West Virginia University Historical Review
Abstract
The American public voices its concerns over fundamental issues, like the justice system, that pertain to the US Constitution. The American public in World War II, however, faced many challenges in voicing its concerns over the Japanese American internment due to the dominance of racism at the time. This paper explores the background of Executive Order 9066, the document that provoked mass evacuation, in order to understand why President Franklin D. Roosevelt enforced it and why most people, particularly on the West Coast, advocated for Japanese American evacuation. More fundamentally, the bulk of the paper centers on the argument that different individuals and groups broke their silence on the matter. They reminded other people of the importance of democracy during wartime as it applied to every Japanese American citizen as well as Japanese immigrants who were trying to achieve the American Dream.
Recommended Citation
Taylor, Nicholas
(2020)
"The American Public’s Reaction to the Japanese American Internment,"
West Virginia University Historical Review: Vol. 1:
Iss.
1, Article 8.
Available at:
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/wvuhistoricalreview/vol1/iss1/8