Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt officially declares a state of war was present; Public and government officials had a growing fear of additional attacks by the Japanese, leading Franklin Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942 (Exec. Order No. 9066, 1942). The Executive Order allowed the United States Military authority to designate “military zones” forcing the removal of 120,000 Japanese-Americans out of their homes and businesses. Fear that the Japanese-Americans would welcome the attackers and fight alongside the enemy. With this fear in the nation, the government targets against the Japanese, and the pressure from the public all demonstrates that race was a key factor in the government’s internment of the Japanese American citizens during World War II.
Asian immigrants felt the acts of discrimination as early as the 1800s when the immigration from China ended fiercely and led to the Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1885, the massacre of 28 Chinese mineworker in Wyoming, the white mineworkers were fearful of the labor competitions …show more content…
Even though there was no evidence to support these suspicions. The accusations of the Japanese by the public had been presented in false claims the Japanese doing things, such as; They are going to poison our water and commit all the horrible possible, Documents that headline after headline and hundreds of letters and telegrams he would receive (Clark, 1972). This animosity was a serious problem for the Japanese themselves; they began dropping off, some found dead, others disappearing. Some of the telegrams from people in small communities saying: If you don't get these 'damn Japs' out of here you are going to find them dead, and similar threats (Fox, 1988). Most of the Japanese-Americans were not found to have intentions of