For as long as mankind can remember, prejudice in one form or another has always been apparent in the world. For some, it is religion, color, or race. But, during the second world war, prejudices were directed at people whose nationalities weren't of native American blood. The Japanese-Americans were exploited and forced into "relocation camps" during World War II all because the American government thought of them as a threat to American society, for fear that they were conspiring with the Japanese government to try and overthrow the United States government.

In 1941, the number of Japanese Americans living in the continental Unites States totaled 127,000. Over 112,000 of them lived in the three Pacific Coast states of Oregon, Washington, and California. Of this group, nearly 80% of the total resided in the state of California alone (Uchida 47). In the over imaginative minds of the residents of California, where the antipathy towards the Asians was the most intense, the very nature of the Pearl Harbor attack provided ample-and prophetic-proof of inherent Japanese treachery (Uchida 68). As the Imperial Army chalked up success after success on th

in white-collar jobs. However, one study concluded that there was significant occupation segregation for the Japanese American compared with the white workers. The occupational niches occupied by many Japanese American workers still reflect the past and present exclusion from other job categories. One of the clearest indicators of the continuing discrimination is the fact that the Japanese -American incomes are lower than they should be, given this group's high level of education. A survey and calculation done by the US Commission on Civil Rights concluded that Japanese workers make only 88% of what they would be earning if they were white (Hohri 173). Discrimination is the likely reason.

War crimes were abundant during the internment. Many shooting and beatings occurred and most court cases were either dismissed or the defendants were found to be not guilty. One such incident occurred April 11, 1943, at Topaz, by sentry Gerald B. Philpott. James Hatsuki Wakasa was shot and killed on April 11. Wakasa was a graduate of Keio College in Tokyo, and he came to the US in 1903 and studied for two years at the University of Wisconsin. During WWI, he was a civilian cooking instructor at Camp Dodge in Iowa. According to the Army report, Wakasa (who was then in his 60's) was shot for trying to escape and also for ignoring warnings from two soldiers at the guard towers "while attempting to crawl through the fence". It was a half an hour before sunset when he was shot in an isolated corner of the camp. It was not until 45 minutes later, after informing a WRA staff member, and after his body was removed, that the shooting became public. The WRA later determined that Wakasa was inside the camp during the shooting, where a large bloodstain marked the spot five feet inside the fence. A postmortem examination of the entry and exit wounds found that Wakasa was facing the soldier who shot him. On April 28, at Fort Douglas, Utah, court-martial proceedings were held for the soldier who had killed Wakasa. He was found "not guilty". (Taylor 95-97)

Authorized by a blanket presidential warrant, the United States Attorney General Francis Biddle directed the FBI to arrest a predetermined number of "enemy aliens" classified as "dangerous". Among the list of foreigners to be arrested, the Japanese held a place (Daniels 35). By the end of that day, 737 Japanese are in federal custody (Daniels 37).

The most recent survey concluded that Japanese Americans were concentrated

They were in a constant conflict with the older Issei's lifestyles. They aged from 1 to 30 years old. The Sansei was the third group of Japanese. They were the Japanese babies born in America (Uchida 21).

Like the Chinese before them, the immigrant Japanese were denied the right to become American citizens. Because they lacked this right of naturalization, they could not own land (Weglyn 37). Even the leasing of land was limited by a 1913 land law to three years. But the Issei (first generation Japanese) found ways to get around such laws devised to drive the Orientals away from the California area. It was a popular practice by the Issei to purchase property in the names of their citizen offspring (Weglyn 38).

For many of the elder Japanese -Americans, the WWII internment camps

were a defining experience. Grace Oshita began talking about Topaz in 1961. It started when one of her son's high school teachers assigned him to do a report on the inte

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Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)