Chapter+35+-+World+War+II



Chapter 35 Video Overview

WWII Slideshow

Pearl Harbor

Internment Video by Sulu

Oregon History Project

1. Why was March 1942 a significant date for Oregon’s Japanese Americans? 2. What was the purpose of the “War Relocation Authority?” Why was it issued? 3. In what ways were the 10 Northwest and California relocation camps similar to concentration camps? 4. How did the city of Portland limit the freedoms of its Japanese citizens prior to the relocation order? 5. What was the U.S. Supreme Court’s response to the 3 challenges to the evacuation command? 6. Did the evacuation order violate the constitutionally guaranteed rights of American citizens? 7. Compare and contrast Oregon’s reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, to the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001.

This World War II photograph shows a Japanese American family at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, located in northwest Wyoming. During the war, the government forced West Coast Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans to leave their homes and move to internment camps. A small percentage of Oregon’s roughly 4,000 Japanese went to Heart Mountain, where more than 10,000 were detained. Most of Oregon’s Japanese population went to the Minidoka Relocation Center in southern Idaho, and others went to the Tule Lake Relocation Center in Northern California. In the Pacific Northwest, existing hostility against Japanese people increased after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The government declared that immigrant Japanese — //issei// — were “enemy aliens” and many //issei// men were detained by the FBI. On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued [|Executive Order 9066], authorizing the army to remove //issei// and American-born Japanese, who were citizens — //nisei// — from the West Coast. The order devastated Oregon’s Japanese community. People were forced to sell their property at below-value prices and to abandon businesses. The army first took internees to assembly centers with primitive facilities, where they lived for months before being transported to permanent camps. Life at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center was harsh. The barracks were roughly-built and poorly-insulated, and the landscape was barren.

1. How were the Japanese Americans living in the Northwest affected by the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941? 2. Where were Japanese Americans interned? Why? 3. What was the difference between the Japanese living in Oregon and the Northwest labeled //issei// and those called //nisei//? 4. Why was Executive Order 9066 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942? What do you think was the government’s intent in issuing this order? 5. How did this order change the lives of those Japanese Americans who lived on the West Coast? 6. Imagine that you were a government official in February of 1942, would you have supported Executive Order 9066? Why or why not?

Narratives 1. Do you agree with historian Roger Daniels’ statement that the removal of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans from the Pacific Coast and their resettlement in the interior areas of the West brought about “one of the grossest violations of the constitutional rights of American citizens in our history?” Why or why not? What historical evidence can you relate to this incident? 2. Was the relocation of Japanese Americans a political or military decision? Cite evidence. 3. What similarities, if any, do you see with the relocation of Japanese-Americans in 1942 and the reaction of the U.S. government to the events of September 11, 2001? Be able to defend your position. 4. If you could interview President Franklin D. Roosevelt (who issued Executive Order 9066), what questions would you pose to him?

Restitution 1. What happened to Portland’s first and second generation Japanese Americans in May of 1942? 2. How does the photograph relate to the evacuation of both issei and nisei Japanese Americans? 3. Where did the Portland internees go from the North Portland Assembly Center? Why do you think they were moved? 4. How many Japanese Americans were incarcerated under Executive Order 9066? How many of this number were from Oregon? 5. How long after the start of the war was the Executive Order rescinded? What occurred when the released Japanese Americans returned to their homes? 6. Discuss the importance of the following dates in the history of Japanese internment:

> 1945

> 1968

> 1983

> 1987

> 1988

> 1990