Photos Of Camps And War In Japanese example essay topic

Japanese Americans internment Just a moment before the final call for flight Belgrade-London-Los Angeles, my girlfriend gave me a wrapped gift and she asked me not to open it before I arrive to my final destination. I couldn't wait so long and I opened it just after I arrived in London. It was the Easy English dictionary with dedication on the first page. She wished me the best with the quote:" All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws". (The Constitution, Amendment XVI, passed by Congress June 13, 1866.

Ratified July 9, 1868). All my sadness disappeared after I red it. "This is the beginning of new life and one-in-life opportunity", I thought. I was tired of wars and corruptions; I was tired of people who were afraid of everything: they were afraid of losing their jobs, they were afraid of crime, disease, and death; they were afraid of foreigners, and of people who are different from them. In the world of Europe's ex-communist transition countries, my country is the strangest creature of all and it cannot escape its uniquely painful recent past. I was dreaming so long about life in wealthy country, where all nations live together with no ethnic incidents and with equal opportunities; and my dream came true.

But, just a few days ago, I realized how the process of naturalization for some nations in the United States was difficult and painful. Even though their rights were guaranteed by the Constitution more than a hundred and thirty years ago, more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans were sent from the West Coast and Hawaii to 10 internment camps in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. The only reason was that they were different. They had different color of skin and their language was different. Sixty years ago, these reasons were strong enough to cause a huge discrimination of Japanese Americans. White people didn't want them in neighborhood.

Almost every house in California own by white Americans had a huge notice that this is white country and it should stay exactly the same. American government sent a very clear message to people - Japanese are enemies. Day after the Pearl Harbor attack, in his address to the United States of America, President Franklin Roosevelt declares war on Japan. 'Always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against them,' he says conclusively. General John L. Dewitt commanded the Fourth Army along the West Coast. It was one day after Pearl Harbor that Dewitt's staff falsely reported of thirty Japanese planes in the San Francisco area, resulting in a huge blackout of the city.

The very next week there were reports of an entire Japanese fleet headed for the west coast. Hysteria and war fears grew rapidly. Although a Japanese attack on the American mainland in some form was a possibility, most of the alarms and reports sounding from the West Coast were greatly unfounded. Even so, any of Japanese descent in America could be viewed a potential 'fifth column' threat, potentially colluding and abetting the enemy in every imaginable sort. Dewitt had designated a hundred-mile wide strip up and down the West Coast and had hoped to remove undesirables from this 'invasion area.

' By late March Congress and the Senate quickly processed a bill that granted the right to criminally prosecute "those of Japanese ancestry who violated curfews, did not report to regional centers, or were found present in the West Coast exclusion zone'. Senator Robert Taft said of the bill, 'I think this is probably the sloppiest criminal law I have ever read or seen anywhere. ' But President Roosevelt signed it. The mass internment of over 120,000 people, of whom 70,000 were American citizens, was quickly underway. Men, women and children were herded to makeshift prison camps in some of the most desolate and unseemly regions of the nation. The conditions of the interment camps were often intolerable.

Further compounding the injustice of forced imprisonment was the seizure of property and other holdings of those sent to the camps. Leaving their families in barbed wire-encircled internment camps, hundreds of Japanese-Americans enlisted in the Army to fight in Europe during World War II. While I was watching photos of camps and war in Japanese-American National Museum, I asked myself that if I were in that camp, would I have volunteered. Would I go into war?

There is a photo and letter of a soldier who left his mother in a California internment camp when he enlisted, and went on to fight his way through Italy. "My dad said that this is my country and I have to fight for it", he wrote. Pictures of war that happened in my country a decade ago and those sixty years old were mixed in my mind. Few blocks from my house in Serbia, more than a hundred people live in a camp in almost the same houses that Japanese Americans used to live in during the Second World War. They lost everything during the war. Most of them have one meal per day and they don't have winter clothes - like Japanese people didn't have it.

Those people from my country live in camp almost 15 years and they don't have place to go when camp would be closed one day - exactly the same happened to Japanese Americans after war was over. While I was watching photos in museum, I got the feeling that lived that time with them; and after many years I realized what the reason is that people from my country cannot move on - they have a lot of anger and they are not able to forgive. The greatness of Japanese Americans is remembrance and forgiveness. The greatness of America is proven one more time almost 50 years after Japanese internment: "Today, on behalf of your fellow Americans, I offer a sincere apology to you for the action that unfairly denied Japanese Americans and their families' fundamental liberties during World War II. In passing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, we acknowledged the wrongs of the past and offered redress to those to those who endured such grave injustice. In retrospect, we understand that the nation's actions were rooted deeply in racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a lack of political leadership.

We must learn from the past and dedicate ourselves as a nation to renewing the spirit of equality and our love of freedom. Together, we can guarantee a future with liberty and justice for all". (Bill Clinton, October 1, 1993) Never is too late for an apology. Governments and governments of other countries that took part in Balkan Wars in 90's should learn from this part of America's history. Apology and acceptance of responsibilities made a big step in process of making a tolerant society and hope that internment of any ethnicity will never happen again. Nowhere in the world.