Japanese Internment During WWII
a sadly unknown truth that still affects the Japanese today
The Japanese People - Evil?
Throughout World War 2, many items of propoganda were produced promoting an anti-Japanese mentality. Below are just a few of many examples of this.
This instance of propoganda that depicts Hitler standing next to a Japanese man (who is depicted with stereotypical slanted eyes, a pig's snout, and comically large teeth) was produced by someone you would not expect to produce such content - Theodor Geisel, better known by his pen name, Dr. Seuss.
This photo (along with the one to the right of this one) were printed in the December 22, 1941 issue of Time Magazine.
These photos depict two men - one of Chinese descent and another of Japanese descent. The article then describes to the reader how to tell the difference between the two by identifying different body characteristics.
This picture is from a 1942 animation titled "You're A Sap, Mr. Jap". The animation features Popeye the Sailor defeating a Japanese war ship. This specific scene depicts a Japanese man preparing to commit suicide by means of drinking gasoline and ingesting lit firecrackers. Truly a work for children to enjoy!
The Truth About the Japanese
The document that is shown on the wall in this picture is Executive Order 9066. Signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt on Feburary 19, 1942, it ordered anyone of Japanese descent to move into internment camps with only what they could carry with them as luggage.
Life in these camps was far from luxurious. Living conditions were often very cramped, with the largest apartments being 20 by 24 feet intended for a family of six. The average income of one in this camp was a measly fourteen dollars a month, a lower salary than prison inmates at the time.
Along with a great monetary loss, there was a great amount of injury and even deaths in these camps. At least a dozen deaths are attributed to shootings as well as the deaths of several children and senior citezens attributed to "poor healthcare". This monument was erected at the Manzanar Camp in California, the inscirption translating to "monument to console the souls of the dead".
"... California Nisei-age individuals, the proxy for internment, died 1.6 years earlier than Hawaiians who represented non-interned status. I concluded traumatic stress has life-long consequences even in the presence of efficacious coping strategies..." "The Experience of Injustice: Health Consequences of the Japanese American Internment", Gwendolyn M. Jensen, 1997.
Japanese family comes home after internment to their vandalized house
"A viper is nonetheless a viper wherever the egg is hatched.... So, a Japanese American born of Japanese parents, nurtured upon Japanese traditions, living in a transplanted Japanese atmosphere... notwithstanding his nominal brand of accidental citizenship almost inevitably and with the rarest exceptions grows up to be a Japanese, and not an American.... Thus, while it might cause injustice to a few to treat them all as potential enemies, I cannot escape the conclusion... that such treatment... should be accorded to each and all of them while we are at war with their race."
-LA Times
Two men hours before leaving their homes for internment
"I am for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast to a point deep in the interior. I don't mean a nice part of the interior either. Herd 'em up, pack 'em off and give 'em the inside room in the badlands... Personally, I hate the Japanese. And that goes for all of them."
-Henry McLemore, writer for Hearst newspapers
Note hung outside pharmacy that was owned by two Japanese
" I don't want any of them [persons of Japanese ancestry] here. They are a dangerous element. There is no way to determine their loyalty... It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen, he is still a Japanese. American citizenship does not necessarily determine loyalty... But we must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map."
-John L. DeWitt, U.S. general testifying to Congress