During WWII...?

Question

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americas were relocated to interment camps...In WWII, the U.S. was also fighting Germany and Italy, yet people of German and Italian descent were not relocated to camps. Why do you think those of Japanese descent were treated differently than the German and Italian Americans??

Answer 1

Well first of all japan made a direct attack on our homeland and all battles with other axis powers were fought on their turf. So Japan posed as the greatest threat. It would also be hard to single out an Italian or German based on appearance. Our spies were also easier to plant in Germany and Italy and their codes were easier to crack. The U.S. inteligence to this day can not encode all of the Japanese messages that were sent and a lot of Japanese americans at the time worked at the Pearl Horbor base and were actually spies.

Answer 2

It has to do with a couple of things. One Germany or Italy didn't have the ability to strike or invade the US (they would have had to get by Britain first). Second Japan attacked, before a declaration of war, a US held territory crippling the US fleet in the Pacific. Carriers were still not seen as the major weapon of the fleets yet so a large part of the US Navy's ability to defend the West coast had been disabled.

Second is the fact that there were plenty of rumors, Japan was invading the coast, a Japanese fleet had been sighted off California, Hollywood had been shelled by a Japanese submarine, etc. Add to that rumors of Japanese Americans helping the Japanese pilots attack the US Navy at Pearl Harbor and you've got a lot of fear and paranoia going on.

Also remember that many Japanese were extremely loyal to the Emperor. Something you didn't see in Europe.

Its easy to look back on such events and say what should they have done, but actually being there, having to make the decision with the information at hand is much harder.

Answer 3

Fear was a major factor caused by a lack of knowledge. Remember, we had already fought one war with Germany (WW I) and the German Americans had proven loyal in that war.

Practicality is another, it was easier to locate and round up the Japanese Americans. As stated earlier most were not assimilated yet and could be identified. It was near impossible to get all the Germans and Italians. Many were, however, held but generally on more concrete grounds than nationality.

It is to the credit of the Japanese Americans that many still did fight and fight well for the US. Take a look at the record of the 442nd RCT "Go for Broke!"

Answer 4

Because German and Italian Americans looked like "us."

Japanese Americans looked like "them".

One of the low points in our response to the war, for certain.

Answer 5

Because the American Japanese were clannish, lived in tightly knit communities, failed to assimilate, spoke very broken English, and obviously felt more loyalty to Japan than to the U.S. Not all of them were like this but most were and we simply didn't have time to sort them out at then time, we were too busy fighting their relatives who attacked us. Those of German and Italian extraction were a better known quantity so they were not interred.

If you want a good and factual look at the American Japanese during WWII read Michele Malkin's book, "In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling ..." As you read this book, check out her facts and you will see that the internment of the Japanese was totally justified at the time despite what johnny-come-latelys now say.

Check the facts. Don't just assume that what the liberal press now says is fact.

Answer 6

You really should check your sources before making such statements. I can remember Germans used for farm labor in the United States during World War II.

The World War II experience of thousands of German Americans, to most, is an unknown. During World War II, the U.S. government and many Americans viewed German Americans and others of "enemy ancestry" as potentially dangerous, particularly immigrants. The government used many interrelated, constitutionally questionable methods to control persons of German ancestry, including internment, individual and group exclusion from military zones, internee exchanges, deportation, repatriation, "alien enemy" registration, travel restrictions and property confiscation.

The human cost of these civil liberties violations was high. Families were disrupted, if not destroyed, reputations ruined, homes and belongings lost. By the end of the war, 11,000 persons of German ancestry, including many American-born children, were interned.

Answer 7

mainly due to the nature of the sneak attack but also due to the nature of the Japanese fighting in china the rape of Nanjing and the thought of Japanese spying yea it sounds racist and it was however you can't supplant modern thought on older past times i ask my uncle who was shot down over polsti and then escaped who he would have rather fought the Germans or the jap's he said the Germans because at least with them you had a chance that is how the pacific campaign was fought man to man hand to hand no quarter it was like nothing we've seen since Korea

Answer 8

German and Italians where put in interment camps as well.

Answer 9

They worked together mainly sharing technology, but Japan wasn't overtly under Germany's control. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The US declared war on Japan. Then, Germany declared war on the US, and the US declared war on Germany.

Answer 10

And of course the Europeans (Germans and Italians) didn't bomb the US.