Homework

STAR notes: 449-451.

Intro

HOT ROC Vocab Quiz!

Review Homework Pair share thesis statements Share as a class

The Price of Fear: Japanese Internment and Anti-Asian Propaganda

Standard 11.7.5Discuss the constitutional issues and

impact of events on the U.S. home front, including the internment of Japanese Americans (e.g., Fred Korematsu v. United States of America) and the restrictions on German and Italian resident aliens; the response of the administration to Hitler's atrocities against Jews and other groups; the roles of women in military production; and the roles and growing political demands of African Americans.

FDR’s 4 FreedomsSpeech to Congress on January 6, 1941 The first is freedom of speech and expression The second is freedom of every person to worship

God in his own way The third is freedom from want The fourth is freedom from fear

Ours…to fight for

Norman Rockwell, 1943

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Religion

Freedom from Fear

Freedom from Want

•How would you rank these four freedoms?

•Which is most important?

•Discuss

Key Question:

Why were Japanese Americans interned (put in relocation camps) and German Americans and Italian Americans were not?

Propaganda Analysis What do you see?

What effect would this type of propaganda have had on the general American public particularly after Pearl Harbor?

Written response Discuss

Review The Home Front during WWII Home front: The civilian population or the

civilian activities of a country at war.

How did WWII impact Americans at home? Who counted as “American”? What role did propaganda play?

Japanese Americans—A Quick History New Vocab: Internment 1890s—First wave of Japanese

immigrants to Hawaii and the West Coast. U.S. citizenship limited to “free white

persons”—excludes Asian immigrants.

1913—California Alien Land Law of 1913 bans Japanese from purchasing land

1924—Japanese immigration to U.S. banned.

Propaganda:

Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941

“Jap” hunting licenses circulated through U.S.

Internment of Japanese Americans

In the 2 weeks following Pearl Harbor, around 2,000 Japanese immigrants arrested. Fear of “enemy aliens.” Sensational

news headlines appear. February 1942—Lieutenant General

John L. DeWitt sends memo recommending removal stating: “The Japanese race is an enemy

race…racial affinities are not severed by migration…the racial strains are undiluted.”

Italian and German Americans?

Executive Order 9066

February 19, 1942—FDR signs Executive Order 9066, which authorized the War Department to “exclude” people from military areas.

Two step process Assembly centers Relocation centers (Internment camps): CA, AZ, UT, WY,

CO, AK Approximately 120,000 men, women and children interned.

Two thirds were American citizens by birth.

Photos from the evacuation

Manzanar Internment Camp

Tule Lake Internment Camp

Video Clip

Disc 1 of The War (1:21:00-1:28:00) Compare/Contrast to the experience of Jews

and “undesirables” during Nazi concentration

“We were put on a train, three of us and many trains of others. It was crowded. The shades were drawn. During the ride we were wondering, what are they going to do to us?...We arrived in Amache, Colorado. That was an experience in itself. We were right near the Kansas border. It’s a desolate, flat, barren area. The barracks was all there was. There were no trees, no kind of landscaping. It was like a prison camp. Coming from our environment, it was just devastating.” –Peter Ota, age 15 in 1942

Peter Ota, quoted by Studs Turkel in “The Good War”: An Oral History of World War Two (1984), pp 29-30.

Activity: Loyalty Oath Question #27 asked:

Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?

Question #28 asked:Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any and all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance to the Japanese Emperor or any other foreign government, power, or organization?

In your notebook: 1. How would you respond to these two questions? Explain your answers 2. Are there any reasons a person might answer “no” other than disloyalty? 3. First generation Japanese Americans could not be U.S. citizens. Would this

complicate their answer? How? 4. How might women and the elderly have felt in responding? 5. How can you prove loyalty? Could something like internment happen again?

(e.g. what happened after 9/11?)

Loyalty Oath February 1943—loyalty review program includes

questionnaire. Questions 27 and 28 generate confusion, fear, and anger.

1,200 volunteer for military service. (Beginning in 1944, the Selective Service began drafting Japanese Americans).

1943-1944 Those who “pass” the loyalty test allowed to resettle in interior states. Many had lost all their property and savings.

Supreme Court Case: Fred Korematsu vs United States of America 1. What was this case about? 2. What was the verdict/decision?

(Use page 435)

Fred Korematsu vs United States of America Background info- *do not write down Born 1919 in Oakland, CA. After Exec Order 9066, Korematsu refused to report to a

relocation camp and went into hiding. Captured May 30, 1942. Tried and convicted, then appealed to

the Supreme Court. On December 18, 1944, the Court held that compulsory exclusion,

though constitutionally suspect, is justified during circumstances of "emergency and peril".

In 1988, law signed by President Reagan gave $20,000 and an apology to all surviving people who were interned.

In 1998, President Clinton awarded Fred Korematsu with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Final Thoughts: Could something like the internment of Japanese Americans happen again?