Argumentative Essay: Japanese-American Interment Camps

Japanese Interment Camps

Discrimination of a single race in a country known as the “melting pot,” is hard to justify. However, in the midst of war, with high tension and a severe case of paranoia, President Roosevelt made an executive decision. Moving, or forcing, Japanese-American citizens to interment camps is seen as a cruel, racist act of pure hatred and retaliation, when in reality it was a cautious decision made by a defensive country. There are definite reasons why interment camps are perceived as wrong, but the reasons for why it was justified are just as apparent. It is obvious that discrimination is wrong, but just as if one has to kill in pursuit of self –defense, murder is never right but sometimes justified. Interment camps were established during the post-Pearl Harbor attack hysteria, and Executive Order 9066 was placed into action. Ten camps across the west coast were opened for Japanese-American relocation. The “Anti-Japanese Paranoia,” prompted a hasty decision that in the 1940s seemed as if it was the right direction to go in. Roosevelt’s reasoning behind the opening of the camps was the suspicion of an Japanese spies and ‘mainland loyalty.’ The risk was too high for a country at war and, to the dismay of loyal Japanese-American’s, Roosevelt’s
Though interment camps were crowded and the living situation was poor, interment camps differ greatly from concentration camps. American born Japanese were allowed to take leadership positions, called Nisei. There were also education opportunities available; of 120,000 that were interned by the camp roughly 30,000 were children. Certified teachers were allotted for elementary and secondary school. Nevertheless death by sickness, natural cause, etc. was bound to happen with the conditions, but the purpose of the interment camps was not death by force, which is why the numbers of deaths remains