The Damage Inflicted by Internment Camps

Throughout the history of the country, the United States has achieved many noble accomplishments and has committed many disgraceful mistakes. The internment camps of World War II represented one of the most shameful mistakes of American history, for the establishment of the camps deprived an entire ethnic group of their fundamental constitutional rights, exposed the victims to deplorable abuses, and diminished the credibility of the American democratic values. The book Looking Like the Enemy, by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald, is important because the story provides a first-hand depiction of the psychological response to the internment camps, exemplifies the dreadful nature of the experience, and helps remind the country that we must make sure to never repeat similarly egregious mistakes.

The attack on Pearl Harbor initiated America’s involvement in World War II and the development of internment camps. While World War II was commencing in Europe, during the early 1940s China was also experiencing a problem in which Japan was attempting to infiltrate and overrun the country. Because the US was allied with China, America implemented and enforced severe economic restrictions and trade sanctions on Japan with the intention of encouraging Japan to subside the hostility towards China. Although the economic sanctions caused the relationship between the United States and Japan to become increasingly intense and contentious, the war had not yet been declared and the United States did not conceive that Japan would travel the extensive distance and attack US soil. However, on December 7th of 1941, Japan shocked America by suddenly and unexpectedly attacking Pearl Harbor, a military naval base located in Hawaii. The element of total surprise from the early morning attack rendered the US soldiers completely unprepared, vulnerable and unable to defend themselves. As a result, the Japanese airstrike attacks on Pearl Harbor demolished the base, destroyed over 20 ships and 300 planes, killed about 2,500 American soldiers, and wounded another 1,000 soldiers (Pearl Harbor, n.d.). The attack on Pearl Harbor naturally united America and stimulated a generally universal agreement among citizens and government officials that the United States should enter the war. A few days later, President Roosevelt officially declared war against Japan and enabled American troops to join the allies of World War II.

Although the decision to enter World War II was reasonable, domestically the United States responded terribly to the intense situation by forming internment camps. The Pearl Harbor attack by Japan caused the US citizens and government officials to develop a hostile animosity and severe distrust of the Japanese. However, being such a diverse nation entailed that many American citizens living and working in the US derived from Japanese descent. Instead of limiting the anger of the American society towards the country and military of Japan, Americans began expressing irrational hatred and baseless fear towards fellow American citizens who happened to be of Japanese descent. Despite the fact that there was no proof of treason and all evidence indicated that no treason was occurring, the country’s fearful and paranoid response to the conflict caused Americans to panic and fear that Japanese-American citizens might be possible enemies performing espionage or sabotage operations (Ina, 1999). This fear of people with a Japanese ethnicity was perpetrated by the American media, intensified by the public, and solidified by the government. As a result, on February 19th of 1942, President Roosevelt established internment camps for all citizens of Japanese descent by signing executive order 9066.

Order 9066 required the military to apprehend people of Japanese descent and place them and their families in internment camps, where the Japanese victims were confined without any due process, trial by jury, or timeframe to be released. Approximately 120,000 Japanese people were locked in the camps for up to four years, and over two-thirds of the internee prisoners consisted of US citizens of Japanese descent. Once in the camps, the Japanese victims were forced to endure brutal circumstances and horrible living conditions. Many reports indicated that the internment camps were dramatically overcrowded, as an abundance of prisoners were thrown together in small and dirty barracks that were surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed military troops. The barracks lacked any plumbing systems, cooking facilities or coal heating, which forced the Japanese to endure disgusting conditions in which excessive amounts of filth accumulated in the barracks, freezing cold temperatures impaired any attempts to remain comfortable, and an insufficient amount of food required many of the prisoner internees to suffer from extreme hunger (Ina, 1999). Additionally, many internee prisoners were beaten and killed if they refused to obey or if they resisted the authority of US military supervisors. As a result, several Japanese-Americans were killed by US troops in the internment camps, and many also died in the camps because of illnesses, lack of medical care and intense stress.

In the story, Looking Like the Enemy, Mary Matsuda Grunewald expresses and describes the experience that she, her family and many other prisoners endured during the internment camp period. Mary describes the intense fear and utter confusion that accompanied the experience of being forced onto a train guarded by men with guns, hearing the racial insults hurled at her and the rest of the Japanese-Americans and observing that the windows of the train were completely smoked out to obstruct any view of the outside (Gruenewald, 2005). Mary also helps cement the image of the camps by describing the small size and poor conditions of the barracks, mess halls, and latrines. Additionally, Mary inevitably mentions the dark irony of being required to say the “pledge of allegiance” speech during a time when she and her family were being viewed as enemies and deprived of their basic human and American rights.

Some of the most moving passages in the story reflected the important role that the family connection had in helping each other endure the pain and overcome the horrible experience. For instance, the US decided that Japanese-American prisoners could be released only if they filled out a survey agreeing to swear allegiance to the country and fight in the war for America. Although it must have been tempting to immediately agree to the conditions as a means of attaining freedom from the devastating camps, Mary and her family discussed the issue and carefully deliberated regarding the advantages and disadvantages of agreeing to the conditions of the survey (Gruenewald, 2005). Although some men refused to submit to the agreement, eventually Mary’s brother decided to join the Army and fight for the United States.

The story provides us with a description of the physical and psychological internment camp experience from the perspective of an individual who survived the painful experience. Because most other Japanese-American citizens endured a similar experience, it is reasonable to assert that her psychological response to the situation most likely represented the responses of many other prisoners as well. Mary reflects on being distrustful of America, angry about the hypocritical nature of the government taking away the rights of her and her family and becoming resentful for being established as unequal (Gruenewald, 2005). America constantly boasts about how all individuals are treated as equal in the democratic US, and every ethnicity senses that they are equal with everybody else. Thus, the perception of inequality, inferiority, and injustice that Mary was forced to obtain from the internment experience caused her to experience a disconnection from a society that could never be repaired. Thus, the internment camps caused her and many other Japanese-American citizens to become resentful of the government, disconnected from society and discouraged from possessing any patriotism.

A shameful aspect of the internment camp period was that the events represented a moment in which the entire country – including the media, the public, and government officials – all agreed to violate the constitution and obliterate the rights of US citizens. The establishment and implementation of internment camps violated many constitutional rights, including the 5th and 6th amendments that establish our rights to due process, court proceedings and trial by jury. Additionally, the abusive confinement of innocent people as prisoners in the internment camps also violated the rights of citizens to defend themselves against charges, attain legal counsel, confront accusers and provide witnesses. Thus, the government and the entire country violated the constitution by allowing hard-working and law-abiding US citizens to become confined in prison camps, physically and psychologically abused, and deprived of all fundamental constitutional rights to a legitimate trial process (Bill of Rights, n.d.). The severity of this violation is especially exasperated by the fact that all available evidence indicates that there were absolutely no Japanese-American citizens committing treason against the United States during this time, which renders the disgraceful violations entirely unnecessary.

The diminished credibility of our constitutional rights was a significantly detrimental aspect of the internment camps established during World War II. The constitutional rights are only perceived as powerful because the rights are guaranteed to apply to all citizens and protect those citizens during any difficult situation. However, the internment camps instructed every US citizen that those rights are arbitrary, unreliable, and can be taken away by the government and by the country during any moments of difficult cultural conflicts. Although Mary and other Japanese-American internment camp victims had reason to distrust the country, the mistake also inevitably causes distrust throughout the entire society. As a nation of immigrants from diverse ethnicities, every citizen should worry that the country was capable of violating the rights of an entire ethnic group during a foreign-affairs crisis. Because rights are only powerful if they are guaranteed, any claims regarding the superiority of democracy and the qualities of American constitutional rights lost all credibility and legitimacy due to the hypocritical internment camp period that deprived several hundred thousands of US citizens of their rights. Thus, the internment camps deliberately violated the rights of an entire ethnic group, destroyed the sense of confidence that citizens should have in their constitutional rights, and provides all US citizens with a valid reason to doubt and distrust the government and society.

The internment camps represented one of the most disgraceful mistakes of US history. Although constitutional rights had been violated before, this was a glaring instance in which an entire ethnic group was victimized, an abundance of US citizens were denied their constitutional rights, and an entire generation of Japanese-Americans became disconnected from society. However, the mistake also inflicted damage to every other citizen by destroying the credibility of the American democratic values and by ruining the perception that constitutional rights are guaranteed. Mary Matsuda Gruenewald’s Looking Like the Enemy is very important because it provides Americans with an opportunity to understand the psychological and physical impact that the camps had on the Japanese victims and an entire generation of citizens. By perpetuating her story and depicting her first-hand experiences, Mary helps to remind us of the devastation caused by the internment camps and encourages us to diligently refrain from ever committing similar mistakes.

References

Bill of Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/billofrights

Gruenewald, M. M. (2005). Looking like the enemy: My story of imprisonment in Japanese-American internment camps. Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press.

Ina, S. (1999, July 1). Internment History. PBS. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/index.html?PHPSESSID=032e01e0d9275e2e1d447e604074cc9c

Pearl Harbor. (n.d.). History.com. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor