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This is a political cartoon from WWII shows what Americans thought of people of Japanese descent after the Pearl Harbor attack.
Arjun Rajesh
11/17/2009 07:41:15 am

After Pearl Harbor many Americans were in shock. They did what most people did while in shock and jump to conclusions assuming the worst. The had automatically decided that the japanese had sent spies into our midst. So thefore many innocent japanese living in america (62% were citizens of America)were interogated. A whole bunch of them were arrested (including some very young people). People also discriminated against Japan and since they were minorities it was not very hard. Things got so bad the japanese were getting declined certain jobs. I think that it was very logical for people to think that Japan had planted spies among us. That is what I would fear. However, I would still not make judgements against any japanese people. Distrusting people in our own party is the first step to internally falling apart. Also we must understand that just because they are japanese does not mean that they are japanese spies. Japan could easily send Africans, Asians, Europeons, or even Americans as spies.

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Arjun Rajesh
11/17/2009 07:41:30 am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment

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Jessica Reed
11/17/2009 12:06:37 pm

After the Pearl Harbor attack, some Americans attitudes towards Japanese-Americans were strong. In response to this FDR created an executive order that said all people of Japanese descent, no matter if they were born in America or not, who lived on the west coast must be relocated inland. This was done for two reasons. First, after Pearl Harbor many Americans were concerned about the national security of the US. Secondly, FDR wanted to protect the Japanese- Americans from the hatred some Americans had against Japanese- Americans. However, this relocation wasn't as great as FDR planned. Several Japanese-Americans found themselves living in horrible conditions while being monitored by military officials. Consequently, many of these people were upset about having to leave their homes and live in run down places, and this caused disruption in the US during the early 1940's.

One example of the hardships Japanese- Americans faced is from a show I watched recently. On the show, a man and his family, all born in America, were relocated. Unlike some of his friends who were also sent to the same camp as him, the man, his pregnant wife, and his son received a fairly nice home. However, this man was still upset that he had to leave his good paying job and his nice home just because he was of Japanese descent. As the show progressed, the man's son decided that he wanted to join the army to fight in the war despite his father's wishes. The boy wanted to join the army because he felt that if he helped America he would be treated like an American. Sadly, the son ended up dying while he was drafted. Yet, even though the show had a tragic end, it showed me the struggle Japanese- Americans and Japanese -American families went through at this time in American history.


Sources:
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation/

CBS

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Molly Buring
11/18/2009 11:27:10 am

After Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were treated so differently. People were acting different to them and around them because they didn't know if the Japanese-Americans would hurt them. They were completely discriminated against. Because of Roosevelt's orders, anybody in America with Japanese descent were to be sent to assembly centers near their homes. Plus tho thirds of the 117,000 people that were moved were native born citizens.

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation/

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Molly Buring
11/18/2009 11:30:25 am

I personally believe that how they treated the Japanese-Americans was so wrong. They shouldn't have assumed that everybody in the USA with Japanese descent were spies, or overall bad people. They killed people, their families, took them away from families and homes, and more. If i was treated like that because i was Jewish, i would be just as mad as the Japanese-Americans probably were too. The government had no right to send them to camps and centers away from their homes, friends, and families even if they had a little Japanese background in them.

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Arjun Rajesh
11/20/2009 09:55:41 pm

The attack on Pearl Harbor had a very big impact on many Americans. They were scared. It was very stereotypical. If a Japanese person was walking down the street everyone else walking would make extra effort to walk far away from them. This caused a lot of Social Tension for the Japanese. Life was very difficult for them. Officials decided that they needed to proceute the Japanese. So 120,000 Japanese people (men, women, young, old) were sent to "Relocation" centers. These centers were surrounded by barbed wire and guards making it like a prison (which it was). This reminds me of the Holocaust in WWII. This was very bad for the Japanese. Not only were they isolated from society but their bank accounts were frozen. Many lost their homes because of this. Finally Reagan released them. I think that is terrible. Reagan was a president in the 1980's. WWII ended in 1944.

My mom
http://americanhistory.about.com/cs/worldwarii/a/internment.htm

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Jessica Reed
11/24/2009 01:19:10 am

Other than being forced to leave their homes, every person of Japanese descent lost their respect from Americans after Pearl Harbor. The political cartoon above clearly depicts this. The cartoon tried to show that all people of Japanese descent were working for Japan, and once given the call would blow up the US. This cartoon and many others during this time showed the distrust that Americans had for the Japanese.

I got this cartoon from googleimages.com.

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