Controversy Japanese Internment Camps - Research Paper Example

were not included in these camps (Joy, p104). The President of United Stated Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war with Japan on December 7, 1941 after the Japan’s attack on the Pearl Harbour. After this declaration situation became worst for the Japanese living in the United Stated and most of them had to go through extremely tough time that they had never thought about. The President allowed the removal of all the Japanese from their homes to the guarded camps established in the interior part of the country.

In this way the Japanese living in United States had to pay very heavy cost of Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and getting United States involved in the war (Karen, p183). During this process, over 120,000 Japanese were taken out from their homes in United States and they were forces to leave their houses, work places, businesses and lives they were living in US. They were moved to the camps that were mostly set up in the desert areas with little facilities of life. There was no running water around the camps and the imprisoners were all time surrounded by barbed wires and guards.

The establishment of these camps and moving the Japanese descents in these camps was a highly controversial step taken by the government of United States and the action started up heated and prolonged debate about the justification of the action taken by the U.S government. The government of United States put forward their stance that they had the fear of further attacks from Japan on their territory and they see the danger of presence of Japanese descent spying for Japan. They justified the establishment of camps that the step was taken to avoid the possible support provided by the Japanese American to their homeland by providing information to the Japanese or though different assets and cooperation (Nash et al, p92).

Despite this justification the experts and people widely opposed the act of United Stated to detain the Japanese American in these camps and the justification given by the U.S. government was also rejected. It was argues from the other side that almost two third of the interned were American citizens and half of the people kept in the camps were children. There were no evidences to prove the involvement of these people in the spying activity neither there were sign of disloyalty for America shown by these people.

These camps were also criticised for providing poor living conditions to the detainees. It was reported that the people had problems in getting access to fresh water. The weather was extremely harsh and the environment of the camps was also very hostile and antagonistic. The members of the families were separated from each other and they were kept in different camps from where they found it impossible to contact their family members and reunite with them. Throughout the war there were just ten people found accused to spying for Japan and over 120,000 people were kept in the camps just because of doubt of spying and disloyalty (Daniels et al, p54).

The government of United States clarified that the step was necessary to strengthen the position of America in the war by eliminating the possibilities of spying and internal support to Japan from America but it is widely believe that it was just a cover used to justify the action and in real the step was led by racism and biasness for the Japanese Americans. The detention of Japanese Americans also became matter of