Japanese Americans Internment

Japanese Americans internment

Just a moment before the final call for flight Belgrade-London-Los Angeles, my girlfriend gave me a wrapped gift and she asked me not to open it before I arrive to my final destination. I couldn't wait so long and I opened it just after I arrived in London. It was the Easy English dictionary with dedication on the first page. She wished me the best with the quote:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." (The Constitution, Amendment XVI, passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868).

All my sadness disappeared after I red it. "This is the beginning of new life and one-in-life opportunity", I thought. I was tired of wars and corruptions; I was tired of people who were afraid of everything: they were afraid of losing their jobs, they were afraid of crime, disease, and death; they were afraid of foreigners, and of people who are different from them. In the world of Europe's ex-communist transition countries, my country is the strangest creature of all and it cannot escape its uniquely painful recent past. I was dreaming so long about life in wealthy country, where all nations live together with no ethnic incidents and with equal opportunities; and my dream came true.

But, just a few days ago, I realized how the process of naturalization for some nations in the United States was difficult and painful. Even though their rights were guaranteed by the Constitution more than a hundred and thirty years ago, more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans were sent from the West Coast and Hawaii to 10 internment camps in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. The only reason was that they were different. They had different color of skin and their language was different. Sixty years ago, these reasons were strong enough to cause a huge discrimination of Japanese Americans. White people didn't want them in neighborhood. Almost every house in California own by white Americans had a huge notice that this is white country and it should stay exactly the same. American government sent a very clear message to people - Japanese are enemies. Day after the Pearl Harbor attack, in his address to the United States of America, President Franklin Roosevelt declares war on Japan. "Always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against them," he says conclusively. General John L. Dewitt commanded the Fourth Army along the West Coast. It was one day after Pearl Harbor that Dewitt's staff falsely reported of thirty Japanese planes in the San Francisco area, resulting in a huge blackout of the city .The very next week there were reports of an entire Japanese fleet headed for the west coast. Hysteria and war fears grew rapidly. Although a Japanese attack on the American mainland in some form was a possibility, most of the alarms and reports sounding from the West Coast were greatly unfounded. Even so, any of Japanese descent in America could be viewed a potential "fifth column" threat, potentially colluding and abetting the enemy in every imaginable sort. Dewitt had designated a hundred-mile wide strip up and down the West Coast and had hoped to remove undesirables from this "invasion area."

By late March Congress and the Senate quickly processed a bill that granted the right to criminally prosecute "those of Japanese ancestry who violated curfews, did not report to regional centers, or were found present in the West Coast exclusion zone". Senator Robert Taft said of the bill, "I think this is probably the sloppiest criminal law I have ever read or seen anywhere." But President Roosevelt signed it. The mass internment of over 120,000 people, of whom 70,000 were American citizens, was quickly underway. Men, women and children were herded to makeshift prison camps in some of the most desolate and unseemly regions of the nation. The