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Ethics: Questions & Morality of Human Actions, 3rd Edition

Japanese American internment

by Larry N. Sypolt

The Event: Involuntary relocation of Japanese Americans and Japanese residents of the western United States to internment camps during World War II

Date: 1942-1946

Type of Ethics: Modern history

Significance: Japanese Americans were interned en masse in concentration camp-style relocation centers, based strictly on their national origin without due process of law. Although upheld as legal by the U.S. Supreme Court, this wartime practice has since been the subject of extended moral debate and national embarrassment

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Empire made a surprise attack on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This action led to a declaration of war by the United States against Japan the next day.

Before 1941, an anti-Orientalist movement existed on the West Coast of the United States. The attack on Pearl Harbor intensified this regional animosity and provided an opportunity to rid the region of this unwanted race. Suspicion ran high against the Japanese living in the United States. Many leaders were arrested, and many others endured personal attacks and violence. Both American-born (Nisei) and Japanese-born (Issei) people of Japanese descent were considered threats simply because of their national origin.

Executive Order 9066

The California Joint Immigration Committee; the U.S. Army, represented by General John L. DeWitt; the Pacific congressional delegation; and other anti-Japanese organizations recommended that President Franklin D. Roosevelt evacuate the Japanese population. On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt responded with Executive Order 9066, which authorized the secretary of war, or any military commander designated by him, to establish military areas and exclude therefrom any and all persons. DeWitt, commander of the Western Defense Command, became the person responsible for the evacuation under the executive order. This was unfortunate because he was extremely prejudiced against the Japanese.

On March 2, 1942, DeWitt issued Public Proclamation Number One, which defined the West Coast exclusion zone. The western halves of Washington, Oregon, and California became Military Area Number One. All persons of Japanese ancestry living in that area would be relocated in the interest of military necessity. This left opponents of mass evacuation defenseless and brought no opposition from public or civilian leaders, who were forced to accept military authority. It also afforded those of Japanese ancestry a brief period of voluntary relocation. Only a few thousand took this opportunity to move, and they were faced with anti-Japanese feelings wherever they went.

1942 editorial propaganda cartoon by Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) depicting Japanese Americans on the West Coast as prepared to conduct sabotage against the U.S.

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The Wartime Civilian Control Authority (WCCA), a military organization, and the War Relocation Authority (WRA), a civilian agency created by executive order on March 18, 1942, were established to aid in the movement of the evacuees. The WRA had the authority to provide for the relocation of evacuees in appropriate places and to provide for their needs and activities. Milton S. Eisenhower was the WRA’s director for the first three months. Both he and his successor, Dillon S. Myer, attempted to find a just way to relocate the Japanese Americans, which won them gratitude from that community. Millions of dollars in property and belongings were lost, however, by the Japanese Americans who were forced to relocate. After the failure of the voluntary relocation, Eisenhower realized that some form of detention on federally managed, army-guarded land was necessary.

In making the decision on internment, the WRA faced the constitutional question of whether it had the legal authority to detain American citizens without bringing charges against them. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution guaranteed every citizen the rights of life, liberty, and property with due process of law. The WRA thought, however, that it was justified in forgoing this amendment during wartime as a necessity for national security. The court system supported the relocation argument by virtue of the words “war necessity.” Although the United States was at war with Italy and Germany, only a few people of these nationalities were detained.

By late May, 1942, almost 112,000 Japanese Americans were in assembly centers. They were forced from their homes with only what they could carry with them. Assembly centers were hastily set up at fairgrounds, racetracks, and stadiums with barbed wire placed around them. The evacuees spent between six weeks and six months at these temporary centers, until the relocation camps were completed.

Relocation Centers

A total of 117,116 people were evacuated to assembly or relocation centers or came under some phase of the evacuation program between March 2 and October 31 of 1942. This included 151 persons transferred from the Territory of Alaska to the custody of the WCCA and 504 babies who were born to mothers in assembly areas. Another 1,875 persons were sent from the Territory of Hawaii—1,118 to relocation centers and 757 to Justice Department internment camps. More than 70,000 were American citizens.

Life in the relocation centers was difficult at first. Many families were crowded into hastily erected barracks; living conditions were poor, and supplies were short. After the relocation authorities finally had the logistics worked out, conditions gradually improved. During 1943 and 1944, violence broke out and demonstrations were conducted in the camps to protest the treatment of the internees.

Early in 1943, the situation regarding the Japanese Americans lightened somewhat. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson announced plans to form a Japanese American combat team made up of Nisei volunteers from the mainland and Hawaii. This unit served with distinction throughout the war. Director Myer wrote a letter to Stimson asking for an immediate relaxation in the West Coast Exclusion Zone, but Stimson rejected it. On March 20, 1943, Myer took the first step in decentralizing the relocation program by authorizing project directors to issue leave permits in cases in which leave clearance had previously been granted by the Washington office.

Finally, on December 17, 1944, the War Department announced the revocation of the West Coast mass exclusion orders of 1942, and the next day Myer announced that all relocation centers would be closed by June 30, 1946. On March 20, 1946, Tule Lake Segregation Center, the last of the WRA centers, was officially closed.

After the war, the government permitted the internees to file claims for losses during internment. The ceilings were low in relationship to the property losses and certainly did not cover the personal humiliation and suffering endured by the internees. In October, 1990, after many years of debate, U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh presented the first reparation checks of $20,000 to those interned during World War II. The government finally admitted that it had been wrong.

Further Reading

1 

Collins, Donald E. Native American Aliens, Disloyalty, and the Renunciation of Citizenship by Japanese Americans During World War II. Contributions in Legal Studies 32. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985.

2 

Hosokawa, Bill. Nisei: The Quiet Americans. Rev. ed. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2002.

3 

Irons, Peter. Justice at War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.

4 

Kashima Tetsuden. Judgment Without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment During World War II. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003.

5 

Myer, Dillon S. Uprooted Americans: The Japanese Americans and the War Relocation Authority During World War II. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1971.

6 

U.S. Army. Western Defense Command and Fourth Army. Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942.Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1943.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Sypolt, Larry N. "Japanese American Internment." Ethics: Questions & Morality of Human Actions, 3rd Edition, edited by George Lucas & John K. Roth, Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Ethics_0505.
APA 7th
Sypolt, L. N. (2019). Japanese American internment. In G. Lucas & J. K. Roth (Eds.), Ethics: Questions & Morality of Human Actions, 3rd Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Sypolt, Larry N. "Japanese American Internment." Edited by George Lucas & John K. Roth. Ethics: Questions & Morality of Human Actions, 3rd Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2019. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.