Japanese Americans During World War 2: 3D Gallery

Executive order 9066

Executive order 9066 was Authorized by President Roosevelt. It put in place the War Relocation Authority that “relocated” about 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps away from coastal “military zones”.

A family photo taken before leaving for the camps.

The little white tags provided to them included a number corresponding to their family and location. This was dehumanizing because they were referred to as less than humans and only as a family number.

Granada Relocation Camp

An image of an internment camp shows the conditions that they were living in at the time. They were packed together very tightly with not enough room to preserve their dignity. This shows that the government did not set up camps to “protect” the Japanese, and it was really more of a prison.

Closure of Internment Camps

On January 2nd, 1945, Japanese internees were authorized to return to coast and leave internment camps across the U.S.. This however was not the end to Japanese xenophobia. There was still a lot of distrust towards the Japanese community. Many of the former Japanese internees were not welcome back in the community.

Tanforan 1943

When the Japanese arrived at Tanforan, they were forced to clean out the horse stalls which they would have to live in. The inhumane treatment was made worse because a few families had to cram into one tiny stall made to fit one horse, and had to sleep on thin straw mats that they made.

This image is a map of the internment camp locations during ww2. Most of the internment camps were located inland from the coastal “military zones” that were designated at the beginning of the internment. This was because many people at the time believed that having the Japanese too close to the coast meant having them too close to Japan.

An Interview of a man who lived through World War 2

The living conditions were much less than ideal, many families had to squeeze into barracks, or in Tanforan, horse stalls. After the camps were closed, many did not get their property or businesses returned to them because they had been sold to other Americans. According to the 5th Amendment, “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” The way the Japanese Americans were treated was unconstitutional because they didn’t receive just compensation for the lost property that was sold during their time in the camps. When they were let out, many Americans were still very wary of the Japanese and didn’t want to be living next to or doing business with them. This made it extremely hard for the recently freed Japanese to find places to stay and work

Dr. Seuss Political Cartoon

This cartoon was drawn by Dr. Seuss days before executive order 9066 was issued, shows the way that Japanese Americans were viewed as traitors and disloyal to the country. It also portrays the Japanese Americans as being all the same, this shows the attitude towards the Japanese after the attack on Pearl Harbour.

American Propaganda

Americans were worried that Japanese spies could be lurking around any corner, so this poster was telling Americans to not talk about military tactics in fear that they would be compromised. This brought a fear of Japanese Americans which greatly impacted their businesses because people didn’t want to go into their stores or do other business with the Japanese.

American propaganda on how to spot a Japanese

This shows the racism involved in the internment process. It talks about the unflattering features of a Japanese face, along with comparing their skin to white Americans calling it “Lemon yellow skin” (Caniff). The poster pokes fun at the Japanese accent and how they can’t pronounce things in English.During World War 2, there were many posters and other propaganda used to scare Americans into thinking that all Japanese were spies that had the potential to hurt the country.

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Japanese Americans During World War 2