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Gumtang, Melissa
Dr. Namala
History 301
27 March 2014
Primary Source Analysis: Post-War WWII
On December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. This day was not just a huge
event for history, but a huge event that would affect the Japanese for years to come. The attack
on Pearl Harbor not only launched the United States into the Second World War, but it also
launched a fear about national security in the West Coast. In February 1942, just two months
after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which had the
effect of relocating all persons of Japanese ancestry, both citizens and aliens, inland, outside of
the pacific military zone. The order was to prevent espionage, which is the practice of spying or
of using spies, typically by governments to obtain political and military information. The order
was also to protect persons of Japanese descent from harm at the hands of Americans who had
strong anti-Japanese attitudes.

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Order 9066 was finally in affect. All across the West Coast, relocation notices were
posted on April 30, 1942. On 23rd Street near Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles around the
morning of May 1942, I can see that in the photo many Japanese residents were waiting for
transportation to local assembly centers. The Japanese were just waiting on their turn to be
relocated to a camp somewhere far away from their homes. As I looked closely into the photo,
many of the houses had signs that said the last name of the families near their belongings, so
whoever came to pick them up were able to check them off one by one as they were taken from
their homes. Just looking at the people in the picture, I could see that many of them were
waiting, but waiting with a confused and distant look. They had a look of wondering whats
going to happen to them next, a look that gives off a feeling of distress and agitation.
If I was in their shoes I would feel and look the same way. I wouldnt want to be sent off
somewhere for something that I had nothing to do with, I wasnt part of the bombing of Pearl
Harbor, I dont even know Japanese. Where are my rights as an American Citizen? Where are my
rights? Even though many Japanese were being taken from their homes because of the Executive
Order of 9066, many Japanese were being taken in for questioning as well. Many of them also
joined the fight for the United States in order to prove their loyalty to the country. They not only
wanted to prove their loyalty, but they wanted to save their families from being put in danger or
in harms way of being sent back to Japan. Many of the Japanese were already 3rd to 4th
generation in their families that they didnt even have relatives that they knew of in Japan, so it
was even a bigger part for them to prove their loyalty. To them, their country was The United
States, not Japan, so being put in a situation of being accused of betraying their country they had
no choice but to give their lives up to the military in order to prove them wrong.

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In 1943 and 1944 the government assembled a combat unit of Japanese

Americans for the European theater. It became the 442d Regimental Combat Team and
gained fame as the most highly decorated of World War II. Their military record bespoke
their patriotism (Archives).
As I looked through many photos that were taken during the time of the relocation of the
Japanese after the event of Pearl Harbor, I was able to remember that this event was not the first
event that kept the Japanese from their homes, or that went against our constitution. Many
Americans during the time of the relocation and the questioning didnt even know or werent
aware of the Asian Exclusion Act. This Act was passed in 1924 by the United States Congress as
a part of the Immigration Act of 1924. This Act was an example of race-specific legislation
designed to restrict peoples freedom of movement based on their race and national origin.
Through this Act I was able to see that even with the Order 9066, many Asians felt like their socalled country they lived in not only saw them as a threat, but saw them as nothing more than a
race that did not belong here. Just seeing this through pictures makes me see how
unconstitutional these so-called orders or acts were.
Finally the internment of persons of Japanese ancestry during WWII sparked
constitutional and political debate. During the 1940s there was a case called the ExParte
Mitsuye Endo case, the Supreme Court ruled that, Mitsuye Endo is entitled to an unconditional
release by the War relocation Authority. Many years later during the Reagan-Bush years,
Congress moved toward the passage of Public Law 100-383 in 1988 which acknowledged the
injustice of the internment, apologized for it, and provided a $200,000 cash payment to each
person who was interned. Overall I can see that it may have taken the United States years to
finally figure out how unconstitutional they were for doing those things to the Japanese, but it

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shouldve been the first thing to have gone through their minds before they did such a thing. One
of the biggest things that will always stay in my mind is one of the excerpts I read from one of
the sources I read.
One of the most stunning ironies in this episode of American civil liberties was
articulated by an internee who, when told that the Japanese were put in those camps for
their own protection, countered If we were put there for our protection, why were the
guns at the guard towers pointed inward, instead of outward?... (Archives)

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Works Cited

"Teaching With Documents:." National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives
and Records Administration, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation/>.
23rd Street Near Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles. Waiting for transportation to local assembly
centers. Digital image. L.A. County Museum of Natural History Archives, n.d. Web.
Burns, Ken, and Lynn Novick. The War. PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.pbs.org/thewar/downloads/japanese.pdf>.