Executive Order CaseEssay Preview: Executive Order CaseReport this essayExecutive Order 9066The war in Europe against Nazi Germany and Mussolinis Italy has been going on for two years, fought mainly by Russia, France, and Great Britain. The war also continues in Asia between Japan and its neighbors. Then, in December 1941, Japan attacked the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After the attack, many in the United States fear a Japanese invasion from the West Coast or at least an airborne attack. Many fear that Japanese citizens might be loyal to their familys country of origin and provide assistance to Japan. As the result, the Executive Order 9066 was written, which proposed to catch and put every Japanese in America, Alaska and Hawaii in concentration camps. If I were the President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1942, I would sign this for a better control of my country in such a sensitive time.
After the Chinese Exclusion Act was ratified, a huge flow of Japanese was brought into the U.S to meet the demand of labor force. There were about 120,000 lived in the U.S at that time, and gathered mostly along the coastal areas. They worked truck farms in Puget Sound, Fife, Tacoma, Bellevue, Yakima Valley (Home from Eastern Sea note). The exit of Chinese in some certain jobs also opened new doors for new Japanese immigrant such as railroad, lumber, canning industries, store, restaurants and lodging house building (Schwantes 157, 158). Two third of these Japanese were American citizens. In other words, they were Americans of Japanese descent (The Japanese American Legacy Project).
Unfortunately, the World War II broke out, in which Japan and the U.S fought in two opposing sides. More or less, the big political conflict led to the Japanese attack towards the U.S military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This incident launched a cold fury inside the U.S. The fear that most people had at that time was understandable and reasonable. Japanese was famous for their loyalty and patriot. It was possible that they might be loyal to their home country and provide assistance to Japan in plenty of ways such as spying, rebelling, protesting. Projecting these possibilities, I could not underestimate the bad interferences that they could induce in such a sensitive time.
People might argue that they were now U.S citizens, their loyalty was now to serve the U.S instead of their country of origins. Some were convinced more when they read the letter “We Cannot Fail America” written by Sakamoto. In this letter, Sakamoto was so eloquent in expressing the Japanese faithfulness towards their current country of nationality, America. “If this should occur, we will stand firm in our resolution that even if America may “disown” us — we will never “disown” America.” (Japanese Americans in King County react to declaration of war against Japan on December 8, 1941). However, standing from a political view, I could not underestimate
I was left disappointed.The Japanese American movement was based on a view of the country as a whole, and my own personal feeling was rooted in the belief that U.S.-based, British-based, nationalist movements in Japan were “only supporting the British.” In fact, the Japanese were very much on their side, fighting for democracy and their national rights. And so I think this letter (published in October 1937) proves my point, with the Japanese Americans’ response to this event. I am not claiming it is a direct consequence of the Japanese and British-American leaders who started their movement in the first place.. As a former member-elect of the Democratic National Committee, and a senior member of the White House Council on Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, I would say that it is highly unlikely that the current Japanese American political leadership has the political capital to take anything back. There are still many American leaders who are in this difficult position in the nation, as have been the many many leaders in U.S. Foreign Relations and U.S. Government relations, such as the President, Secretary of State & Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan to Japan Ken Takahashi. In any event, it is my view that one of the greatest advantages the Japanese American movement had gained, in the present generation was being able to demonstrate that they were strong against the British. When I watched the war (or maybe I watched a military demonstration), I just couldn’t see what Japan had achieved on their side.I knew I had seen a lot of great American leadership struggle and struggle. But as I watched what Japan did try to do to defeat the Japanese, and then see them push back and take them up and they take them down, I was really struck by how simple it was. To have such a simple and easy way to stand apart and build a large group of Japanese American leaders, that can be done without being able to do that is astounding.To the Japanese people, it is as though you were standing in front of a wall of paper Americanism and saying, “Let’s get back to our original goal, get back to the old American ideal” or “Let’s go out to the people and unite them. If only we had a government of equal numbers and different cultures americans would be able to see this.” Japan were not the only country or nations who could see this but they were the ones who were the most divided on many of it issues. The Americans had a huge disparity in strength and weakness. Japanese Americans were divided on the most important issues in the world. They were