Japanese Internment Essay

While the United States was trying to negotiate terms of peace with Japan, no one knew or had an idea that the Japanese had made a decision to make war on the United States and Britain. This resulted in the bombing of Pearl Harbor since this was the only barrier to a Japanese victory. At around eight in the morning, on December 7th 1941, the Japanese launched a massive attack on the United States Naval Base, Pearl Harbour. This massive bombing attack was a key factor contributing to the internment of Japanese Canadians. In the novel, The Whirlwind, Ben Friedman a fourteen year old boy of Jewish culture escapes the anti-Semitism in Germany, and flees to America. There, he meets a friend named John who is of Japanese descent. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, John and his family are sent to Internment camps due to the fact that they were Japanese, possibly because they could be spies. Thousands of Japanese Canadians in Canada were sent to several Internment camps. Inside these camps, the Japanese had to live in poor conditions and work hard, while frequently getting subjected to racism and prejudice. However, even before the war, Japanese Canadians were targets of anti-rioting and they were even set aside as second-class citizens. It is evident that the Japanese Canadians in the internment camps were treated unfairly by the Canadian government due to the fact that they were frequently getting subjected to racism and prejudice inside or outside of internment camps, they were forced to work and live in terrible conditions, and the fact that the government had promised to keep all the Japanese people’s valuables in safekeeping, but in the end, everything was auctioned off.

Before the war started, people of Japanese descent were targets of racism and prejudice. They were even regarded as second class citizens. People did not like how the Japanese people were thriving in the fishing industry as well. The Japanese people were even denied the right to vote, teach, or

Cited: Wales, Jimmy. "Japanese Canadian Internment." Wikepedia. Accessed May 11, 2012. Last modified April 26, 2012 Matas, Carol. The Whirlwind. Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2007. "Japanese Canadian History.net." Japanese Canadian History.net. Accessed May 9, 2012. Last modified April 7, 2011 [2] Carol Matas, The Whirlwind. (Victoria: Orca Book Publishers., 2007), 34 [3] Adachi, Ken. The Enemy that Never Was: A History of the Japanese Canadians (1976)