Japanese Internment During World War Two

Quick Background

Imagine waking up one morning to find a notice taped to your front door. It says you and your family have just a few days to pack what you can carry. You don’t know exactly where you’re going, only that you’ll be leaving behind your home, your business, and the life you’ve built. Guards will escort you onto buses or trains headed for a place surrounded by barbed wire.

That’s what happened to more than 120,000 Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Entire families—two-thirds of them U.S. citizens—were forced from the West Coast and sent to internment camps scattered across the country. The move was explained as a wartime precaution, but for the people living it, it meant years of confinement, loss, and uncertainty about the future.

Anti-Japanese Backlash

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States was thrown into shock. Intelligence officials had suspected Japan might strike somewhere, since American codebreakers had already cracked parts of Japanese diplomatic messages. Still, many held onto the hope that peace was possible. At the very moment bombs were falling in Hawaii, a Japanese delegation was in Washington, D.C., supposedly negotiating—but their mission was little more than a stalling tactic.

Japanese pilots were told that war had already been declared, to fit the Bushido code of honor. In truth, no declaration had been made. For many Americans, the attack felt like a sudden betrayal, a devastating blow that came without warning.

The trustworthiness of the Japanese was called into question. Wait a minute! There were large numbers of Japanese concentrated in Hawaii and along the Pacific Coast in California. How many of them were spies? They weren’t just at our door step--they were in the living room crashing on our couch. One can understand thinking there may have been a legitimate “clear and present danger?”

Japanese Internment Becomes Law

FDR signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. This act allowed regional military commanders a great deal of latitude in controlling their respective areas. This was particularly so in Military Area #1--the west coast of the country. The decision was made that the Japanese posed a significant threat to the United States and should be moved away from the coast and its vital military installations. Japanese who lived in Military Area #1 were told they would be forced to move inland and their assets would be frozen. Whoa there…Is this even constitutional? The answer is “yes” because the case went to the Supreme Court which was conveniently filled with eight FDR appointees. The decision in Korematsu v. United States made it clear that the U.S. government had the right to suspend Habeas Corpus and the Fifth Amendment due to the threat of espionage on the part of people of Japanese decent residing in the U.S. The court looked to the Alien Enemies Act that came out of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 for precedent in this case.

The government quickly established the Wartime Civilian Control Administration (WCCA) to organize the movement of Japanese to the interior of the country. Some had as little as six days notification to report for relocation. When they arrived at makeshift racetracks and fairgrounds that had been repurposed for this activity they were separated into groups according to threat level. Most went to Internment Centers in Utah, Colorado and Idaho. But some were taken over by the newly established War Relocation Authority (WRA) and sent to Detention Camps. The former were for people the government suspected of being spies, troublemakers, or Japanese. The last one is not true.

Actor George Takei recalls his experience of relocation.

Life in a Japanese Internment Camp

Life in the camps depended on where it was located and who was in charge. Some of the camps were less dangerous than others. While all had armed guards some offered hospitals, sports, and even schooling with the amazing teacher to student ratio of 1:48. These camps were not like German Concentration Camps and only seven inmates were shot during the entirety of the detention but it was not meant to be pleasant. These were desolate locations and the Japanese were reminded that they were not trusted. In fact, they were offered the chance to renounce their American citizenship if they wanted. Some were allowed to leave if they moved away from the coast and about 25% eventually did so but forfeited any claim to property. A few families were able to move away if good American families offered to sponsor them to ensure their continued loyalty. The most interesting part was that the army found the camps to be fertile recruitment zones.

As many as 20,000 Japanese fought for the United States during World War Two. Most were recruited from the camps. The units were not integrated and many fought with distinction in the European Theater, particularly the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Man for man and considering time served, this unit was the most decorated of the war. I bet the Nisei soldiers that helped liberate Dachau in 1945 thought a bit about the irony of their family situation back home in the states.

We have yet to even mention Hawaii. Hawaii was not a state at the time but Pearl Harbor was where it all began and there were large numbers of Japanese living on the island. Were they interned? It seems that their continued efforts on fruit farms as cheap labor was considered important to the war effort so they were spared relocation. Imagine being forced to move from Hawaii to Idaho.

After the War

When World War II ended and the U.S. declared victory, the internment camps were finally shut down. The last one closed in April 1946. But freedom didn’t mean life went back to normal. Families who had lost years behind barbed wire now faced the harsh reality that their homes, businesses, and savings were gone.

By 1948, the government passed the Japanese American Claims Act, meant to repay internees for lost property and wages. Sounds fair, right? The catch: the IRS had already destroyed tax records from 1939–42, the exact years before the camps. Without that paperwork, most claims were denied.

The issue faded into the background until 1980, when President Jimmy Carter created a commission to finally dig into what had happened. Its report didn’t mince words—it was titled Personal Justice Denied. The commission recommended that every surviving internee receive $20,000 in reparations. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the bill to make it happen, issuing both an apology and $1.6 billion in payments. A few years later, in 1992, the Manzanar camp was turned into a National Historic Site, a reminder of what had been done on American soil.

Why It Matters

Japanese American internment shows how quickly the rights of citizens can be limited during times of national crisis. The decades-long effort to seek acknowledgment and restitution highlights how difficult it can be for a country to revisit and address past decisions. Learning about this chapter of history helps us understand the balance between security, rights, and public opinion in moments of uncertainty.