The Nisei in World War II

One of the significant factors that brought the US into World War II was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 7th 1941 Japanese carrier-based plans and submarines attacked the Navy ships docked at Pearl Harbor. This attack caused grave damage to the Americans. This was when the Americans stepped out of their isolationism and where the story of the most decorated solders in U.S. History.

Due to the attack on Pearl Harbor the American people were very angry with the Japanese people. They even imprisoned the Japanese-Americans thinking they may have provided the Japanese military with information to support such of an attack. After the attack of Pearl Harbor the United States was engrossed by war hysteria, especially on the Pacific coast of the U.S. The residents feared that more Japanese attacks would find their way to their own homes and cities. The leaders in California, Oregon, and Washington all demanded that the Japanese ancestry be removed from their homes and relocated to and isolated inland area.

The USS Arizona (BB-39) burning after the Japanese...

English: A navy photographer snapped this photogra...

English: Diagram indicating Japanese American sett...

They didn't want them living along the coast due to the fears that the Japanese-Americans would support more attacks that could affect their cities. Under extreme pressure President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This Executive Order resulted in forcing 120,000 Japanese-American people to be relocated to what was called "relocation centers". They were more like camps. More than two-thirds of those who were taken from their homes to live in these relocation centers were U.S. citizens and never showed disloyalty to their county. Some of them were even born in America. These camps were spread out over the interior desert areas of the West. Some of these States were Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, Colorado and Wyoming. They were forced to live their lives under harsh conditions.

The Hawaiian government couldn't afford...