History+of+Internment+camps

Sadie Pile

“All Japanese-Americans are a threat to American society” (Grapes 37). This was the mind set during the early 1940’s. Many people felt that the Japanese were spies for Japan. People feared that all Japanese were loyal to Japan. (Yancey 9). In turn many people were mean, and it caused a “need” for internment camps. Life in these camps, and the treatment of the Japanese is shown in the book __Picture Bride__ by Yoshiko Uchida. Many white Americans feared that the Japanese would take jobs (Yancey 8). The Japanese were hard working. One columnist wrote on January 4th, 1942: It would be extremely foolish to doubt the continued existence of enemy agents among the large alien Japanese population [in California]. Only recently city health inspectors looking over a Japanese rooming house came upon a powerful [radio] transmitter, and its reasonable to assume that the menace of a similar character must be constantly guarded throughout the war (Yancey 9). Reports like that were reported almost everywhere. Making tensions run even more deep, and making the white Americans even more nervous. Action was taken in February 1942 when President Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066 which stated that all people of Japanese descent would be placed in camps. More than 110,000 people were relocated (Yancey 9). The effect of this order was detrimental. Many people lost their jobs, house and property (Yancey 10). Many more faced the humiliation of being taken out of society (Yancey 10). Hatsuye Egami writes in a journal, “Since yesterday we Japanese have ceased to be human beings. We are numbers. We are no longer Egamis, but the number 23324. A tag with that number is on every trunk, suitcase, and bag. Tags also on our breasts.” However, some Americans did not hate the Japanese. Some let people keep stuff in their houses. Yoshiko Uchida remembers, “We were close to our neighbors and they both extended the warmth of their friendship to us in those hectic days” (Yancey 39). The book __Picture Bride__ written by Yoshiko Uchida, parallels a good part of her childhood. She describes the time when her father was taken away by the FBI to be taken for questioning, which parallels the part in the story when Kaneda was taken away (Yancey 25). Uchida’s mother was in fact a picture bride (Yancey 18).