As your eyes rest upon your new home, a tiny room with a few beds and some sheets, you think, "How could the United States government take away my life based solely on my race?" Welcome to the life of a Japanese-American during World War II. Citizens that had done nothing wrong were being interned, a nice way of saying they were imprisoned. During World War II, it was wrong for the United States government to intern Japanese- Americans. The daily life of the interned, why this tragic event happened, how it happened and why it was wrong, are all things every American should know! .
Pearl Harbor was indeed a day that laid in infamy. However, what most people don't know is what happened to thousands of Americans after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, a rush of anti- Japanese feelings swept through the country, and rightly so. What were not justified, were the feelings of hatred toward Japanese-Americans! Many citizens and government officials were afraid that the Japanese citizens living on the West Coast would assist in the invasion of the United States of America (Gimlin 288). U.S. Lieutenant General John Dewitt was the head of security for the West Coast. John Dewitt felt people of Japanese heredity were a threat (Drexel 403). He greatly pressured President Roosevelt to sign an order that would allow John Dewitt to remove people from designated military areas. Eventually Roosevelt gave in to the wartime hysteria and signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. Executive Order 9066 authorized the war department to remove any persons from restricted military areas (Daniel 702). It was believed the Japanese might invade the United States along the west coast and therefore, restricted military areas were as all inclusive as most of the west coast.
After order 9066 was signed, it went almost immediately into effect. On March 31, 1942, residents of the West Coast who were of Japanese descent were instructed to report to control stations where they would register themselves and their families.
