Attack on Pearl Harbor
The internment of Japanese Americans
December 7th, 1941
Japanese bombers attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii from aircraft carriers without warning on “Black Sunday”, also known as the morning of December 7, 1941.
-“A date which will live in infamy” –FDR
· Events leading up to Pearl Harbor
-U.S embargoes on Japan bound supplies in 1941 and stops shipping gasoline and necessary war supplies to Japan which they are dependent on.
-The State Department of the U.S. offers to renew trade relations with Japan if they agree to leave China, but Japanese unwilling to relinquish imperialistic holdings.
· Results
-3,000 American causalities
- Aircraft, battleship fleet, small vessels damaged and destroyed
-Congress declares official war on December 8, 1941 claiming that the war was “thrust” upon them even though the United States embargoed Japanese items which worsened tensions.
-Germany and Italy (allies of Japan) declares war December 11, 1941
Internment of Japanese-Americans
Smoke pours from wrecked American warships including (L-R) the battleships USS West Virginia & USS Tennessee which were damaged or sunk during Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
Women firefighters direct a hose after the Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.
Only on the West Coast were Japanese put in internment camps.
Internment of Japanese Americans
On February 19th 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which gave the authorization for all Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans on the west coast to be moved into internment camps. The Americans wanted the Japanese farmers off the farmland so that they could own the land. The Californians took advantage of the Japanese being forced to move, they wanted our property. As a result of this order over 127,000 Japanese citizens were imprisoned. The Japanese faced many racial hardships before the internment such as "Yellow Peril" that was firstly directed toward the Chinese. The government felt that the japanese were apart of the sabotage, so that justified them from being put in camps. Korematsu v. U.S-1994 Supreme Court upheld constitutionality of Japanese relocation and halted the detention of the U.S citizens without cause. Many camps soon began to shut down and the last camp was closed in 1946.