Prejudice In Our Own Backyards
By Sanjit, Girish, & Aaron PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 8, 1941
" We have the freedom of speech don't we - so don't be afraid to speak up for what you believe in! "
How it happened
President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered and passed the law that segregated the Japanese to camps. The Americans were petrified that the Japanese-Americans were going to betray the U.S. and help Japan. The senate vote was very one sided towards internment, with a whopping 69-27 result.
What's going on...
As you read brutal things are unfolding around us including the Japanese being persecuted for their ethnicity. Although the war is having a tight clench around our hearts, we must not let it infiltrate our beliefs in equality. It seems that the ongoing violence and anguish of the war is clouding our judgement. We shall stand tall and firm sticking to what is right. All people with Japanese heritage and strong Japanese ties are being forced into concentration camps with the biased government claiming they are "protecting" them. They don't even care if the Japanese people are born in America or even if they are veterans of WWI. Another thing is that we are only taking out our anger on the Japanese while the German and Italian people roam free.
Japanese Internment Camps
Japanese families are being put into horrible conditions of the internment camps. Ever since the passing of Executive Order 9066, people have been suffering for something that was not their fault. Just because of a bad decision by the Japanese Government which ordered a bombing on Pearl Harbor, all Japanese are being stereotyped as devious people. They cannot even practice their traditions, or something as simple as having a family meal. We've already stripped them of their regular life, but now we have given them a cruel environment? Is this what we stand for as Americans? Is this what we stand for in a free country? I thought the Civil Rights Act stopped Stereotyping! We have just received inside information that a grandfather stepped a foot out of the barbed wire to grab a toy ball for his grandson and was cruelly machine-gunned to death.
Treatment and Conditions.
The conditions are horrible. The internment camps lack privacy, and are forcing Japanese people to accept low wages for menial tasks. The Japanese are lacking proper medical care, and are getting lots of emotional stresses. The brave people who manage to build up the courage to stand up against their captors are being killed.