On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii. They destroyed seven American battleships, and 121 aircraft, and killed 2,400 people. After the attack on Pearl Harbor President Roosevelt sent out a telegram letting everyone know what was happening and it stated “Washington, Dec. 7 (AP)-President Roosevelt said in a statement today that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from the air. The Attack of the Japanese also made on all naval and military “activities” on the island of Oahu.” The President’s brief statement was read to reporters by Stephen Early, presidential secretary. No further details were given immediately. At the time of the White House announcement, the Japanese Ambassadors Kiurisabora Nomura and Saburo Kurusu were at the State Department.” After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, America felt as if they couldn’t trust the Japanese Americans this is why they came up with the Japanese Internment Camps to protect themselves.
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed order 9066; this ordered the Japanese Internment Camps. Ten internment camps were made where more than 110,000 Japanese Americans would be moved too. The camps were set up in blocks that contained fourteen barracks. The temperature of camps varied; most were located in deserts. The meals contained little food. The jobs were really bad, cheap laboring jobs. Children were expected to go to school and learn. The japanese were taken from their homes and put on buses and traveled that way to the camps.
The camps were fenced in. Each fenced in camp was set up in blocks, the blocks contained fourteen barracks, one mess hall, and one recreational hall on the outside. The inside
contained the ironing, laundry, and men and women’s bathrooms. Some families were put in one room, because there was not enough room. The camps were located in Amache, Colorado; Gila River,
Arizona; Jerome, Arkansas; Manzanar, California; Minidoka, Idaho; Poston Arizona; Rohwer, Arkansas; Topaz, Utah;, and Tule Lake, California. In the desert summers the heat got over 100 degrees. In the desert winters the temperatures got as low as minus thirty degrees.
The Japanese were given very little food to eat. The fruits and vegetables were prepared on the land. They also had livestock they raised on the land to eat. Sue Tokushige a young mother with a ten day old baby, when was sent to a camp in Arizona with her husband. She said the government did not supply milk for her baby. She fed her daughter water for ten days. She was unable to breastfeed. She has told how a doctor told her that, for a person who seemed well educated, she did not take care of her baby.
Children were expected to go to school and learn without teachers. They had the
Japanese who had went to college for at least two year teach...
