Japanese Internment During WWII

[Jim]

General Dwight Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe, had German ancestors. Joe DiMaggio, one of the most popular players in baseball history was the son of Italian immigrants. No one suspected either of disloyalty to the United States during the war. In fact, there was virtually no public animosity towards people of German or Italian origin, for their communities were felt to be so well integrated into the fabric of American society that they represented no threat. But for Japanese-Americans, things were different. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the succession of Japanese victories in 1942 provoked a craving for revenge on the home front. Hostility was particularly intense on the West Coast, when Californians feared invasion.
The Press helped to stir up a hate campaign against the one per cent of the population who were Issei (Japanese-born immigrants) or Nisei (US-born children of Issei). ‘Why treat the Jap’s well over here?’ asked a columnist. ‘They take the parking positions. They get ahead of you in the stamp line at the post office. They have their share of seats on the bus and street-car lines. Let ‘em be pinched, hurt, hungry, and dead up against it. Personally I hate the Japanese, and that goes for all of them.’
While newspaper cartoons daily depicted the Japanese foe in crude and sinister stereotypes, gramophone records were released with such titles as we’re Gonna Have to Slap the Dirty Little Jap, by Lucky Millinder and his orchestra.

Signs posted in barber shop windows announced: “Jap’s shaved not responsible for accidents”, and Japanese Americans were refused tables in restaurants.

Under escort Japanese families in Seattle are marched onto a train bound for a relocation camp in California, while friends wave goodbye.

The persecution culminated in an official round-up of people of Japanese descent. A total of 119,803 men, women and children were held behind barbed wire at an assortment of bleak camps or relocation centers around the country. Homes, farms, businesses and furniture were confiscated. Investments and bank accounts were forfeited.
In later years the whole episode was seen as a national disgrace, and it was sharpened by the fact that 17,600 Japanese-Americans joined the army during the war, many took the oath of allegiance behind the barbed wire of their camps. They went on to serve with exceptional distinction in the European theatre of war, where the courage of their units became legendary.