Lessons Learned: World War II Japanese Internment

Japanese internment lesson #1 - You can't determine who is your enemy simply due to their ethnicity.

Despite their efforts to concentrate citizens of Japanese decent after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7th, 1941, the measure had little or no effect on national security. Most of the citizens targeted had lived in the United States for generations and had little or few ties to Japan. In most cases, the only people that Japanese-Americans contacted in Japan were family and friends who remained. In the end, Japanese internment was a futile attempt to use race and ethnicity to single out potential enemies.

Japanese internment lesson #2 - Not all perceived enemies will be treated the same.

While Americans of German decent were subjected to discrimination during World War II, but they weren't subjected to internment as were Japanese-Americans. Why? In essence, while the United States was at war with both Japan and Germany by January 1942, Japan was the country that had attacked United States soil. By attacking the US territory of Hawaii, Japan ensured that US couldn't feign a policy of neutrality any longer. By bombing Pearl Harbor, Japan took a step that Germany was unwilling to take (at least at that time).

Japanese internment lesson #3 - Paranoia of being attacked on the home front can effect policy decisions in a way that few other events can.

In the paranoia that was left in the wake of the "surprise" attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced pressure to intern all Japanese Americans. It was the reality of an attack on American soil that caused this clamor for decisive action on the part of the President. Without this public pressure, it is doubtful that internment would have occurred.

Japanese internment lesson #4 - You can learn from history, and should take great care to do so.

In the aftermath of September 11th, 2001, a more direct act of war than the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US proved as a nation that it had learned from its own history. Muslims and people of Middle Eastern decent weren't interred. US citizens didn't overreact this time - at least not en masse. Quite frankly, it is good thing. Many of the extremists that are looking to bring Jihad to the US are already recruiting converts that don't fit the profile. Officials are now aware that there are indeed homegrown Islamic extremists right within our borders, and they don't always have Middle Eastern ancestry, a long history of extremists Islamic beliefs, or look like a terrorist. During World War II, many viewed anyone of Japanese or German decent as enemies, no matter how long they had lived in the US.

Japanese internment lesson #5 - Past wrongs in the name of national security aren't easily erased, but the people targeted can assimilate well.

It can be argued that Japanese Americans were never properly compensated for their internment experiences during World War II. Nonetheless, by the 1970s and 1980s, Japanese Americans had once again fully assimilated into American society. It is true that most of those who suffered through internment were Japanese Americans that lived in the United States for decades, if not longer. However, during World War II, many citizens didn't perceive the situation in that light. By the 1970s and 1980s, most traces of the tragic experience of internment were viewed simply as a grave mistake that occurred during one of the greatest national crises that ever faced the United States.

By taking care to truly ponder the lessons learned from internment in the US during World War II, we can ensure that such a tragedy doesn't happen again. We can also ensure that it didn't occur in vain. While it may be difficult to understand the mindset that led to Japanese internment during World War II, we as a society need to fully understand the circumstances, the reasoning, as well as the consequences.