Japanese-American+-+Jane,+Brandon,+Jihee

=JAPANESE AMERICANS=

IMMIGRANTS
//"The environment and circumstances were so different from Japan and not what I had been used to. I came as an innocent girl without even knowing the role of a bride nor knowing that the objective of being here was to make a fortune. I came to America to enjoy myself and found that was not the way it was."// — Mrs. Kamikawa, Picture Bride

Issei: First generation (1862-1941)
- Japanese people migrated to Hawaii and the United States. - They mostly worked in sugar cane fields or vegetable farms in California. - They constantly faced difficulties merging into American culture: the mixture of elements from their traditional culture and from their new homes.

- The Kingdom of Hawaii began to bring laborers from Japan who was willing to work in the sugar cane fields in 1860. - A small Japanese community emerged with its unique cultural and educational organizations. - Most Japanese immigrants settled on the West and most of them worked in agricultural sectors.

Difficulties/Limitations
- In 1907, the United States prohibited the inflow of Japanese immigrants into its mainland. - In 1940, 40 percent of the population in Hawaii was Japanese immigrants, which made Hawaiians to pass laws that restricted Japanese's opportunities of getting jobs. - Anti-Japanese sentiment increased within the American communities when American involvement in World War II was likely to happen. - They were ultimately put into internment camps and United States admitted its fault after 40 years have passed to the Japanese. - As Japanese communities increased in size and influence, Americans' prejudice against them increased as well. - Japanese were not allowed to obtain citizenship and properties. - Ozawa v. US - Hawaiians denied the citizenships of Japanese immigrants. The United States Supreme Court upheld the Hawaiians' stance. - Asian Exclusion Act (1924): prohibited Japanese immigration into the American mainland.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/non-flash/immigration_main.html

Relative events
- Pearl harbor 1941 - Japanese surprise attack on navy base in Pearl Harbor which leads to... - Declaration of war 1941 which leads to... - Executive order 9066 1942 - ship everyone that is Japanese american to camps. - Remove everyone from the west coast and put them under "supervision" for up to 4 years.

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"The Executive Order 9066 authorized the military to exclude any person from any area of the country where national security was considered threatened. It gave the military broad authority over the civilian population without the imposition of martial law. Although the order did not mention any specific group or recommend detention, its language implied that any citizen might be removed. In practice, the order was applied only to Japanese Americans."===== - This shows the somewhat controversial manner of "removal". According to law, anyone who is related or immigrated from japan can be subject to reposition. - It forced removal of 108 areas each with 1000 japanese american residents. which totals around 108000 people from the west coast.

** Internment **
- Not as pleasant as they expected; barbed wires, guards, horrible housing. - However government coverups made it seem not as bad. For example: for four years Japanese americans lived in barracks made of tarpaper and sheet-metal.

-camps had a network of labor so that each camp specialized in one thing and they all exchanged. -people were underpaid and overworked. Example of such is: Even high end jobs such as physicians, dentists, and others were paid about 19$ a month. This means that menial jobs received little to no pay at all, ranging from 2-8 dollars a month.

-Most internees were deprived of basic citizen rights -however people did form their own structured societies in the camps. -No privacy, no personal relationships with neighbors and friends, constantly monitored and visited by officials from the government -Frequent searches.(usually involves "voluntary" screening of belongings)

Citations **order 9066** [|//WWII Enemy Alien Control Overview//] from archives.gov Retrieved January 8, 2007. **and related** [|//Korematsu v. United States//] dissent by Justice [|Owen Josephus Roberts], reproduced at findlaw.com. Retrieved 12 September 2006. **pictures .** http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/japan/camp.html http://caamedia.org/jainternment/camps/index.html social issues regarding interment: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1679.html

Justice
Japanese Americans were released from the internment camps, but U.S. government made formal apology to the Japanese Americans after about forty years.

1. Post War


- Public Proclamation Number 21 freed all Japanese residents from internment camps on December 17, 1944. - In the case of Ex Parte Endo, the Supreme Court ruled against Japanese residents that “military necessity” came prior to the rights of American citizens - The U.S. government gave $25 payment and transportation tickets to those who were in the internment camps. Despite such efforts, many families were broken and they found themselves jobless and homeless by the time when they returned to their homes. Furthermore, they were discriminated in the competition for jobs with returning war veterans. - In the case of Hohri et al vs. the United States, a formal apology to Japanese Americans and $25.2 billion compensation were asked to the Federal government.

2. Court Cases

 * - Hirabayshi v. U.S.**
 * a case which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that curfews against minority groups were justified while the nation is at war.

//"We must credit the military with as much good faith as we would any other public official. We cannot sit in judgment of the military requirements of that hour."// //—Associate Justice William O. Douglas, Concurring Opinion, Hirabayashi v. U.S., 1943//

//"The broad provisions of the Bill of rights... are [not] suspended by the mere existence of a state of war. Distinctions based on color and ancestry are utterly inconsistent with our traditions and ideals. Today is the first time, so far as I am aware, that we have sustained a substantial restriction of the personal liberty of citizens based on the accident of race or ancestry. It bears a melancholy resemblance to the treatment accorded to members of the Jewish race in Germany. This goes to the very brink of constitutional power."// //—Associate Justice Frank Murphy, Concurring Opinion, Hirabayashi v. U.S., 1943//


 * - Korematsu vs. U.S.**
 * a case that questioned the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066

"This is not a case of keeping people off the streets at night as was Hirabayashi...It is a case of convicting a citizen ... for not submitting to imprisonment in a concentration camp solely because of his ancestry." —Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts, Dissenting Opinion, Korematsu v. U.S., 1944

3. Formal Apologies
- President Gerald R. Ford made a formal apology to Japanese Americans in 1976. - Known as the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the bill H.R. 442, which apologized for the violations of basic rights of Japanese-Americans

Citations: http://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1949/1944/1944_22 http://americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/non-flash/justice_main.html