World War II - Japanese American Internment and End of War

Women in Wartime & Guest Worker Program

Women took on roles in factories and government support positions.
The Bracero Program brought workers from Mexico to the US with guest worker permits.
Tensions were high due to wartime conditions and existing racism.
Immigration was intended to be temporary, with workers returning to Mexico with earnings.
Resistance to changing social norms fueled racism.

Japanese Americans during WWII

The Asian population was concentrated on the West Coast due to the Pacific Ocean's location.
Angel Island in San Francisco Bay served as the West Coast counterpart to Ellis Island, processing immigrants from Asia.
While Germany was perceived as the primary threat, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, leading to increased animosity towards Japanese people.
A post-war survey revealed that American service personnel had more animosity towards Japanese soldiers than German soldiers (35% vs. 7%).
There was significant animosity directed towards Japanese people as well as Japanese-American citizens.
Despite being American citizens, Japanese Americans faced suspicion and questioning of their loyalty.
Many Japanese Americans served honorably in World War I and World War II (over 20,000 in WWII).
The loyalty of Japanese-Americans was questioned despite their citizenship and service to the US military.
The fear was that they might be more loyal to the Japanese emperor and act as spies.

Dr. Seuss Cartoon

A Dr. Seuss cartoon depicted Japanese Americans stereotypically.
The cartoon showed Japanese Americans lining up at a shack labeled "Honorable Fifth Column," suggesting they were spies.
The term "fifth column" refers to spies and saboteurs working to undermine the war effort.
The cartoon caption, "Waiting for the signal from home," implied that these Americans were loyal to Japan, not the US.
The cartoon perpetuated the false stereotype that Japanese people use "honorable" as an adjective for everything.
The cartoon reflects a racist perception of Japanese Americans as a security threat.

Executive Order 9066 and Internment

President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ordering the removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast (Washington, Oregon, California) and their placement in prison camps.
The rationale was to control and monitor their activities and prevent communication with the Japanese military.
This action was taken as a "preemptive move" without any proof of espionage or communication with the enemy.
People of German or Italian descent were not subjected to similar treatment.
Japanese Americans had to abandon their homes and businesses and were confined in internment camps.

Korematsu Case

Fred Korematsu challenged the internment order in court.
The Supreme Court upheld the order, citing wartime necessity.
This decision prioritized national security over individual rights.
The internment involved removing a group of people based solely on their race, with no demonstrated security threat.
The Supreme Court, in the 1980s, overturned the Korematsu decision, acknowledging its error.

Details of Executive Order 9066

Executive Order 9066 granted the Secretary of War and military commanders the authority to designate military zones and remove individuals without hearings or due process.
Congress supported the order with Public Law 503, allowing the military to impose restrictions on anyone deemed a threat.
The laws did not explicitly name any specific race or ethnic group but targeted people of Japanese descent.
Curfews and restrictions were initially imposed on all people of Japanese descent.

Evacuation and Losses

The evacuation began on March 22, 1942, with newsreels portraying it as a matter of national security.
Two-thirds of the evacuees were American citizens, but they were referred to by a derogatory term.
The evacuation was mandatory, leading to significant losses for Japanese Americans who were forced to dispose of their properties quickly
Evacuees were allowed to take only what they could carry, forcing them to sell or store their possessions on short notice.
Many Japanese Americans were cheated or received unfair value for their properties, leading to significant financial losses.
A congressional report detailed instances of properties being sold for drastically reduced prices.
Empty streets and abandoned farms marked the vacated areas.

Incarceration

120,000 people, including babies and the elderly, were incarcerated without knowing their fate or the government's intentions.
Evacuation took 18 months, with some individuals moving east to avoid internment.
Evacuees were transported to assembly centers and then to more permanent internment camps.
Assembly centers were often located in temporary shelters like fairgrounds and horse racing tracks, with harsh conditions.
Internees had to build their own mattresses and set up their living spaces.

Shame & Loyalty

The internment caused a sense of shame and disloyalty among Japanese Americans.
Despite the injustice, Japanese Americans demonstrated their loyalty to the United States.
People were confined in camps from May 1942 to as late as 1946.
Many camps were not initially ready, requiring internees to build sewage systems, schools, and winter insulation.
Camps were often located in isolated and harsh environments, such as deserts and swamps.
The War Relocation Authority (WRA) referred to the camps as relocation centers.
Guards with machine guns pointed inward, contradicting claims that the internment was for the internees' protection.
Incidents of violence and injustice occurred within the camps.

Challenging the Evacuation

Fred Korematsu defied the evacuation order but was arrested.
His arrest brought shame upon his family.
Korematsu challenged his arrest, arguing it was a violation of his rights as an American citizen.
His case reached the Supreme Court, testing his faith in the Constitution.

Arguments Presented to the Supreme Court

Korematsu's attorneys argued that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection.
They also argued that detaining citizens without a hearing or trial violated the Fifth Amendment right of due process.
The Solicitor General argued that in wartime, the government could take necessary actions, even if they discriminated based on race.
At the time of Korematsu's case, segregation was still legal and the Supreme Court hadn't yet decided Brown vs. Board of Education.

Supreme Court Decision

The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that President Roosevelt's order was constitutional.
The court cited wartime necessity as justification.
Justice Hugo Black argued that the exclusion was not based on hostility but on the country's war with the Japanese empire.
Justice Frank Murphy used the word "racism" for the first time in a Supreme Court opinion, arguing that the order targeted only Japanese Americans.
Justice Murphy also insisted that there was no evidence to justify the order and that the majority decision would allow the president to act outside the law.

Dissenting Opinions

Justice Roberts expressed skepticism about the government's claims and called for a high standard of justification.
Justice Jackson referred to the precedent created by the majority as a "loaded weapon" that could be used to justify future abuses of power.
The decision came near the end of the war, with Germany's surrender and the turning of the tide against Japan.
A month after the Korematsu decision, the camps began to close.
Returning home presented new challenges, including hostile neighbors and destroyed farms.

Korematsu's Vindication

Fred Korematsu waited 40 years to clear his name and teamed up with young lawyers, led by Dale Manami.
They sought a declaration from the courts that Japanese Americans were not wrong, not traitors, and not engaging in espionage or sabotage.
The Korematsu case was brought back to federal court under corum novus, a rarely used motion to correct errors of fact.
Legal historian Peter Ivins discovered documents proving that government lawyers had hidden evidence from the Supreme Court.
On November 10, 1983, the US District Court vacated Fred Korematsu's conviction.
In 1988, Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act, apologizing for the internment and paying each survivor $20,000.

Summary

That conflict between national security and civil rights, as there was no evidence of espionage or sabotage.
Japanese ancestry led to questioned loyalty, despite American citizenship and military service.
Japanese Americans had to sell homes and businesses quickly, suffering significant financial losses due to exploitation.
Returning from camps meant facing a lack of homes and businesses, prompting Congress and the court to revisit the issue.
Recompense was provided to address the loss of dignity and financial value, but it did not fully restore what was lost.

European Theater

After declaring war on Japan, the US also fought Japan's allies, Germany and Italy.
The war in Europe was known as the Atlantic Theater, while the war against Japan was the Pacific Theater.
Both theaters ran concurrently, with more effort initially directed towards defeating Germany.
Operation Torch involved a three-pronged landing across the North Coast of Africa to drive out German and Italian forces, followed by moving up the boot of Italy.
The invasion of Italy aimed to knock the Italians out of the war and weaken Germany.
Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy on June 6 (D-Day), was the final move against the Germans.
The US, British, and Canadians landed at five points along the North Coast of France (Normandy) to descend on the city of Koln and push eastward into Germany.
Russian forces advanced westward from the East, aiming to capture the Germans in a pincer movement.
The five landing points for D-Day were Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, Gold Beach, Sword Beach and Juno Beach.
Omaha Beach was the bloodiest due to its open, flat terrain exposed to machine gun fire.
Details about military operations, including D-Day landings (Omaha Beach, Utah Beach), and the Battle of the Bulge.

Yalta Conference

Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in Yalta to map out the postwar world.
- Germany was to surrender unconditionally and be demilitarized and dismembered to prevent future aggression after being primary culprit in both world wars.
- Stalin desired a buffer against Germany, seeking control of Eastern Europe, including Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, and a sliver of eastern Germany.
- Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to fair and open elections in Eastern European countries, with the condition that if they voted for communist governments voluntarily, it would be accepted.
- The need for an international body, which was proposed at Yalta which would become the United Nations after the failures of the League of Nations

End of War in Europe

Within two months of the Yalta meeting, FDR died of a stroke and 18 days after that, Adolf Hitler committed suicide and within a week the Germans surrendered to Allied forces.
On May 7, the German high command accepted the terms of surrender, and May 8 was proclaimed Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, marking the end of the war in Europe.
Grusome discoveries of Nazi Concentration Camps were made. Camps such as Buchenwald, Auschwitz, and Bergen Belsen were stumbled upon by US and Allied forces.

Nazi Concentration Camps

Upon liberating Nazi concentration camps, Allied forces discovered piles of dead bodies and survivors reduced to walking skeletons.
Bodies were buried in mass graves using bulldozers due to the sheer number of casualties.
Soldiers gave chocolate bars to kids only for medical personal to take it away on the understanding that their stomachs are so mal nurished that a chocolate bar could rupture their stomachs.
The crematoriums were another gruesome discovery where the bodies of prisoners were burnt.

Pacific Theater

The strategy against Japan involved island hopping due to Pacific Ocean and island setting.
US forces drove Japanese forces out of Malaysia and The Phillipines.
Okinawa and Iwo Jima battles demonstrated Japanese willingness to fight to the last soldier.
The US marines raised the American flag at Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
- If you've seen the movie Hacksaw Ridge, that is based on the fighting at Okinawa and all that private Doss, the medic is a real person.

Manhattan Project

Allies developed an atomic weapon (Manhattan Project); Albert Einstein warned Roosevelt that Germany was developing an atomic weapon.
$E=mc^2$ Albert Einstein's equation which explains the energy that is released from splitting an Atom.
Robert Oppenheimer led the project in Alamogordo Desert, New Mexico; The testing site for the manhattan project.

Potsdam and Trinity Test

Truman met with Stalin and the British at Potsdam after Roosevelt's death.
After Roosevelt's death, Harry Truman became the President of the United States.
Truman wanted to know if the atomic bomb was operational before the meeting
The Trinity test was conducted on July 16; The Gadget went on top of a tower for atmospheric detonation
The photo was taken 16 miliseconds after detonation.