Internment of Japanese Americans

The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II was the forced relocation and incarceration in concentration camps in the western interior of the country of about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of whom lived on the Pacific Coast. Sixty-two percent of the internees were United States citizens. These actions were ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly after Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

Of the 127,000 Japanese Americans who were living in the continental United States at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, 112,000 resided on the West Coast. About 80,000 were Nisei (literal translation: 'second generation'; American-born Japanese with U.S. citizenship) and Sansei ('third generation', the children of Nisei). The rest were Issei ('first generation') immigrants born in Japan who were ineligible for U.S. citizenship under U.S. law.

Japanese Americans were placed into concentration camps based on local population concentrations and regional politics. More than 112,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast were forced into interior camps. However, in Hawaii (which was under martial law), where 150,000-plus Japanese Americans composed over one-third of the population, only 1,200 to 1,800 were also interned.

Internment of Japanese Americans in "The Breaking of Nations"

Roughly 30 years before Nicole Yoshida was born, her grandparents were interned in camps in California during World War II, due to their Japanese ancestry. When Yoshida, as President of Pacifica, saw that similar internments were being carried out at Camp Calexico in 2031, she was horrified. She pointed out that what little justification might have been used as an excuse for the 1940s camps, did not apply now, because there was no war.

Internment of Japanese Americans in Days of Infamy

After Japan initiated war with the United States, all Japanese Americans living on the mainland were rounded up by the government and transported to camps. The Japanese propaganda ministry had thundered loudly about this to the citizens of Occupied Hawaii. Kenzo Takahashi had contemplated trying to sail from Hawaii to California, but changed his mind after he realized that maybe the Japanese were telling the truth about the internment.

Internment of Japanese Americans in Joe Steele

In the immediate aftermath of the Japanese attack on the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor, Americans of Japanese descent residing on the West Coast were arrested and placed in labor camps with other wreckers. Some were able to join punishment brigades in the United States Army and fought in Europe.

Internment of Japanese Americans in The War That Came Early

In response to Japan's initiation of war against the United States in January 1941, the U.S. government interned Japanese-Americans, except for in Hawaii, where the Japanese-American population was too large and too essential to Hawaii's ability to function.