Case Study 2: American Side

How did Americans react to Japanese internment? Like most major issues in American history, there were many people on both sides of the spectrum. A lot of Americans were siding with the Japanese-Americans, and thought it was outrageous that they were having their rights stripped from them just because they were of a certain heritage. The media played a huge role in people’s opinions as it always does, and in an article by Life Magazine in 1944 entitled “They Have Everything Except Their Liberty”, this media influence was clearly shown. In this article, they describe how the Japanese Americans at the Tule Lake internment camp have everything they need for happiness except the one thing they want most, their liberty. (Life 1944) It’s interesting to read about how the internment camps weren’t really all that bad, they actually were quite comfortable relative to what people might think. The only problems that arise in the camps stem from the Japanese American’s loss of liberty and freedom, and those problems can never really be solved so their lives cannot ever really be enjoyable, it can only be tolerable. (Life 1944) I think this article makes a really interesting point that Americans at the time would definitely sympathize with. It makes a comparison between Americans being in prisoner of war camps in Japan and how they have a certain ease of mind knowing that as Americans, they are the enemy and will be treated as such. However, in America, these Japanese-Americans are citizens being interned as aliens. They realize that there are political and sociological conflicts, and do not hate the guards or the WRA like the Americans in prisoner of war camps hated their guards (Life 1944). I think this comparison is intriguing, because it contrasts the two situations. In Japan, Americans are the intruders and are their enemy. Americans are trying to cause them harm, and the Japanese are trying to cause Americans harm. So when they get captured as an enemy, they get treated as an enemy. But here in the United States, American citizens are being stripped of their liberty to be placed in the same type of prisoner situation. Even though the conditions are better here, that shouldn’t play a role in the fact that rights are being taken away here from our own people, not the enemy. A lot of Americans felt this way, however some had another view, such as Eleanor Roosevelt.

            Eleanor Roosevelt wrote an article in Collier’s Magazine in 1943 called “A Challenge to American Sportsmanship.” In this article, she is in support of the internment as a sort of weed-out measure. She says “For loyal Japanese-Americans, the freedom that is their right. For disloyal ones, concentration camps and, later, deportation. America’s solution of the problem will work if all of us are willing to be fair about it.” (Collier’s 1943) Eleanor Roosevelt shares a common opinion with many of Americans at the time: that it is okay to intern these Japanese-Americans as a preliminary caution. Once they are evaluated as loyal or disloyal, action will be taken for both. Many American’s still had this image in the back of their heads:

Figure 2: Political cartoon remembering Pearl Harbor

Figure 2: Political cartoon remembering Pearl Harbor

The problem with this for Japanese-Americans is that the vast majority are innocent citizens, and they are losing their rights for no reason. This view that all American citizens of Japanese descent must be evaluated really caused a lot of anger in the innocent Japanese-Americans. After they were released from these camps, this anger and tension was shared with white Americans as the Japanese internees attempted to integrate back into normal society.