The Internment of the Japanese Americans During WWII

Before the Lesson

What do you think an internment camp is? Why were Japanese Americans sent to internment camps?

Pearl Harbor Review

Pearl Harbor is located in Hawaii and was attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. Franklin D. Roosevelt asks for congress to declare war on Japan and it was granted. This attack brought the Americans into World War II.

Justification of Internment
There were many Americans of Japanese descent living all around the United States. The 4th Amendment protects citizens from searches and seizures and requires a warrant.

The 14th Amendment forbids the denial of any United States born person from pursuing life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
Since the United States was now at war, these amendments were ignored because the war department was afraid of national security. And the Japanese were sent to internment camps.

Executive Order 9066

Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Roosevelt on March 18, 1942. It ordered that all Japanese Americans were to be relocated and moved into internment camps around the United States.

Internment Camps
Watch this video and answer some of the questions that are on your notes sheet. We will be discussing the video in groups and as a class, so try to answer the questions the best you can. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgkNaK6fviA

Internment Camp Article

After watching the video keep the images that they showed you in mind while reading this article. This report is an account of relocation to the internment camps by Yuri Tateishi. http://wwwtc.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/web12/features/source/d ocs/C14.pdf

Internment Camps
After the article reading and the video whats your definition of an Internment Camp?

Internment Camp
Definition: A prison camp for the confinement of enemy aliens, prisoners of war, political prisoners, etc. Over 100,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during WWII when they had not even committed a crime. Many of the Japanese Americans were second generation and had never even been to Japan.

Internment Camps (con.)

This was the greatest violation of Americans rights since slavery. Not until the 1980s did the American Government apologize to the Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps.