Racism and Anti-Japanese Sentiment
And the reason I call you attention to this, and what happened in the comments and before December 7, is because there was an anti-Asian sentiment. There was a strain throughout the West Coast, and particularly the state of California. Pearl Harbor merely triggered the sentiment to become a sign of action. It is my believe that the internment was for that reason. It was the triggering event of deep seated feelings that existed in the state of California, and Washington, and the entire west coast of the United States (Matsui1, Digital History).
When the Japanese first came to America they mostly settled in California. Employers hired them because they were a source of cheap labor. Soon the Japanese began to take all of the labor and farming jobs, causing those in need of jobs to begin to resent them. This small resentment magnified when we were attacked by imperial Japan on December 7, 1941.
Pearl Harbor was the first attack on US soil of that magnitude. Due to this attack our country began to panic, show aggression, and seek revenge on imperial Japan and those of Japanese descent. There were laws passes to prevent whites and Japanese from marrying. The signing of Executive Order 9066 caused the anti-Japanese sentiment to reach an all time high when our country showed support for the internment of its own citizens. This internment was led by an irrational fear during war time. There were signs written on property that read “No Japs wanted here.” Propaganda was made throughout the country to drum up a sense of patriotism and ensure that the American people shared the fear of the Japanese as well.
Propaganda posters were made but there were also catchy songs made to make the Japanese feel like they were not wanted or accepted. The songs made to boost the anti-sentiment feelings about Japanese Americans. For example, the song “Remember Pearl Harbor”, preformed my Carson Robison, was a cry for our soldiers to recall the injustice that our country suffered. The song calls for sour soldiers to fight with vengefully against our enemy, imperial Japan. The lyrics throughout the song call for our soldier to kill all Japanese they encounter. The exact line states "wipe the Jap from the map, give them hell." Lyrics like this perpetuated anti-Japanese sentiment. Listening to the song with a musical arrangement reminiscent of a civil war battle hymn draws on a patriotic air to the gruesome lyrics that accompany it, calling for the slaughter of the Japanese.
When the Japanese first came to America they mostly settled in California. Employers hired them because they were a source of cheap labor. Soon the Japanese began to take all of the labor and farming jobs, causing those in need of jobs to begin to resent them. This small resentment magnified when we were attacked by imperial Japan on December 7, 1941.
Pearl Harbor was the first attack on US soil of that magnitude. Due to this attack our country began to panic, show aggression, and seek revenge on imperial Japan and those of Japanese descent. There were laws passes to prevent whites and Japanese from marrying. The signing of Executive Order 9066 caused the anti-Japanese sentiment to reach an all time high when our country showed support for the internment of its own citizens. This internment was led by an irrational fear during war time. There were signs written on property that read “No Japs wanted here.” Propaganda was made throughout the country to drum up a sense of patriotism and ensure that the American people shared the fear of the Japanese as well.
Propaganda posters were made but there were also catchy songs made to make the Japanese feel like they were not wanted or accepted. The songs made to boost the anti-sentiment feelings about Japanese Americans. For example, the song “Remember Pearl Harbor”, preformed my Carson Robison, was a cry for our soldiers to recall the injustice that our country suffered. The song calls for sour soldiers to fight with vengefully against our enemy, imperial Japan. The lyrics throughout the song call for our soldier to kill all Japanese they encounter. The exact line states "wipe the Jap from the map, give them hell." Lyrics like this perpetuated anti-Japanese sentiment. Listening to the song with a musical arrangement reminiscent of a civil war battle hymn draws on a patriotic air to the gruesome lyrics that accompany it, calling for the slaughter of the Japanese.
The anti-Japanese sentiment did not end with the war in 1945 or with the closing of the camps that year. Even though the war was over and we had successfully defeated Japan we could not turn off the racist tendencies that had been building against the Japanese. Americans would say “No Japanese wanted here!” They would not hire them for the low paying jobs they once had. The Japanese tried to return to their old lives after internment, but many of the communities they left were not welcoming them back.
‘Yes, the nation was then at war, struggling for its survival,' said President Ronald Reagan at the White House. 'And it's not for us today to pass judgment upon those who may have made mistakes while engaged in that great struggle. Yet we must recognize that the internment of Japanese-Americans was just that, a mistake' (Digital History).
‘Yes, the nation was then at war, struggling for its survival,' said President Ronald Reagan at the White House. 'And it's not for us today to pass judgment upon those who may have made mistakes while engaged in that great struggle. Yet we must recognize that the internment of Japanese-Americans was just that, a mistake' (Digital History).
During this time, Japanese Americans could not count on Supreme Court to rule constitutionally when internment was concerned. The two major court cases of the time were Hirabayashi v. US and Korematsu v. US. In both of these cases, each person claimed that their Fifth Amendment right had been violated. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the US government, although internment was clearly unconstitutional.
LIFE Magazine published an article entitled "How to Tell Japs from Chinese" (see the next page)