Why were Japanese-Americans detained during WW II, but not German-Americans?

Answer 1

personally, I think it was because they were easier to tell apart. German-americans looked just like everyone else.

Oh, and they were only detained on the west coast. They weren't put in concentration camps in the rest of the country.

Answer 2

(actually Canada also interred Japanese, just thought i would mention that)

It was a couple of reasons

one was geography. The vast majority of Japanese Americans lived on the west coast. The view was "If the Japanese were to invade how many of the Japanese civilians would side with the invading force?" Germans were scattered around the continent. If you tried to track each one down then you would be wasting vast resources needed for the war effort.

another was Xenophobia, most Germans had been in this country for generations they had adapted and accepted the "American way of life". While a good majority of Japanese still held on to their traditional beliefs, shopped at Japanese only stores and only really interacted with each other creating a fairly isolated community.

You cant look at the events with modern eyes, you have to understand the way people thought and felt in the 1940s. Asians in general were never truly or warmly received by the vast majority of Americans since the day they arrived back in the mid 1800's. They were alien, spoke a language that was as far removed than anything they were accustomed to and had bizarre and arcane customs that they held on to with both hands.

unfortunately innocent people got swept up in a fear of the unknown. the previous hundred years of mistrust and misunderstanding bubbled up and could not be stopped.

One good thing to com out of the situation was the rise of the Nisei - the Japanese American Soldiers who went out to fight for America and proved to be some of the most dedicated and hard fighting soldiers of the war. They helped fight the racism that has existed for over a century and helped bring acceptance to Japanese American community.

And as a side note, Although there was no massive rounding up of German Americans there was some backlash. one example, there was a small section of San Fransisco called "German town" it ran up along Van ness and covered the civic center. If you drive up to the area you can still see very German looking buildings and designs. However in WW2 there was such a fear of reprisals against the German community they dropped the word German from almost everything. Including the community center they had built, It was changed from German House to California house. It is now A culinary school, but you can go inside and see the old Germanic architecture.

Answer 3

The 'we can spot them easier' is the lie that the government would like us to believe so the story will go away, but if you look at it is completely idiotic. Yes, you can tell a Japanese person from a German or a Norwegian person, but who can tell the difference from a Japanese and a Korean? The police and the FBI did not go around every street in America and shout 'You look Japanese, get in the truck!" Instead, the 'confidential' and sacred information collected by the Census Bureau was used to track down the Japanese and notify everyone by mail where they needed to go and what they could bring with them and how quickly they had to sell their property.

This policy was political, not military, in nature. It was initiated in California because that was a sovereign state and had clout in Congress. Hawaii, where the attacks actually occurred, was a territory under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, and the Japanese there were never interned; in fact, when many of them volunteered for combat duty in Italy, they were shocked to see how poorly the mainland Japanese had been treated compared to themselves.

Because of immigration law at the time, persons of Asian origin could not become naturalized citizens (this was not corrected until the late 1950's). As a result, most adult Japanese did not have the protection of citizenship and it was considered unwise to separate natural-born citizen minors from their foreign national parents so everyone was sent along to the camps. There was a brief notion of interring all Americans of German and Italian descent, but there were far too many Congressmen in that category (not to mention such celebrities as Danny Thomas and Frank what's-his-name!), plus unlike the Japanese culture of strict heritage most German and Italian families had long since inter-married with other nationalities (only in the Minutemen and the Aryan Nation is everyone so 'pure') as to make the idea unworkable, not to mention down right Hitlerian! Instead, only those German and Italian persons who were foreign nationals, and those naturalized citizens who had actually committed a pro-Axis crime were put into camps (yes, there were camps for them as well).

I hope this helps.

Answer 4

The answer is very simple. They could see the difference. That was the only reason. It was very racist and discriminatory but that's the way it was. Also the Germans and Italians never directly attacked the U.S. on its shores and the American government was afraid that People of Japanese ancestry would rise up against America. If the Germans and Italians had directly attacked North America the same thing might have happened to them. But maybe not!

Answer 5

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that Germany was not considered to be much of a threat as far as directly attacking the United States.

Japan, on the other hand, had already attacked sovereign U.S. territory -- and had they won a few more battles in the Pacific, they could have opened sea lanes to the U.S. West Coast.

It was feared at the time that many Japanese living in Hawaii and on the West Coast were sympathetic to Japan and were taking sides with it -- even aiding the Empire in terms of money and intelligence.

Also, an old man I know, who fought in WW II, said that he thought detaining Japanese-Americans was for their own protection. The hatred that people had for "Japs" at the time was so great, he said, that their lives could have been in danger if they hadn't been separated from society somehow.

I'm not saying I agree with what the old man said. I'm just reporting what he did say.

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Answer 6

For one, it was much easier to tell the Japanese-Americans apart from their neighbors, especially because many families had partial German ancestory - I believe that Roosevelt was among them.

The Chinese and Japanese had long been mistrusted and mistreated along the West coast, where the vast majority settled. At various times over the 100 years preceding WWII, there had been attempts to stop Asian immigration, and they were regularly treated as second-class citizens. When war broke out, it seemed natural to treat them as a potential enemy.

Another reason that goes along with the first, although it likely played a very small role in the decision, is that because the Japanese stood out so much from their neighbors, it made them potential targets for angry European-Americans. Some may have gone along with the internment idea because they felt it would help to protect the Japanese from revenge attacks - though of course this does not give the action a free pass.

In general, it was also felt, rightly or wrongly, that the Japanese retained a greater sense of nationalistic feeling for their home country than many European-Americans, partly because the European-Americans were more easily and readily assimilated into American society, and had often been in the U.S. for many more generations, allowing them to more fully adapt to U.S. customs while losing most of those of their original nation.

Still, the main reason is likely the fact that so many Americans had German blood in them. There was anti-German sentiment, though perhaps not so much as in WWI when they were the only powerful enemy. But it would have been difficult to intern a large portion of the American population, including (I think) the President.

Answer 7

A great many Germans were in fact detained especailly if they were suspected of being members of the German-American Bund.
Italians too were detained including Joe DeMagio's mother! He had to post a bond to get her out of jail.
The Germans and Italians were jailed on Ellis Island.

Answer 8

well, it was the Japanese that attacked America, not the Germans. I dont think that Roosevelt wanted them incarcerated against their will, but given the time in Amereica, the people would feel better. Roosevelt didnt give a hoot about the Japs, he wanted to fight Germany, he HATED Hitler but because Germany had not attacked us he could not join the fight against Germany with the American peoples blessings. However, when Japan, Germany and Italy joined a pact that stated that if any one of those three countries were attacked by another country, that said country would now become the enemy of the other two. With that being said, proof has arisen last year that Roosevelt knew of this pact. He inticed Japan into attacking the United States, therefore the people of America would want revenge against Japan. We retaliated with the Doolittle Raid. With that action against Japan, the pact now recognizes that America is now the enemy of Germany and Italy also. With war declared against the U.S. by the Axis powers, Roosevelt was now able to fight Germany with the American publics blessing.

Answer 9

Regardless of conspiracy theories, the American government and most Americans, regardless of their political preferences considered Pearl harbor a treacherous, sneak attack.

Since the Japanese Americans, looked, more alien than Italian or German American, ,were mostly concentrated in the west coast [prejudice prevailed and a great injustice was done.

Answer 10

It was a huge injustice these Japanese were Americans of Japanese decent. We did not take the Germans or the Italians. These poor people lost everything and deserve to be compensated for their loss. Imagine if you can the humiliation of being singled out in this land if immigrants and herded to Manzinar or Santa Anita race track.

Answer 11

We are always suspicious of people who are "different" and never more so than during war. The Japanese "looked" different, and their culture and behavior was very "different." And it was easy to tell who was Japanese.

The Japanese also attacked the US. The US declared war on Germany in support of the war in Europe and because Nazi u-boats had not been respecting American neutrality.

And much of American culture had come from Germany. We don't fear (as much) what we know.

All of the above, to one degree or another, explains the internment.

Not one of our proudest moments as a nation.