Resulting in the Relocation of Japanese Americans - Essay Example

? Executive Order 9066: Resulting in the Relocation of Japanese Americans December 6, Executive Order 9066: Resulting in the Relocation of Japanese Americans Introduction War time entails implementing drastic measures. The research delves on Executive Order 9066. The United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the Executive Order during February of 1942. The title of the document is Authorizing The Secretary of War to Prescribe Military Areas. The official United States document was retrieved from One website, http://www.ourdocuments.gov/. The research focused on why the emergency measure was crafted. Executive Order 9066 was crafted to protect American interests from possible Japanese residents acting as spies by giving vital information to the Japanese Army in Japan as well as sabotaging American interests within the United States. The racist executive Order 9066 violates the Japanese Americans’ human rights. Body The United States President made the above Executive Order to protect American interests. The Enduring Visions’ Chapter 25 states that the president during 1942 was Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Boyer 765). The order instructed all military units to imprison all Japanese Americans in preselected military prison camps (http://www.ourdocuments.gov/). The order was made in order to restrict the movement of resident who are of Japanese ancestries. The United States war enemies of 1942 included Japan, Italy, and Germany. The order was meant to restrict the movements of the Japanese Americans, two months after Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japanese military pilots (Laurier 35). Further, the order instructed the military to give food, shelter and other comforts to the incarcerated civilians. The order does mention the nationalities of the persons to be rounded up and imprisoned. However, the letter clearly states that the military will include the Japanese residents among those to be picked up and locked up in military camps within the United States (http://www.ourdocuments.gov/). Furthermore, the United States instructed the Secretary of War and the military commander to spearhead seeking the help of the federal troops and the federal agencies to implement the order. Consequently, the United States President ordered all United States departments to collaborate with the military authorities’ implementation of order 9066 (http://www.ourdocuments.gov/). Moreover, the intentions of the order did not limit the current investigations of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. The bureau was investigating and weeding out possible saboteurs and spies from within the American communities having race relationships with the current United States war enemies. The bureau picked up and filed cases against proven Japanese spies and saboteurs (http://www.ourdocuments.gov/). Further, Executive order 9066 was issued during February of 1942. The document was made after Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese airplanes during December 7, 1941. The Japanese bombing during was two hours (Lassier 89). Even though the order did not mention whether the targeted civilians were Japanese, German, or Italian residents, the general interpretation of the order was to only focus on the Japanese people. This is understandable because of the recent bombing of Pearl Harbor (http://www.ourdocuments.gov/). As proof, the military started to forcibly rounding up and transfer the Japanese Americans within the designation military zones. Secretary of State ordered the Military Commander, Lt. General Dewitt, as the military commander of the Western Defense Command overseeing the implementation of Executive Order 9066 on February 20, 1942. The military prison zones were located in the western halves of California, Oregon, and Washington. Likewise, the Southern half of Arizona was set as another military prison zone. As proof that the military zones are prison camps, the Japanese were restricted to only moving within the military zones (Hatamiya 14). Further, United States Secretary of War Henry Stimson and the United States President Franklin Roosevelt voiced their opinion that they held racist beliefs against the Asians, including the Japanese people. Stimson announced that the Japanese racial characteristics indicate that they cannot be trusted or understood. President Franklin Roosevelt admitted that the February 1942 Executive Order 9066 was a military necessity to respond to the December 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor (Rhea 46). Furthermore, some people believe that the order violated the rights of the Japanese Americans. During that time period, the average American sentiment was racial in character. Since the Japanese Army bombed Pearl Harbor, the American residents wanted to avenge the unwarranted attack on American soil. Consequently, the Americans picked on the local Japanese Americans as targets for their revenge. Further, the United States Presidents Roosevelt is only acting as a vengeful American. United States President Franklin Roosevelt was not exempted from this concept that the Japanese Americans cannot be trusted and should be used as targets for revenge for the death of the Pearl Harbor victims (Martusewicz 184). Similar to the rounding up and forced transfer of the local Japanese to selected military locations of the Japanese Americans, the United States leaders ordered the bombing of two key cities in Japan, Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The two cities included many innocent Japanese civilians. Analyzing the above evidences, the United States acted normally in the given situation. The recent 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor was unwarranted. Consequently, the United States had to protect its interests from future unwarranted attacks (Martusewicz 184). Since the Japanese nation, a small David, was brave enough to launch an attack on very much bigger Goliath [United States], the Japanese nation should not blame the American nation for doing its best to prevent future unwarranted attacks on American facilities, American locations, and murders of Innocent American citizen. Summary and Evaluation Summarizing the important points of the above discussion, Executive Order 9066 was meant to help win the war. The order had been issued two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The United States president believed that the rounding up of the Japanese Americans and placing them in restricted military prison camps would prevent some Japanese Americans from spying and sabotaging the military facilities and American interests within the United States. The document was created as a necessary response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Evidently, Executive Order 9066’s forced rounding up and transfer of the Japanese Americans to selected military zones was a discriminatory violation of the Japanese American’s human rights. Works Cited Boyer, Paul.. Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. Boston: Houghton Miffline Press, 2000. Print. Hatamiya, Leslie. Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and the Passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. New York: Stanford University Press, 1994.Print. Lassier, Allison. The Attack on Pearl Harbor. New York: Capstone Press, 2008.Print Laurier, Carl. Pearl Harbor 1941. The Day of Infamy. New York: Osprey Press, 2001. Print. Martusewicz, Rebecca. Teaching for Ecojustice. New York: Taylor & Francis Press, 2011. Print. Rhea, Joseph. Race Pride and the American Identity. New York: University Press, 2001. Roosevelt. Franklin. Executive Order 9066. Retrieved December 6, 2012 from < http://www.ourdocuments.gov/ > Read More