The shocking tragedy of Pearl Harbor lead by the Japanese on December 7th, 1941 shook the United States out of isolation and left Americans panicked, scared, and livid. To help ease the worries of the people, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized Executive Order 9066 and declared all Japanese-Americans should be relocated away from the Pacific West coast and Hawaii (Executive Order 9066). It was done as a precaution, because it allowed Americans to have a sense of security and nearly everyone had suspicions towards Japanese-Americans. Though, there were negative drawbacks because it racially discriminated any American of Japanese descent as a traitor to the nation. It was immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor that the poor treatment against Japanese Americans became justified. Congressman was beginning to point the
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One in particular was John Rankin from Mississippi who said, “once a Japanese, always a Japanese” (Rankin) which influenced a lot of bigotry hate. the not-so-new term, “Jap” that was being thrown a lot more during World War II. He also stated, “...once a Jap, always a Jap,” (Rankin) which holds an unfair negative connotation. He categorized all the citizen-born Japanese people and made sure to leave out the “American” part of them. Rankin is not only known for voicing his intolerance against Japanese-Americans, but also against African-Americans, and European-Jewish (Rankin, Densho Encyclopedia). Since this came from a person with high power and an authoritative position in the government, especially after Pearl Harbor, a lot of white Americans agreed that Japanese Americans couldn’t be trusted. The abhor towards Japanese-Americans grew more with the unease of being racially related to the enemy that attacked the United States. In fact, it went as far as wanting to put them in concentration camps. This quote, “I'm for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska, and
One in particular was John Rankin from Mississippi who said, “once a Japanese, always a Japanese” (Rankin) which influenced a lot of bigotry hate. the not-so-new term, “Jap” that was being thrown a lot more during World War II. He also stated, “...once a Jap, always a Jap,” (Rankin) which holds an unfair negative connotation. He categorized all the citizen-born Japanese people and made sure to leave out the “American” part of them. Rankin is not only known for voicing his intolerance against Japanese-Americans, but also against African-Americans, and European-Jewish (Rankin, Densho Encyclopedia). Since this came from a person with high power and an authoritative position in the government, especially after Pearl Harbor, a lot of white Americans agreed that Japanese Americans couldn’t be trusted. The abhor towards Japanese-Americans grew more with the unease of being racially related to the enemy that attacked the United States. In fact, it went as far as wanting to put them in concentration camps. This quote, “I'm for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska, and