Pearl Harbor was indeed a day that laid in infamy. However, what most people don’t know is what happened to thousands of Americans after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, a rush of anti- Japanese feelings swept through the country, and rightly so. What were not justified, were the feelings of hatred toward Japanese-Americans! Many citizens and government officials were afraid that the Japanese citizens living on the West Coast would assist in the invasion of the United States of America (Gimlin 288). U.S. Lieutenant General John Dewitt was the head of security for the West Coast. John Dewitt felt people of Japan

The internment was also wrong because it hurt all Americans. The American economy was down during the time of the internment. The United States lost two-thirds of its vegetable crop because the Japanese citizens who had previously grown the crops were imprisoned. This greatly hurt the American economy (Bondi 341). In later years, the American people would have to pay for compensation of the people who were interned.

Families received usually no more than seven dollars and fifty cents a month for an allowance. Since this money was not nearly sufficient, some internees took jobs to earn more money. The pay was very low however, from eight dollars a month, to 16 dollars a month for professional work, such as doctors (Stanley 48). Minimum wage during 1942 was forty cents an hour, which equals roughly eighty-nine dollars and sixty cents a month for a schedule of eight hours a day, seven days a week. This is the work schedule that most internees kept and still made less than 18% of American workers outside the camps. After three years of the outrageous internment of citizens of Japanese heredity, the order excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast was repealed (Bondi 343).

The internment was also one of the worst violations of constitutional liberties ever. The fourth amendment to the United States Constitution says, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Citizens of Japanese heredity were subject to illegal search and seizures of property because, in most cases their houses were searched and often seized without a warrant. Also, in most cases, warrants were not issued on a probable cause because, there was never any evidence that Japanese- Americans had committed a crime. The violations of the Constitution alone make the internment of Japanese-Americans wrong.

Finally, it was wrong to intern innocent people because of the damage it caused them. It is estimated that the interned Ja

Some topics in this essay:
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