast
Asia. The attack was truly a surprise, causing many
U.S. losses. Four navy battle ships were sunk and
another four damaged. The Japanese also sunk or
damaged smaller ships and aircraft. The human
costs were severe as well, with 2,402 men killed
and 1,282 wounded.2 The destruction shocked and
outraged Americans.
The attack on Pearl Harbor scared many Americans. They suddenly came to see the Japanese
Americans living in their country as a threat to national safety. A day after the attack, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. The request was approved, with
only one representative voting against it.3 On the west coast particularly, many citizens believed
the Issei and Nissei were loyal to Japan. Large numbers of Japanese Americans on the coast
combined with traditional prejudices led to cries for action. People worried that a Japanese “5th
column”* could strike at any time. President Roosevelt suddenly had a decision to make about
what to do with the thousands of Japanese Americans living in the United States.
The Decision to Intern
In the days right after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI arrested approximately 1,200 Japanese
aliens within the United States, and President Roosevelt came under increasing pressure to do
something about the Japanese population in California. Fiery newspaper columnist Westbrook
Pegler wrote that “The Japanese in California should be under armed guard to the last man and
woman right now… until the danger is over.”4 Walter Lippman, another famous newspaper
columnist joined Peggler, claiming “Nobody’s constitutional rights include the right to reside
and do business on a battlefield.”5 Columnist Henry McLemore took it a step further, saying:
"I am for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast to a point deep in
the interior. I don't mean a nice part of the interior either. Herd 'em up, pack 'em off and
give 'em the inside room in the badlands... Personally, I hate the Japanese. And that goes
for all of them."6
As the days continued, more and more newspaper columnists would join Peggler and Lippman.
This stirred up public fear and created a wild and anxious feeling among the people. So the
people called for Roosevelt to take action against the Japanese.
In addition to the pressure from newspaper columnists and the public at large, Roosevelt also
faced growing political pressure from Congressmen. Senator Harly Kilgor wrote to Roosevelt on
the 19th of February urging him to put the Japanese, “under military law, permitting their
removal, regardless of their citizenship rights, to internal and less dangerous areas.” 7 As
pressure from politicians grew Roosevelt also came across military advisers who recommended
the exclusion of persons of foreign ancestry from sensitive areas of the country. This included
Japanese American who had become citizens! Military General John L. De Witt was the most
well-known and forceful among them saying,
I don't want any of them [persons of Japanese ancestry] here. They are a dangerous
element. There is no way to determine their loyalty... It makes no difference whether he is
an American citizen, he is still a Japanese. American citizenship does not necessarily
determine loyalty... But we must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped
off the map.8
In the weeks leading up to the decision to intern, Roosevelt faced a terrified public and a strong
and vocal group of politicians, military advisors and newspaper columnists all crying for him to
intern Japanese Americans.
*
The Japanese 5th column was a word used to describe the common belief that there was a large group of Japanese
forces who were loyal to Japan but lived in the United States and could rise up at any moment.
There were also those who urged the president to use restraint and argued that internment was
unconstitutional. Attorney General Francis Biddle many times told the president not to intern the
Japanese. In the weeks after Pearl Harbor Biddle blamed the newspaper columnists for
encouraging public anger and at the same time warning Roosevelt not to give in to pressure from
Congress and the panic being created by outspoken columnists. 9 James R. Howe, Biddle’s
assistant, also criticized the plan to intern Japanese Americans as unconstitutional, and believed
that it was being forced on the administration by unreasonable public fear. 10
As you can see, the decision to
intern was certainly not an
easy one. However, despite
the complaints of the Justice
department, on February 19,
1942, President Roosevelt
gave in to political and public
pressure and signed the bill.
Executive Order 9066 gave
the War Department the power
to create military exclusion
areas, or places where
Japanese would not be
allowed to live. By 1943, more
than 110,000 Japanese
Americans had been forced
from their homes and moved
to camps in far-off inland
areas of the United States.
Today, the decision to intern
Japanese Americans is usually seen by historians and legal scholars as a serious mistake. In fact,
no Japanese were convicted of spying or sabotage (intentional damage to important work or
property). In 1988, the US congress passed laws which officially apologized for the internment
on behalf of the U.S. government. The legislation said that government actions were based on
"race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership". 11 The U.S. government
eventually gave more than $1.6 billion to pay back Japanese Americans who had been interned
or their surviving family members.
Citations
1
Takaki, Robert. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. New York:
Penguin, 1989.
2
Full Pearl Harbor Casualty List, available at http://www.usswestvirginia.org/ph/phlist.php
3
One Vote Against War With Japan. Ask the Editors. Infoplease, June 21, 2011
http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/one-vote-against-war-japan.html.
4
Peggler, Westbrook. “The Los Angeles Times, February 16, 1942
5
Lippman, Walter. American Columnist February 1942
6
Neiwert, David. The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right. 2009,
page 195
7
Sen. Harley M. Kilgore. Letter to President Roosevelt, February 19, 1942:
8
Mullen, Fred. "DeWitt Attitude on Japs Upsets Plans," Watsonville Register-Pajaronian,
April 16, 1943. p.1
9
Memorandum to the President from Attorney General Francis Biddle, February 17, 1942
10
Memorandum from James H. Rowe, Jr. to Grace Tully, February 2, 1942
11
100th Congress, S. 1009
Photo Credits:
Japanese Internment Order, http://www.dontknowmuch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/orderposting.gif.
Attack on Pearl Harbor, http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ww2-pix/pearl.jpg
Japanese Internment Camps Map,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/4/4b/20100301145638!Map_of_World
_War_II_Japanese_American_internment_camps.jpg
JAPANESE INTERNMENT DBQ LESSON
Subject: U.S. History
Topic: Japanese Internment
Appropriate Grade Level(s): 10-12th
Oregon Social Studies State Standards:
SS.HS.HS.02 Compare and contrast institutions and ideas in history, noting cause and
effect relationships.
SS.HS.HS.04 Understand how contemporary perspectives affect historical interpretation.
SS.HS.SA.01 Define, research, and explain an event, issue, problem, or phenomenon and
its significance to society.
SS.HS.SA.02 Gather, analyze, use, and document information from various sources,
distinguishing facts, opinions, inferences, biases, stereotypes, and persuasive appeals.
SS.HS.SA.03 Understand what it means to be a critical consumer of information.
SS.HS.SA.04 Analyze an event, issue, problem, or phenomenon from varied or opposed
perspectives or points of view.
Goal: The student will evaluate and explain the decision to intern Japanese Americans during
the war. Students will analyze bias and perspective through letters, cartoon propaganda, and
poetry to create an essay explaining the decision to intern from the perspective of the general
public.
Lesson Objective:
Analyze documents for bias.
Write an essay using provided documents to support their response.
List of materials: Letters, cartoon, pictures, and poetry.
Activities:
Review the SOAPS technique of analyzing documents.
Use the SOAPS technique to analyze all the documents.
Write a short essay explaining the public perception of the decision to intern.
Scaffolding:
As a class you can go over the documents to ensure understanding.
Students can be paired weaker and stronger together to analyze documents.
Small groups can analyze documents separately and then meet to discuss the conclusions
they reached.
Evaluation:
Students can hold up their SOAPS forms or the teacher can go around and check them off
to make sure students filled them out.
The teacher can do a thumbs up/thumbs down to check for understanding of each of the
documents.
Evaluation of the final written product including appropriate usage of the documents.
NAME ___________________________________
Analyze each of the accompanying documents using the SOAPS technique and write
your answers on the SOAPS sheet.
Using a minimum of seven of the documents and any background knowledge you have
please write a one page essay addressing the following question: How did the general
public perceive the need for Japanese Internment and how was that perception affected
by media and other influences?
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SOAPS
Questions to
Ask
What is the topic?
Subject
What information
does it contain?
What is included,
what is left out?
What is the source of
the information?
How accurate or
reliable to you think
the information is?
Occasion
When and where?
What is important
about the time and
place?
Audience
Who is the target of
the information or the
message?
Purpose
What point is trying
to be made? What is
trying to be proven?
Why was this
created?
Who made this?
Speaker
Is the “author”
credible (or biased)?
Responses
DOCUMENT A
DOCUMENT B
DOCUMENT C
Their Best Way to Show Loyalty
An Editorial
Japanese leaders in California who are counseling their people, both aliens and native-born, to co-operate
with the Army in carrying out the evacuation plans are, in effect, offering the best possible way for all
Japanese to demonstrate their loyalty to the United States.
Many aliens and practically all the native-born have been protesting their allegiance to this Government.
Although their removal to inland districts outside the military zones may inconvenience them somewhat,
even work serious hardships upon some, they must certainly recognize the necessity of clearing the
coastal combat areas of all possible fifth columnists and saboteurs. Inasmuch as the presence of enemy
agents cannot be detected readily when these areas are thronged by Japanese the only course left is to
remove all persons of that race for the duration of the war.
That is a clear-cut policy easily understood. Its execution should be supported by all citizens of whatever
racial background, but especially it presents an opportunity to the people of an enemy race to prove their
spirit of co-operation and keep their relations with the rest of the population of this country on the firm
ground of friendship.
Every indication has been given that the transfer will be made with the least possible hardship. General
DeWitt’s order was issued in such a way as to give those who can make private moving arrangements
plenty of time to do so. All others will not be moved until arrangements can be made for places for them
to go. They may have to be housed in temporary quarters until permanent ones can be provided for
them, but during the summer months that does not mean they will be unduly uncomfortable.
Their property will be carefully protected by the Federal Government, their food and shelter will be
provided to the extent they are not able to provide it for themselves, and they will be furnished plenty of
entertainment and recreation. That is not according to the pattern of the European concentration camp
by any means.
Real danger would exist for all Japanese if they remained in the combat area. The least act of sabotage
might provoke angry reprisals that easily could balloon into bloody race riots.
We must avoid any chance of that sort of thing. The most sensible, the most humane way to insure
against it is to move the Japanese out of harm’s way and make it as easy as possible for them to go and
to remain away until the war is over.
The San Francisco News
March 6, 1942
DOCUMENT D
DOCUMENT E
322-14-d
Poston, Arizona
November 16, 1942
Dear Miss Breed,
Guess who? Yup it's ole unreliable again, none other than yours truly, Tetsuzo. Gosh the wind's been
blowing all night and all morning. Kinda threatening to blow the roofs down. Dust is all over the place.
Gives everything a coating of fine dust.
The food has been all right except for quantity...The medical situation here is pitiful. For that matter in
all three camps. The main and the only hospital is at Camp I 15 miles away. Here in Camp III there is one
young doctor with not too much experience and one student doctor working in an emergency clinic.
They are supposed to take care of approximately 5000 people!!!! and they (the Big shots) wonder why
we squawk about inadequate medical attention.
No I haven't hiked to the river yet. I'd better do it soon cause there is going to be a fence around this
camp!!!!!! 5 strands of barbed wire!!!!!!!!!! They say it's to keep the people out. . . . It's also to keep out
cattle. Where in the cattle countries do they use 5 strands of barbed wire??
If they don't watch out there's going to be trouble. What do they think we are, fools?? At Santa Anita at
the time of the riot the armored cars parked outside of the main gates, pointed the heavy machine guns
inside and then the army had the gall to tell us that the purpose of that was to keep the white folks from
coming in to mob the Japs. Same thing with the guards on the watch towers. They had their
machineguns pointed at us to protect us from the outsiders, hah, hah, hah, [I'm] laughing yet.
I am sending you a few things in appreciation for what you have done for me as well as for my sister and
all the rest.... Your name plate I made from mesquite as are also the lapel pins. However the dark pin is
made from a pine knot from Santa Anita. The rest are all Poston Products.
I've got to close now so that I can make the outgoing mail today.
Very truly yours,
Tetsuzo
P.S. Have a nice Thanksgiving dinner. TH
P.S. Do you think you could send me some Welch's peanut brittle? TH
DOCUMENT F
DOCUMENT G
THAT DAMNED FENCE
They've sunk the posts deep into the ground
They've strung out wires all the way around.
With machine gun nests just over there,
And sentries and soldiers everywhere.
We're trapped like rats in a wired cage,
To fret and fume with impotent rage;
Yonder whispers the lure of the night,
But that DAMNED FENCE assails our sight.
We seek the softness of the midnight air,
But that DAMNED FENCE in the floodlight glare
Awakens unrest in our nocturnal quest,
And mockingly laughs with vicious jest.
With nowhere to go and nothing to do,
We feed terrible, lonesome, and blue:
That DAMNED FENCE is driving us crazy,
Destroying our youth and making us lazy.
Imprisoned in here for a long, long time,
We know we're punished--though we've committed no crime,
Our thoughts are gloomy and enthusiasm damp,
To be locked up in a concentration camp.
Loyalty we know, and patriotism we feel,
To sacrifice our utmost was our ideal,
To fight for our country, and die, perhaps;
But we're here because we happen to be Japs.
We all love life, and our country best,
Our misfortune to be here in the west,
To keep us penned behind that DAMNED FENCE,
Is someone's notion of NATIONAL DEFENCE!
DOCUMENT H
DOCUMENT I
JAPANESE INTERNMENT GEOGRAPHY LESSON
NAME __________________________________
This lesson will be used to visually show where Japanese Americans lived and worked prior to
internment. After completing this lesson you should be able to identify some of the
characteristics of the Japanese community as well as life in the internment camps.
Using Google Earth load Japanese Internment project (Japanese_Internment.kmz)
Unclick all checkmarks below Japanese internment
Double click on Exclusion Zone and read the summary
Click the Exclusion zone square
The red highlighted area shows the exclusion area. Where are the Japanese being moved from
and where are they being moved to?
Click off the exclusion zone square and double click on WRA Census (CA 1941) - ALL
where you will read the summary. Click the WRA square.
Once you have a partner, pick a city to examine and answer the following questions:
What do each of the yellow stars represent?
What information can you find from each star?
Click on 5 different stars and find the following information:
Star 1:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Family Name
Where the person was born
Their job/occupation
The internment camp the person was assigned to
Star 2:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Family Name
Where the person was born
Their job/occupation
The internment camp the person was assigned to
Star 3:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Family Name
Where the person was born
Their job/occupation
The internment camp the person was assigned to
Star 4:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Family Name
Where the person was born
Their job/occupation
The internment camp the person was assigned to
Star 5:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Family Name
Where the person was born
Their job/occupation
The internment camp the person was assigned to
Now click on 5 more stars to see what internment camp those people were sent to.
Were most of the people sent to the same camp? If not, was there any one camp that most
people were assigned to?
Look at your responses above, how many of the people you looked at were sent to the same
camp?
These people were neighbors, families, and friends all in the same community; how do you think
internment affected those communities?
How would feel if your best friend that lived next door was suddenly shipped off to a different
internment camp than you?
How do you think people felt to be separated from their parents, grandparents, cousins etc.?
What would the impact of that separation be on families?
Click off the WRA census square and click on the Internment Camps square. Choose one
of the internment camps people you looked at were sent to (you may need to zoom out to
find your camp). Click that camp’s square and then the highlighted link to get to the
camp’s website. Look through the pictures, stories, and other information provided on the
site to answer the questions below.
How would you describe the camp?
What types of things do people do to make a living?
What types of things do people do to have fun?
What does the camp look like?
What do the buildings look like?
How are the people kept in the camp?
Is this internment camp a place you would like to live? Explain why or why not using specific
things you found on the site.
How would you feel being moved to this internment camp and living in your new “home”?
Click off the Internment Camps square and click on the 1934-55 Business (Japanese) link.
Read the summary. Now also click on the Directories for Japanese Businesses squares for
each of the years 1934-1941.
Using this map of downtown Portland, what information can you get?
What do the pink squares represent?
What do you notice as you add more years to your search?
Please estimate how many Japanese businesses you think there were with just the 1934
Directories square clicked on:
Please estimate how many Japanese businesses you think there were with just the 1935
Directories square clicked on:
Please estimate how many Japanese businesses you think there were with just the 1936
Directories square clicked on:
Now once again click on the Directories for Japanese Businesses squares for each of the
years 1934-1941.
Please estimate how many businesses there were:
Pick 5 different squares to click on and answer the following questions:
Square 1:
The name of the business
The address
The type of business
Square 2:
The name of the business
The address
The type of business
Square 3:
The name of the business
The address
The type of business
Square 4:
The name of the business
The address
The type of business
Square 5:
The name of the business
The address
The type of business
What do you think happened to these businesses once their owners were sent to internment
camps?
How would you feel if you used your own money to start a business, pay for the building it sat
on, pay for all the materials you needed to run it, only to be forced to leave?
What would you have done with your business, all your supplies, inventory etc. if you were sent
away?
Click off all the squares and click on any of the 1949-1955 Directories- Japanese squares.
The map now shows Japanese businesses post-internment. Approximately how many Japanese
businesses are there now for each year?
1949:
1950:
1952:
1953:
1954:
1955:
Did the number of Japanese businesses increase or decrease after internment?
What do you think happened to these businesses?
Are any of the businesses you looked at pre-internment still there?
If you were a Japanese business owner would you restart your business? Why or why not?
What effect do you think the closing of Japanese businesses had on the Japanese community?
JAPANESE INTERNMENT IMAGE COMPARISON LESSON
Topic: Japanese Interment Camps
Appropriate Grade Level: 7-8
Oregon Social Studies State Standards:
1. 7.39. Analyze evidence from multiple sources including those with conflicting information.
2. 8.6. Use and interpret documents and other relevant primary and secondary sources
pertaining to U.S. History from multiple perspectives.
3. 8.7. Analyze evidence from multiple sources including those with conflicting accounts about
specific events in U.S. History.
4. 8.32. Examine a controversial event, issue, or problem from more than one perspective.
Goal: The students will gain an understanding of how propaganda materials were used to
describe daily life in the Japanese internment camps. Students will explore how the WRA
portrayed life in the Japanese internment camps to the general public as compared to other
competing historical accounts.
Lesson Objective: To compare, contrast, and draw conclusions based on competing historical
evidence related to the Japanese Internment camps on the west coast.
List of Materials:
1. The following four images:
a. http://ahc.uwyo.edu/eduoutreach/lessonplans/heartmountain/jpgs/hm09.jpg
b. http://ahc.uwyo.edu/eduoutreach/lessonplans/heartmountain/jpgs/hm10.jpg
c. http://cache3.assetcache.net/xc/92934127.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF878921CC759
DF4EBAC47D07B4657CE2754D82C5516A0515650933D176DEA7B73EAC499E3
0A760B0D811297
d. http://la8period3.pbworks.com/w/page/25942447/Living-Conditions-of-JapaneseAmerican-Internment-Camps
2. Student worksheet
Activities: The following is a summary of the lesson.
Background information: On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order
No. 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War to establish military areas from which any or all
persons might be excluded. This order translated into the evacuation of more than 100,000
Japanese and Japanese Americans from the West Coast of the United States. Japanese Americans
who were unable to leave the Pacific Coast on their own were ordered to relocation camps
administered by the War Relocation Authority. One of these ten camps, Heart Mountain
Relocation Center, was located between Powell and Cody, Wyoming. At its peak, Heart
Mountain interned more than 10,000 Japanese Americans and was the third largest community in
Wyoming. [WRA is the War Relocation Authority. This was a United States Agency to handle
the internment of the Japanese, German, and Italian Americans during WWII.]
Show Image One and Two to the class as a whole group. Explain to the students that Image One
and Two were produced by the WRA.
From Images One and Two the student will answer the following questions. This will be done
on a worksheet provided to each student.
1. Who are the people featured in the photograph?
2. What is happening in the photographs?
3. What is your impression of living conditions in the photograph? Are they good? bad?
4. Can you draw any conclusions about the people's feelings in the photograph? Do they seem
happy or sad?
Once the students have answered the questions for Image One and Two. Discuss as a group the
students’ responses.
Show image Three and Four to the whole class as a group. Explain to the students that Image
Three and Four are actual photographs of camp life taken by journalists.
From Images Three and Four the student will answer the following questions. This will be done
on a worksheet provided to each student.
1. Who are the people featured in the photograph?
2. What is happening in the photographs?
3. What is your impression of living conditions in the photograph? Are they good? bad?
4. Can you draw any conclusions about the people's feelings in the photograph? Do they seem
happy or sad?
Once the students have answered the questions for Image Three and Four. Discuss as a group
the students’ responses.
Scaffolding: After images one and two have been shown and again after images three and four.
1. Give the students some time to respond to each question.
2. Have the students share their responses to a partner.
3. Have a class discussion on each the questions.
Evaluation: On the students worksheet the last two questions will be the evaluations of all four
images.
1. Why do some sources relay more accurate information than others?
2. Why were the WRA images so different than the actual images?
Name:
Date:
Period:
Japanese Internment Camp Life Worksheet
Image One and Two: WRA Images
1. Who are the people featured in the photograph?
2. What is happening in the photographs?
3. What is your impression of living conditions in the photograph? Are they good? bad?
4. Can you draw any conclusions about the people's feelings in the photograph? Do they seem
happy or sad?
Image Three and Four: Acual Camp Life Images.
1. Who are the people featured in the photograph?
2. What is happening in the photographs?
3. What is your impression of living conditions in the photograph? Are they good? bad?
4. Can you draw any conclusions about the people's feelings in the photograph? Do they seem
happy or sad?
Final Response to All Four Images:
1. Why might some sources relay more accurate information than others?
2. Why were the WRA images so different than the actual images?
JAPANESE INTERNMENT: Drama Script
SCENE #1: The Decision to Intern
(Background: Google Map projection of the exclusion zone and internment camp locations)
Narrator: It is February 19th 1942, the day President Roosevelt will sign Executive order No.
9066. Immediately following the bombing of Pearl Harbor the FBI incarcerated approximately
1,200 Japanese aliens living within the United States and considered to be disloyal or dangerous,
and in the months that followed there was a great public outcry for internment of all Japanese
Americans. Now, the same day that Roosevelt signs Executive order No. 9066 he has gathered
with the most vocal proponents and opponents to the military's proposed plan to dedicate huge
swaths of United States military areas as "exclusion zones," from which "any or all persons may
be excluded." This power will soon be used to declare all people of Japanese ancestry excluded
from the entire Pacific coast, including all of California and most of Oregon and Washington,
except for those that would remain in internment camps. In the moment you are about to witness
however, Roosevelt continues to wrestle with the decision. Biddle and Taft try desperately to
steer him away from such drastic action, while DeWitt and Stimson argue vehemently for
internment.
(Prior to the start of the drama it may be useful to have students introduce the characters in
context)
Characters Introductions Scene #1
President Franklin D. Roosevelt: Today, the decision to intern Japanese Americans is widely
viewed by historians and legal scholars as a blemish on Roosevelt’s wartime record. However,
immediately after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt was under an enormous amount of public
and political pressure to do something about the “Japanese Problem.”
Attorney General Francis Biddle: Attorney General Biddle was strongly against the plan to
intern and relocate Japanese Americans and repeatedly attempted to steer the President away
from the plan being proposed by the military.
Assistant to the Attorney General James R. Howe Jr.: A strong opponent of internment,
Howe also attempted to derail the internment efforts.
Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt: Commanding officer of the 4th Army and the Western
Defense Command. DeWitt was a passionate supporter of internment, repeatedly telling the
newspapers that "A Jap’s a Jap."
Henry Stimson: Secretary of War and an avid supporter of internment.
SCENE: The scene opens with a group of men huddled around a table. President Roosevelt
is at the head of the table and reading aloud from a newspaper:
President Roosevelt: Again in the paper today gentlemen, listen to McLemore now, "I am for
the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast to a point deep in the interior. I
don't mean a nice part of the interior either. Herd 'em up, pack 'em off and give 'em the inside
room in the badlands... Personally, I hate the Japanese. And that goes for all of them."i Every day
this talk increases. Everyday I come closer to the realization that I must act. The situation in
California is currently unacceptable. The Justice department and the military are at odds while
our nation rips at the seams! I must make a decision on internment before I leave this room
today. Say your piece…
Stimson: Sir, the military’s position is quite clear. From the standpoint of national security
there is no other option. We simply must move these people to secure areas. With 100,000
Japanese living in California alone our borders are not safe. I believe the military has made its
position clear. Every second that passes the threat of attack increases. By delaying you put the
nation at risk sir. In my opinion the situation calls for immediate and stringent actions.ii
Dewitt: With all due respect to the justice department (gestures towards Biddle and Howe), they
know nothing of the price of war OR how to conduct one. In war there is no gray area, there is
only us, and them and in my view a Jap’s a Jap! Mr. President these men (gestures to Biddle and
Howe) cannot be trusted with matters of national security, they do not understand the threats that
our nations faces. IT IS YOUR SWORN DUTY to keep this country safe, and if there is one
thing that I can say about the people of California right now it is that they are not safe sir. From
a military standpoint this situation is unacceptable.
James H. Rowe Jr.: To keep us safe, but at what cost? It has not been determined that there is
a real threat from these…
Dewitt (interrupting): No threat!? No threat!? A viper is a viper wherever the egg is hatched! A
Japanese American born of Japanese parents, nurtured upon Japanese traditions, living in a
transplanted Japanese atmosphere... who happens to have the accidental citizenship of being born
on American soil, almost inevitably grows up to be a Japanese, and not an American!iii
Biddle (almost yelling at Dewitt): And what of the Italian Americans, and the Germans? Would
you have us round them up and stick them in camps as well? (Turns to Roosevelt) Mr. President,
what the military proposes is clearly unconstitutional! I simply cannot support it. They cry that
Japanese Americans are the greatest threat but fail to see that it is you who would lock up
thousands that present the real threat. It is you who would betray the constitution who poses the
threat! These people are citizens for God’s sake.
Stimson (calmly): We recognize sir (to the president) that it might cause injustice to a few to
treat them all as potential enemies, but (turns to Biddle) even you Mr. Biddle, cannot escape the
conclusion that such treatment should be given to each and all of them while we are at war with
their race.
Howe (yelling): Their Race?! With all due respect sir we are at war with the NATION of
JAPAN and not the Japanese race!
DeWitt: Easy for you to say from behind the comfort of a desk. Easy for you who does not
have to wash the blood of dead Americans from your hands. I don't want any of them here. They
are a dangerous element. There is no way to determine their loyalty... iv
Biddle (interrupting): And how would you propose we determine the loyalty of American
citizens General? By locking them up before they have committed any crime? Whether you like
it or not these people are entitled to the rights and protections of the Constitution of the United
States of America and while it may be YOUR sworn duty to protect our those rights from foreign
threats, it is MY sworn duty to make sure that all American citizens receive those rights within
our borders.
Dewitt: It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen, he is still a Japanese.
American citizenship does not necessarily determine loyalty, but we must worry about the
Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map! This is war gentlemen not some fancy law
school tea party. The enemy is an enemy. Period! Mr. President listen to your people, listen to
congress. Drastic times call for drastic measure. You must act to secure American victory in the
coming war and for the safety of the American people!v This action is a military necessity!
Biddle: Safety?! Safety but at what cost General? The FBI itself has said the American
Japanese pose no threat; these decisions must be based on Data not political pressure and public
hysteria. I…
Roosevelt (interrupts and shouts): ENOUGH! I have made my decision…(pauses, breathes,
then signs a piece of paper). The Japanese will be relocated and interned. General Stimson,
General DeWitt, please begin the necessary preparations. Mr. Biddle, Mr. Howe, you are
relieved of this decision, it is in the hands of the Military now. That will be all…
SCENE #2: The Impact of the Decision on Families
Narrator: Although the decision to Intern was made in Washington DC it had very real and
very powerful affects on ordinary citizens thousands of miles away. Public hysteria was built on
past prejudices and fueled by newspaper columnists who cried out for immediate action.
Although most non-Japanese Americans did very little in the face of internment there are
moments that stand out in history where the opposite occurred. It is these moments that exist in
all times and places where injustice occurs, that have the power to restore our faith in humanity.
This scene is in no way intended to promote the idea that the majority of people stood up in the
face of danger, but rather to remind us that a few did, with the hopes that, should one ever find
him or herself in a similar situation they might take inspiration from the courageous actions of
these individuals. The following scene takes place at a train station as Emi K. Fijii a 13 year old
boy, and his father Toshio, wait to be deported to an internment camp. As they wait, they
encounter numerous opinions and reactions towards Japanese Americans and internment from
classmates to strangers, to teachers to friends. The words and actions of all of the characters in
this scene are based on the historical records of actual individuals.
Characters Introductions Scene #2
Emi Kimura Fujii: The 13 year old Nissei son of Toshio Kimura
Toshio Kimura: Emi's father who immigrated to America alone at the age of 15 and attended
American school in San Francisco.
Elie- A Jewish refugee from Germany and a classmate of Emi's
Ted Myer: A produce buyer from Consolidated Produce Company who purchased the best
produce local Nissei farmers could provide. Ted has worked for years with Emi's father Toshio
Kimura.
J. J. McRee: An adult male community member and supporter of FDR, and of internment.
SCENE: The scene opens as Emi and Toshio stand on a train platform. Their meager
possessions are piled behind them. Their neighbor, Ted Meyer, has agreed to drop them off and
as the scene opens, he is saying his goodbye.
Ted Meyer: Toshio, I have to tell you something now. I have to tell you that I have known that
his day was coming for quite some time. I had a meeting with my Bosses in Los Angeles and
they told me to start looking at the farmland of the Japanese. They told me, “Get the best farm
land you can, and all the equipment, and see what you can buy. Buy everything, soon the
Japanese farmers will be gone.”vi Toshio, I didn’t know how to tell you this. I was embarrassed
and afraid for you…you are my friend. I want you to know now that I told my boss that I
couldn’t do it. That I knew you well, and that…well, I told them that you were my friends and
had always been faithful to me. I know that doesn’t change any of this, but I wanted you to
know. I hope you can find it in your heart one day to forgive…Goodbye Toshio, Goodbye Emi.
Good luck.
(Toshio and Emi stand on the platform and shift their weight from side to side. There is an
uncomfortable silence. A person soon approaches them. He is JJ. Mcree an outspoken member
of the community in favor of internment.)
JJ. Mcree: The president of the United States has seen fit to send YOU off for the protection of
THIS NATION. I’m all for it. You have to understand that you need to go in order to make the
rest of us safe and don’t expect me to feel sorry about it for one second. Good Riddance! vii
(Toshio shouts after JJ. Mcree as he walks away.)
Toshio: My name is Toshio Kimura and I am both Japanese and American! I have been in this
country for twenty years but they will not give me citizenship. I have put my hopes and beliefs
in this country by rearing my children in American traditions and values, along with Japanese
customs. I believe in the soundness of the United States government and its democratic
principles.
But now I do not know how I will move forward. This same government has taken away the
things I hold most dear, my ability to be a father and a husband. My livelihood has been
destroyed; my ability to provide for and protect his family has been undermined. I never
dreamed I would see my children behind barbed wire . . .." viii
(Toshio wanders to the side and sits on a suitcase. His hands on his head. A whistle blows in
the distance. Then, a young girl fights her way through the moving people and arrives
breathless, her name is Elie and she is a Jewish refugee from Germany that has fled Hitler, she
is a classmate of Emi's)
Emi: Eli! What are you doing here?
Elie: Emi, I had to come and see you. Do you remember what I said in class yesterday?
Emi: Of course I do Elie. I was worried for you. You were so angry.
Elie: Emi, I want you to tell me what you heard me say.
Emi: When the teacher told us it was going to be the last day for the Japanese students you got
mad. You stood up and you said, "I didn't come to the United States to see this kind of thing
happen. I don't know what's happening here, but this is not what I left Germany for.” But Elie, it
will not be like that here. This is the United States. I know that you are angry but my father
(gestures to Toshio), my father has said that we will be taken care of.ix
Elie: Emi I do not want you to be scared, but look at your father now. I have seen this before.
Here comes the train now even, as we speak the train is coming. I don’t…
Emi: (interrupting) Elie, we will be ok, this is all ok.
Elie: It is not ok Emi, none of this is ok. I want you to have this; maybe you can use it
someday. Good luck my friend.
(Elie places a white envelope in Emi’s hand and leaves. Emi looks at the envelope which
contains some money…then looks at the audience and the scene ends.)
SCENE #3: Internment
Narrator: The next scene takes place in an internment camp where Emi, Toshio and their
family now find themselves. In this brief scene Emi and Toshio are visited by Reverend Emry
Andrews and his daughter Sarah Andrews. Reverend Andrews moved his family and braved
insults and threats of the locals for his decision to minister to his displaced congregation in the
internment camp. Authorities didn't make it easy for outside communication; strict restrictions
applied especially in the early days, and packages were inspected and sometimes confiscated.
However, in this scene Emry and Brooks visit on Christmas and discuss, amongst other things,
the work Quakers are doing in the camps, as well as Toshio’s emotional response to being
interned and Sarah’s reactions to the camp. The scene is based on the actual accounts and
recollections of individuals and all characters are based on historical individuals.
Characters Introductions Scene #3:
Reverend Emry Andrews: Based on Reverend Emery Andrews of the Baptist Church in
Seattle, who moved his family to nearby Hunt, Idaho, and braved insults and threats of the locals
for his decision to minister to his displaced congregation in the internment camp.
Sarah Andrews: Daughter of Emry, a young girl who visits the Kimura Family on Christmas
Emi Kimura Fujii: The 13 year old Nissei son of Toshio Kimura
Toshio Kimura: Emi's father who immigrated to America alone at the age of 15 and attended
American school in San Frascisco.
SCENE: The scene opens as Sarah and Emry arrive at the camp on Christmas morning.
Sarah is visibly shaken by the experience of visiting her former friend Emi in this place on
what is supposed to be a happy day.
Sarah Andrews: Emi! Toshio! (Sarah runs to her friends but stops short). The, the barbed
wire, I didn’t think it would be like this. The pictures I have seen are not like this! The barbed
wire fence stretching, it seems like for miles around the camp. “And the guard towers, the
soldiers in the guard towers with guns, …always pointing in towards the camp,…never out." x I
don’t know what to say. I think people should know that…well, that…I mean, this is Christmas
and…(Sarah finds herself lost for words).
Emi: Sarah, thank you for coming to see me.
Sarah: Emi, is it bad here? The barbed wire, I just… (she trails off, glancing around the room
in disbelief)
Emi: It is not easy, we have one room shared among all nine of us, and the walls are full of
holes and cracks in which cold and chill air struck us in a funny way that I could not sleep at all
last night but we are making the best of it.xi When we come home everything will be ok….
Emry Andrews: Toshio I can tell you that there is work being done for you outside. It is not
everyone but there is a small group. I am working with The Friends of the American way and
we are pushing our message, “Everywhere there is community feeling to be mended, vicious
legislation to be defeated, many urgent jobs calling for attention from real friends of the real
America. I have been preaching, and asking over and over, what is your community doing for
these people?xii But I would be lying to you if most people are listening and the pictures, the
pictures that the government puts out, they don’t show what it is like for you here. Everywhere
people say that if we want to be safe you have to be here.
Toshio: Reverend: Safe? How can it be safe to keep my children in barbed wire? What threat
are they? "I never dreamed I would see my children behind barbed wire . . .this is a terrible place
to raise the children. We are not cattle, but 3 times day, in the morning, noon, and evening you
hear the gong, gong, gong, the bell. Then and there you will see men, women, and children come
out of stable-like shelters. . . Every time I see this sight I cannot help my hear aches."xiii
Emry Andrews: Toshio, I…I can’t imagine what it must be like for you in this place. You
should know that there are people who care for you and who love you and who are praying for
you every night.
Toshio: We cannot tell you what this means to us Reverend Andrews, that you have come to us
on Christmas. You should know also that we have found friends in places we did not think that
we had them. The Quakers have given us these presents,(gestures to Christmas presents on the
floor behind him). They send us letters about our constitutional rights, and come here to teach
us in the camps. They have said, that, when I am released from here, they will help even to find
me a job….
(A guard enters and informs Sarah and Emry that it is time to go)
Sarah: Goodbye Emi, write to me and to the class.
Emi: Goodbye Sarah, thank you for coming to see me. We will see each other soon on the
outside of these walls…
Toshio and Reverend Andrews shake hands and Sarah and Reverend Andrews depart..
SCENE #4: Reparations Commission
Narrator 1: When internment ended the nation was forced to deal with what it had done to its
own citizens. The following scene is included to illustrate the legacy of Internment and shed
light onto the process of reparations and of healing.
Characters Scene #4:
Narrator #1
Narrator #2
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Member #1
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Member #2
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Member #3
Emi Kimura Fujii: The now 40 year old Nissei son of Toshio Kimura
SCENE: The scene opens with 3 members of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and
Internment of Civilians(CWRIC) sit at a desk. Across from them sits the now 40 year old
Nissei son of Toshio Kimura. The narrators begin the scene.
Narrator 1: When Internment eventually ended, Japanese Americans were given $25 and a
train ticket home to attempt to rebuild their shattered lives. But the question of Justice haunted
the Japanese community and the country as a whole. What could the nation do to heal this hurt
and pain caused to American citizens during this time period? How could so many do and say
nothing as the rights of so many Japanese Americans were so clearly violated? How could the
United States move on after such destruction of democratic principals? How do people begin to
heal? How can we make sure things like this never happen again?
Narrator #2: In 1948 the US government passed the American Japanese Claims Act, in an effort
to restore some of the property lost by Japanese Americans during internment but it relied on the
Japanese Americans having documents that they had lost during internment. Most got nothing.
Narrator #1: Then, beginning in the 1960s, a younger generation of Japanese Americans began
what is known as the "Redress Movement," an effort to get an apology and reparations (or
money) from the federal government for interning their parents and grandparents during the war,
focusing the broader injustice of the internment. In 1980, Congress established the Commission
on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians(CWRIC) to study the matter. A year later,
Emi, now a full grown man of 40 years, was interviewed by this commission. The following
hearing is the actual words of Emi K. Fujji and provides us a window into how internment
affected Japanese Americans for their entire lives.
Commission Member #1: Please state your name.
Emi K. Fujii: My name is Emi K. Fujii, 7447 N. Aartesian, Chicago, Illinois. I was evacuated
from San Jose, California to the Santa Anita Assembly Center May 29, 1942 with my parents
and 6 brothers and sisters, ages 4-18. We were transferred to Heart Mt. On Sept. 13, 1942. I left
as a student on June 19, 1943.
Commission Member #2: Mr. Fijji, as you are well aware, the commission is here to determine
to what extent a wrong was committed against the Japanese people. We thank you for your time,
and your willingness to make this statement today.
Emi K. Fujii: The Commission is here to determine whether a wrong was committed. I don’t
know whether to laugh or cry. I respectfully submit that it is like showing you a skeleton and
asking you if the person is dead.
Most of the testimony has come from evacuees, which has been subjective and often repetitious.
So after weeks of testimony, I wonder what I am doing here. If you want the truth, the whole
truth, then let it come from the government archives, and from expert witnesses under oath, like
the military leaders, the law officers, the social scientists, the camp doctors and social workers,
and more panels like the ones we had this afternoon, as well as from the evacuees.
Commission Member #3: Mr. Fujii, we understand your emotion, but anything you can tell us
about your personal experience is of a great help to this commission.
Emi K. Fujii: Well, then, the focus of my testimony should be on the crushing impact of the
evacuation and incarceration upon my father, Toshio Kimura. He came to this country alone at
age 15, in the 1890’s. He attended American schools in San Francisco and worked at various
jobs. From 1916 on, he worked as a life insurance agent. Because of the Alien Land Laws, he
bought a house in San Jose in the name of an American citizen. Then in 1919, he met and
married my mother. They had 7 children. Culturally, he was both Japanese and American.
Denied citizenship, he put his hopes and beliefs in this country by rearing us in American
traditions and values, along with Japanese customs. Despite the years of anti-Japanese feeling
and legislation, he had an abiding faith in the basic soundness of the United States government
and its democratic principles. He gave much more than he ever got. We took all this for granted,
not realizing how lucky we were.
The evacuation seriously challenged my father’s faith and his identity as a husband and father.
Commission Member #1: We appreciate your honesty; please continue if you can sir.
Emi K. Fujii : While 5 of the children were still behind barbed wire, his oldest son was overseas
with the 442nd Combat Team. Linc’s volunteering was a natural extension of his and my father’s
beliefs.
My parents and 3 remaining children stayed at Heart Mt. Til June 1945 when they were finally
permitted to return home. A month later, my father was dead at the age of 62, as the result of a
stroke. "He moved heaven and earth to get the family back to San Joe," a friend observed. He
had been crushed, angered, and betrayed by this country which he believed in but which never
believed in him. What haunts me still is I do not know whether he died only broken or whether
he had hope.
Commission Member #2: Any more details you can give us please? Again, take your time.
Emi K. Fujii : It has been almost 40 years since Executive Order 9066. We were evacuated and
imprisoned without cause, without due process. Our rights as citizens and basic rights of the
person, which extended to the Issei, were violated. The one and only thing against us was our
race. If the leaders of our country had succumbed only to West Coast pressure groups, that would
have been bad enough. They went beyond that. They knowingly violated the laws of the land in
the name of military necessity where none existed. They did this in the face of the Munson
Report of early November 1941, stating "there is no Japanese problem." They did this, knowing
in the first weeks after Pearl Harbor that no sabotage had been committed by a Japanese of
Japanese American. The military was even preparing plans for concentration camps in October
1940.
Commission Member #2: Do you have anything else you would like to say?
Emi K. Fujii: Yes, sir, I would like you to know that it is my belief that the evacuation was
nothing short of criminal. xiv
i
Neiwert, David. The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right. 2009, page 195
Statements by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, January 26, 1942
iii
Niiya, Brian. Japanese American History. 1993, page 54
iv
red Mullen, "DeWitt Attitude on Japs Upsets Plans," Watsonville Register Pajaronian, April 16, 1943. p.1,
reproduced by Santa Cruz Public Library. Retrieved September 11, 2006.)
v
Testimony of John L. DeWitt, April 13, 1943, House Naval Affairs Subcommittee to Investigate Congested Areas,
Part 3, pp. 739–40 (78th Cong ., 1st Sess.),
vi
Personal Testimony of Jimi Yamichi, www.densho.org/archive/default.asp
vii
Letters to the editor, Bainbridge Island Review, March 2, 1942.
viii
Statement of Emi K. Fujii, September 23, 1981. Records of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and
Internment of Civilians, Record Group 220.18.25, United States National Archives and Records Administration.
ix
Personal Testimony of Henry Miyatake, http://www.densho.org/archive/default.asp
x
Personal Testimony of Brooks Andrews, http://www.densho.org/archive/default.asp
xi
Personal Testimonyt of Tokunari, held at the Puyallup Assembly Center on the Washington State Fairgrounds,
http://www.densho.org/archive/default.asp .
xii
Report from Friends of the American Way, a Quaker support group, 1940s.
xiii
Statement of Emi K. Fujii, September 23, 1981. Records of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and
Internment of Civilians, Record Group 220.18.25, United States National Archives and Records Administration.
xiv
Statement of Emi K. Fujii, September 23, 1981. Records of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and
Internment of Civilians, Record Group 220.18.25, United States National Archives and Records Administration.
ii
Japanese Internment: Annotated Bibliography
1. Real Friends Standing by the Japanese Americans, DENSHO: The Japanese American
Legacy Project, Available from: http://www.densho.org/
A fabulous collection of Primary Source documents and first hand accounts that illustrate
examples of ways everyday people showed support for Japanese American citizens and stood
against their internment. Densho's mission is to preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans
who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished.
They offer firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources, to explore
principles of democracy and promote equal justice for all. The website is an exhaustive and
incredibly beneficial resource for any educator engaged with the topic. Many of the actions of
support shown in our drama came from interviews of internees and bystanders located on this
website.
2. FDR and Japanese American Internment, Available from:
www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/pdfs/internment.pdf
An informative and interesting set of documents from the collections of the Franklin D.
Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum that provide excellent insight and reflection on the
many sides of the decision to intern Japanese Americans. The first act of our drama contains
many of the views expressed in these documents by individuals in the period leading up to the
decision to intern. This resource is a gold mine for educators looking to explore the behind the
scenes dialogue and arguments that occurred leading up to Executive order No. 9066.
4., After Internment: Seattle’s Debate Over Japanese’ Americans Right to Return Home, Seattle
Civil Rights and Labor History Project, University of Washington, Available from:
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/after_internment.htm
An excellent narrative and collection of primary source documents focused on the issue of
Japanese Americans reentering their communities after internment. Initially intended to form the
basis for an entire act in our drama, this site evolved into a useful background source for our
discussion on reparations and the backlash faced by Japanese Americans after internment.
4. Lesson Plans: Heart Mountain Relocation Center, American Heritage Center, University of
Wyoming, Available from:
http://ahc.uwyo.edu/eduoutreach/lessonplans/heartmountain/fujii.htm
A wonderfully designed group of lessons that relies on excellent primary source documents from
the Heart Mountain Relocation Center and spans topics from propaganda to camp life. These
lessons also include the full testimony of Emi K. Fujii to the CWRIC in 1981, a document upon
which the entire drama was constructed. Some of the images used in the lesson plans were also
taken from this site.
5. Exploring the Japnaese American Internment through Film & the Internet, National Asian
American Telecommunications Association, Available from: http://caamedia.org/jainternment/
This website spans the entire Internment experience and is a great resource for primary source
video clips relating to Japanese Internment. It can be accesses as great extension activity for the
lesson plans included in the Unit.
6. Japanese Internment Camps and Their Effects, Oracle ThinkQuest Education Foundation,
Available at: http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312008/lifeafter.html
Another extension activity, this website walks students through life before, after, and during
internment.
Japanese Internment DBQ section
Document A: Johnston, Am. “Japanese Internment Camps.” [Online] 21 June 2011.
http://internmentcamps-johnston.blogspot.com/
As you look through the blog postings, you find a collection of primary source documents
detailing the Japanese-American internment. The first set of documents is a group of
documents and editorial cartoons that give some context into what the Japanese Internment
Camps were, and why they existed. The second set of documents is a collection of pictures
that capture moments in the Japanese Internment Camp process. The last set of documents is a
collection of personal accounts from the time spent in the internment camps. Some of the
accounts are from Japanese-Americans reflecting back on their childhood in an internment camp,
and some are letters written by a Japanese-American while in her camp.
Document B:
Estelle Ishigo, "Boys with Kite," Heart Mountain. September, 1944. Box 719, Estelle Ishigo
Papers (Collection 2010), Department of Special Collections, Young Research Library,
University of California, Los Angeles. Available at:
http://www.intimeandplace.org/Japanese%20Internment/reading/recollections/ishigo.html
This site provides two great internment lesson plans related to Californian internment using GIS
software. There are also supplemental readings and pictures which would be a great addition to
any lesson.
Document C: The San Francisco News. “Their Best Way to Show Loyalty.” [Online] 21 June
2011. http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist8/editorial1.html.
This site gives a wealth of information about all news related to San Francisco. It contains
newspaper articles and museum resources for Japanese internment from 1942 through 1944.
Document D: Wisconsin Historical Society. Boy eating. [Online Image] 21 June 2011.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/teachers/lessons/secondary/documents/japanese_clipping.pdf.
This site provides extensive resources about Wisconsin history including Japanese internment
but also archaeology, exhibits, genealogy, government services, and historic buildings.
Document E: Tetsuzo Hirasaki. “Letter to Miss Breed.” [Online] 21 June 2011.