Welcome back to my blog. This post is for the second Action Project of the Humanities class, Policy. In this unit, Execute, we have been focusing on the Executive Branch of the United States Government. We started by examining Article II of the Constitution, Executive Office Cabinet Positions, and Executive Orders. After the introduction to the Executive Branch, we moved into looking at war policies and the actions our executive leaders have the power to enforce. First, we studied President Truman's actions during the Korean War and later the Cold War. We also spent time on the Vietnam War and reading from The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. For this Action Project, we have been asked to look deeper into a war the United States was involved in and if the war was justified or not. To help with the justification, we would examine a policy that was enacted during the war and see how its application affected the people. The war I chose for this AP was World War II because I have a great interest in the war but have only focused on the European Theater. This project specifically focuses on the Pacific Theater and the United States fighting against Japan in the ocean and at home. I hope you enjoy reading.
Wars across history have been debated for being justified or not. It is put to a matter of righting a wrong, joining a fight in self-defense, responding to the violation of human rights, assisting friendly nations, and more. Not all “just causes” are accepted by everyone and responses can vary depending on the severity of the cases. World War II is one of those wars for its size, number of casualties, and the actions committed against the citizens of their home countries. As the war raged on in Europe, the United States was not eager to join. The country’s period of isolationism held it from fully entering a conflict across the Atlantic but they would not be out of the loop forever. Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, joining the war was an act of necessity. The United States' involvement benefitted the Allies greatly, turning the tide of the war and focusing on bringing it to an end. While World War II cost millions of lives of soldiers and civilians, devastated the geography of nations, and created plenty of horrors, it was a just war. The Allies were trying to prevent the further spread of fascist and dictatorial beliefs. The Holocaust that led to the brutal murder of around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population was a terrible event in history. The Allies fighting against the dreadful and atrocious acts of the Axis Powers needed to respond to the aggression and create a peaceful post-war world.
As its name suggests, World War II was fought around the world. Most of the combat took place in Europe, East Asia, and islands in the Pacific Ocean but battles were also fought in North Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. The war began in 1939 and ended in 1945 with the United States joining in December 1941. The war in the Pacific began after the events of Pearl Harbor with the Allies fighting Japan overseas and on islands from 1941 to 1945. The two sides of the war were the Allies and the Axis Powers. The Allies were headed by Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and the United States. The three major countries of the Axis Powers were Germany, Italy, and Japan. On the Pacific War side, the Allies used the strategy of leapfrogging against Japan. Originally, the plan to advance closer to Japan involved moving from one island to the next by taking it over. Many of these islands were heavily fortified which made strong resistance against the Allies. Through leapfrogging, the Allies bypassed the stronger islands and took the smaller ones. In the process, they would cut off supply lines to the stronger islands and leave them to wither. Leapfrogging also allowed the Allies to set up airstrips at key islands to be equipped with bombers and fighter planes making the invasion of Japan begin closer to the enemy homeland. As the Allies kept advancing closer to Japan, the tactic of suicide bombing or kamikaze to destroy Allied warships became frequently used. Kamikaze also notes to the planes that were used for the tactic, specially made to be cheap and expendable as returning to base with the aircraft or pilot was not expected. World War II was fought for reasons such as the rise and growth of Nazi power, Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare, Japan’s conflict with China, and the genocide enacted by Germany otherwise known as the Holocaust. Later, the U.S. would join the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The United States was Japan’s supplier of oil and metal but cautioned Japan about their aggressive actions against China which had been going on since 1937. Following Japan’s signing of the Tripartite Pact in 1940, and under the coverage of the Lend-Lease Act, Roosevelt supplied Great Britain, China, and the USSR while they were fighting against the Nazi threat in Europe. The U.S. also cut off supplies to Japan leading to the plan to attack Pearl Harbor. For the Lend-Lease Act, the House of Representatives voted in favor 260 to 165 and the Senate voted in favor 59 to 30. As the plan had become more known to the public, it was met with resistance and support. Many Americans were concerned that the aid was not staying along the lines of neutrality and isolationism. Others supported the act as long as it didn’t get the country into war and set up a system that would establish security given by Great Britain in return. In response to the attack the day before, on December 8, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a declaration of war against Japan. Congress approved President Roosevelt’s request for a declaration of war against Japan with a vote of 388 to 1 in the House and 82 to 0 in the Senate.
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. After the events of Pearl Harbor, lobbyists from the western states, military advisors, and political advisors pressured Congress and the President to remove persons of Japanese descent from the West Coast. This would require Japanese immigrants and Japanese-American citizens no matter the age to be forcefully evacuated from their homes and relocated to internment camps. The West Coast was made up of military zones that consisted of naval ports, commercial shipping, and agriculture which were deemed vulnerable to further Japanese attack or sabotage. Executive Order 9066 authorized military action to be used to exclude civilians mainly of Japanese-American descent from military areas. Despite the lack of hard evidence, the U.S. War Department suspected Japanese-Americans might act as espionage agents or saboteurs. To contain that threat, it was proposed Japanese-Americans be held in detention centers which the War Department favored. While the public was told that the internment camps were for containing the enemy aliens, the administrators of those camps were told a different story. In her book, Last Witnesses: Reflections on the Wartime Internment of Japanese Americans, Erica Harth mentions information given to internment camp administrators about the internment camps:
Especially after Pearl Harbor, the initial reaction by the public on the West Coast was demonstrated by furious demands to relocate Japanese-Americans inland. The War Department favored the use of detention and incarceration while the Department of Justice opposed forcefully moving innocent civilians. Executive Order 9066 did not specify Japanese-Americans but the U.S. military focused primarily on that group. There were cases of German-Americans and Italian-Americans being detained but not as widespread as Japanese-Americans. Much of the public including those affected by the order was against it because it violated Constitutional rights and exclusion that can be linked to racism. The application of Executive Order 9066 was unjust for a few reasons. The first is the interpretation of the order leading to the detainment of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans when the order did not specify any groups of people that would be detained. Second, Executive Order 9066 violates the Fifth Amendment which states that a person may not be deprived of property by the government without “due process of law.” Even in a wartime event, the use of discrimination and the ability to seize property due to race without compensation is unconstitutional.
The Executive Order was met with legal challenges that were unsuccessful in freeing the detainees from the internment camps. Japanese-Americans that were detained lost businesses, homes, and cars to other citizens or the U.S. Army. Possesions were bought at unreasonably low amounts and cars were bought at cut-rate prices to be requisitioned for the war. When the war was over and the detainees were released, many were without proper transportation, housing, or means of making money. The public opinion continued to be negative toward the order and in 1976, President Ford officially repealed it so the executive branch was prohibited from re-instituting the policy ever again. In 1988, “President Reagan issued a public apology on behalf of the government and authorized reparations for former Japanese- American internees or their descendants” (HISTORY). After and during the war, anyone of Japanese descent was met with harsh racism and hate. A few weeks after Pearl Harbor, Life Magazine put out an article titled “How To Tell Japs From The Chinese.” The article expresses that China is an ally of the United States and therefore Chinese people are too while the Japanese are the enemy. It also produces images of a Chinese public servant and a Japanese warrior, pointing out facial details to tell the two men apart. Unfortunately, this article did not serve its intended purpose when in 1982, Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American man, was beaten to death because he had been mistaken for being Japanese. Despite the war being over for almost 40 years, the hatred expressed upon Japanese-Americans was still so large that an innocent man was killed over it.
After examining the Pacific War side of World War II, it was a just war. Americans were determined to avenge the attack on Pearl Harbor, no matter what challenges lay ahead. With the events that built up the country’s growing hostility to the Axis Powers and the final catalyst, our hand was forced. World War II was the largest war in human history, involving over 30 countries, and became the deadliest war too. Among the tens of millions killed were 6 million Jewish people due to the Holocaust. Still, to make a war just, multiple wrongs need to be righted such as previously mentioned events heading the list. When focusing on the Pacific War, the United States was the only nation capable of combatting the Empire of Japan. At the time, the attack on Pearl Harbor unified public opinion in favor of joining the war. In the eyes of the people, they had a right to self-defense and it was justified to enter the fray. Unfortunately, high stress and determination to do whatever is necessary for the war leads to poor decisions such as Executive Order 9066. Some policies are more appreciated while others have widespread disapproval and both are thought of that way for the right reasons. That is why it's important to recognize those policies made at any time but even more so in periods of conflict. Past policies have created the precedent for what we put into action during wartime so we must be careful with future conflicts and remember what they will affect.
Wars across history have been debated for being justified or not. It is put to a matter of righting a wrong, joining a fight in self-defense, responding to the violation of human rights, assisting friendly nations, and more. Not all “just causes” are accepted by everyone and responses can vary depending on the severity of the cases. World War II is one of those wars for its size, number of casualties, and the actions committed against the citizens of their home countries. As the war raged on in Europe, the United States was not eager to join. The country’s period of isolationism held it from fully entering a conflict across the Atlantic but they would not be out of the loop forever. Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, joining the war was an act of necessity. The United States' involvement benefitted the Allies greatly, turning the tide of the war and focusing on bringing it to an end. While World War II cost millions of lives of soldiers and civilians, devastated the geography of nations, and created plenty of horrors, it was a just war. The Allies were trying to prevent the further spread of fascist and dictatorial beliefs. The Holocaust that led to the brutal murder of around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population was a terrible event in history. The Allies fighting against the dreadful and atrocious acts of the Axis Powers needed to respond to the aggression and create a peaceful post-war world.
As its name suggests, World War II was fought around the world. Most of the combat took place in Europe, East Asia, and islands in the Pacific Ocean but battles were also fought in North Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. The war began in 1939 and ended in 1945 with the United States joining in December 1941. The war in the Pacific began after the events of Pearl Harbor with the Allies fighting Japan overseas and on islands from 1941 to 1945. The two sides of the war were the Allies and the Axis Powers. The Allies were headed by Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and the United States. The three major countries of the Axis Powers were Germany, Italy, and Japan. On the Pacific War side, the Allies used the strategy of leapfrogging against Japan. Originally, the plan to advance closer to Japan involved moving from one island to the next by taking it over. Many of these islands were heavily fortified which made strong resistance against the Allies. Through leapfrogging, the Allies bypassed the stronger islands and took the smaller ones. In the process, they would cut off supply lines to the stronger islands and leave them to wither. Leapfrogging also allowed the Allies to set up airstrips at key islands to be equipped with bombers and fighter planes making the invasion of Japan begin closer to the enemy homeland. As the Allies kept advancing closer to Japan, the tactic of suicide bombing or kamikaze to destroy Allied warships became frequently used. Kamikaze also notes to the planes that were used for the tactic, specially made to be cheap and expendable as returning to base with the aircraft or pilot was not expected. World War II was fought for reasons such as the rise and growth of Nazi power, Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare, Japan’s conflict with China, and the genocide enacted by Germany otherwise known as the Holocaust. Later, the U.S. would join the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The United States was Japan’s supplier of oil and metal but cautioned Japan about their aggressive actions against China which had been going on since 1937. Following Japan’s signing of the Tripartite Pact in 1940, and under the coverage of the Lend-Lease Act, Roosevelt supplied Great Britain, China, and the USSR while they were fighting against the Nazi threat in Europe. The U.S. also cut off supplies to Japan leading to the plan to attack Pearl Harbor. For the Lend-Lease Act, the House of Representatives voted in favor 260 to 165 and the Senate voted in favor 59 to 30. As the plan had become more known to the public, it was met with resistance and support. Many Americans were concerned that the aid was not staying along the lines of neutrality and isolationism. Others supported the act as long as it didn’t get the country into war and set up a system that would establish security given by Great Britain in return. In response to the attack the day before, on December 8, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a declaration of war against Japan. Congress approved President Roosevelt’s request for a declaration of war against Japan with a vote of 388 to 1 in the House and 82 to 0 in the Senate.
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. After the events of Pearl Harbor, lobbyists from the western states, military advisors, and political advisors pressured Congress and the President to remove persons of Japanese descent from the West Coast. This would require Japanese immigrants and Japanese-American citizens no matter the age to be forcefully evacuated from their homes and relocated to internment camps. The West Coast was made up of military zones that consisted of naval ports, commercial shipping, and agriculture which were deemed vulnerable to further Japanese attack or sabotage. Executive Order 9066 authorized military action to be used to exclude civilians mainly of Japanese-American descent from military areas. Despite the lack of hard evidence, the U.S. War Department suspected Japanese-Americans might act as espionage agents or saboteurs. To contain that threat, it was proposed Japanese-Americans be held in detention centers which the War Department favored. While the public was told that the internment camps were for containing the enemy aliens, the administrators of those camps were told a different story. In her book, Last Witnesses: Reflections on the Wartime Internment of Japanese Americans, Erica Harth mentions information given to internment camp administrators about the internment camps:
During the war years we were told that the camps were for the inmates’ protection against possible acts of hostility directed against them. Or that all who were removed let themselves be led to the camps with a docility, patience, and forbearance that are summed up in the expression, shikata ga nai. Many Issei, it is true, adopted this attitude of philosophical resignation. But often as not, Toyo Suyemoto suggests in ‘Another Spring,’ the traditional refrain barely muffled the hurt and impotence of resident aliens who had been subjected to American racism for decades. (11)
Figure 1, Harth 6
Especially after Pearl Harbor, the initial reaction by the public on the West Coast was demonstrated by furious demands to relocate Japanese-Americans inland. The War Department favored the use of detention and incarceration while the Department of Justice opposed forcefully moving innocent civilians. Executive Order 9066 did not specify Japanese-Americans but the U.S. military focused primarily on that group. There were cases of German-Americans and Italian-Americans being detained but not as widespread as Japanese-Americans. Much of the public including those affected by the order was against it because it violated Constitutional rights and exclusion that can be linked to racism. The application of Executive Order 9066 was unjust for a few reasons. The first is the interpretation of the order leading to the detainment of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans when the order did not specify any groups of people that would be detained. Second, Executive Order 9066 violates the Fifth Amendment which states that a person may not be deprived of property by the government without “due process of law.” Even in a wartime event, the use of discrimination and the ability to seize property due to race without compensation is unconstitutional.
The Executive Order was met with legal challenges that were unsuccessful in freeing the detainees from the internment camps. Japanese-Americans that were detained lost businesses, homes, and cars to other citizens or the U.S. Army. Possesions were bought at unreasonably low amounts and cars were bought at cut-rate prices to be requisitioned for the war. When the war was over and the detainees were released, many were without proper transportation, housing, or means of making money. The public opinion continued to be negative toward the order and in 1976, President Ford officially repealed it so the executive branch was prohibited from re-instituting the policy ever again. In 1988, “President Reagan issued a public apology on behalf of the government and authorized reparations for former Japanese- American internees or their descendants” (HISTORY). After and during the war, anyone of Japanese descent was met with harsh racism and hate. A few weeks after Pearl Harbor, Life Magazine put out an article titled “How To Tell Japs From The Chinese.” The article expresses that China is an ally of the United States and therefore Chinese people are too while the Japanese are the enemy. It also produces images of a Chinese public servant and a Japanese warrior, pointing out facial details to tell the two men apart. Unfortunately, this article did not serve its intended purpose when in 1982, Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American man, was beaten to death because he had been mistaken for being Japanese. Despite the war being over for almost 40 years, the hatred expressed upon Japanese-Americans was still so large that an innocent man was killed over it.
Figure 2, reddit.com
After examining the Pacific War side of World War II, it was a just war. Americans were determined to avenge the attack on Pearl Harbor, no matter what challenges lay ahead. With the events that built up the country’s growing hostility to the Axis Powers and the final catalyst, our hand was forced. World War II was the largest war in human history, involving over 30 countries, and became the deadliest war too. Among the tens of millions killed were 6 million Jewish people due to the Holocaust. Still, to make a war just, multiple wrongs need to be righted such as previously mentioned events heading the list. When focusing on the Pacific War, the United States was the only nation capable of combatting the Empire of Japan. At the time, the attack on Pearl Harbor unified public opinion in favor of joining the war. In the eyes of the people, they had a right to self-defense and it was justified to enter the fray. Unfortunately, high stress and determination to do whatever is necessary for the war leads to poor decisions such as Executive Order 9066. Some policies are more appreciated while others have widespread disapproval and both are thought of that way for the right reasons. That is why it's important to recognize those policies made at any time but even more so in periods of conflict. Past policies have created the precedent for what we put into action during wartime so we must be careful with future conflicts and remember what they will affect.
Works Cited:
"Executive Order 9066: Resulting In Japanese-American Incarceration (1942)." National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9066. Accessed 10 May 2022.
"FDR orders Japanese Americans into internment camps." HISTORY, 27 Apr. 2021, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-signs-executive-order-9066. Accessed 10 May 2022.
Harth, Erica. Last Witnesses: Reflections on the Wartime Internment of Japanese Americans. Palgrave, 2001.
Ives, Justin. "Reasons for American Entry Into WWII." Owlcation, 4 Apr. 2020, https://owlcation.com/humanities/Reasons-for-American-Entry-Into-WWII. Accessed 9 May 2022.
"Road to Tokyo." The National WWII Museum New Orleans, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/visit/museum-campus-guide/campaigns-courage/road-tokyo. Accessed 9 May 2022.
"The History Of World War II." 75th World War II Commemoration, https://www.75thwwiicommemoration.org/history/history-of-wwii. Accessed 9 May 2022.
"The Pacific War of World War II." World War II Database, https://ww2db.com/battle.php?list=P. Accessed 9 May 2022.
Weglyn, Michi Nishiura, and James A Michener. Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps. University of Washington Press, 1999.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my examination of World War II. As I briefly mentioned before I have an interest in World War II that mainly covers the European Theater of the war and not the Pacific Theater. I chose to work with the Pacific Theater in hopes of expanding my knowledge of World War II and it did just that. Because I love war history so much, I had a lot of fun with this AP. Diving deeper into the home front of the war was very interesting because I haven't had much experience with the Japanese internment camps. I think this point of World War II is very important to be taught and shown because it is a clear demonstration of policy that represents a blotch in our country's history. We've avoided talking about it in schools or anywhere else until recently and I believe more exposure to mistakes the country has made is extremely crucial for learning from them and improving the system. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in the next post.
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