Japanese Internment Unspoken Hypocrisy
We all know of the horrors that went on in Germany during the second World War, with
their treatment of the Jews, Slavic, handicapped people, and all others that resisted their regime.
With the Nazi’s forcing all of them out of their homes and into concentration or death camps, but
what if I told you during that same time period we were doing the same thing to the Japanese.
Following the horrific events of Pearl Harbor, the United States had a justified fear of the
Japanese planning another possible attack on us. So Franklin Roosevelt signed off on order 9066,
which stated, “I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and Military Commander,
whom he may appoint from time to time permission to do what he deems
necessary.”(Roosevelt). Effectively granting permission for the United States to take actions that
emulate that of the priorly mentioned Nazi’s actions.
“Roosevelt's order affected 117,000 people of Japanese descent, two-thirds of whom
were native-born citizens of the United States”(Archives.Gov)and were placed into internment
camps and weren’t allowed to leave. Much like the Nazi concentration camps in Germany, the
people were forced out of their homes and forced into different living environments against their
will all because of what they looked like or what they believe in. The hypocrisy in these actions
by the United States is also extremely ironic because they would tell the people of the horrific
acts happening in Germany as propaganda to buy war bonds and get people passionate about
taking down the Nazi power. For example the United States releasing a comic book in August
1941 featuring a cover of a war bond defeating world leaders,(WarHistoryOnline) such as a man
who vividly resembled Adolf Hitler.
Despite a pretty large majority of then being U.S Citiz...
