JAPANESE INTERNMENT

pEARL HARBOR

• The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
• The American death count reached 2,000 with another 1,000 wounded.
• This event was a major influence on the USA's entry into the war.

The Begining

• On February 19, FDR signed Executive Order 9066. 
• This started the relocation of Japanese Americans in the West Coast.
• Over 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced into these internment camps.
• The camps were in states such as:
• California, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, and Arkansas. 

Life at the camps

• The camps resembled prisons with armed guards and barbed wire fences.
• Families lived in small houses and everyone in the camp shared:
• Dining halls, laundry areas, and public restrooms
• The food selection was bare and portions were small.
• Internees were paid very small for the work they did inside the camps. 

After the War

• A Supreme Court decision in 1944 gave the internees permission to leave.
• They were given $25 and a train ticket upon leaving the camps.
• Many tired to go back to their old lives but lost their jobs and houses.
• Others moved back to Japan.

REPARATIONS and apologies

• President Ford said that the internment was a "national mistake".
• In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.
• It gave $20,000 to every surviving former detainee from the camps.
• The sum totaled over 1.2 billion. 

More Information

• http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/news_colasurdo.htm
• http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/