Internment camps were widely accepted in the US and not seen as much of a problem. The command to imprison Japanese-Americans was carried out in wartime with a presidential executive order and most accepted it without question. For those who did have issues with this order they would not or could not come out against it because it could be very easily considered an act of treason. Also due to the fact that Japanese-Americans had almost no political voice in the mainland US due to being such a spread out minority, there was very little they could do to protect themselves. By comparison in In Hawaii by 1920, Japanese immigrants and their descendants made up over 40% of the population and no attempts were made to relocate them. Lastly there was profit to be made by displacing people from their homes.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor war paranoia swept through the United States and the threat of invasion by Japan weighed heavily on people’s minds. Overnight Americans of Japanese ancestry were looked on with suspicion and mistrust. Newly recruited or drafted soldiers originally classified as 1-A, available for unrestricted military service, quickly became reclassified 4-C, enemy non-aliens, even if they were U.S. citizens and were promptly discharged from the Army. Entire units were discharged at a time when the nation was desperately looking for soldiers.

Then on February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 granting military leaders wide ranging powers to declare any area they see fit as military areas. With this act large areas of land were made into exclusion zones where people of Japanese ancestry were forbidden to enter or imprisoned if already there. This zone included all of California and parts of Oregon, Washington State and Arizona. Completely arbitrary borders and mundane landmarks, such as a rail line in Arizona, separated areas where people living on one side were incarcerated and others living on the other side were left alone. In all over 110,000 men, women and children, were rounded up and sent to prison camps antiseptically referred to as “relocation centers.”

One of the great ironies of these camps was the fact that they were being placed in areas where other Japanese American still lived, free to move about as they pleased without restriction. B. Kaneko was living in Salt Lake City, Utah, free to go about as he pleased while some of his close family members were being locked up in nearby Topaz, Utah after being relocated from California. Kikuko Nakao was being held in Rohwer Louisiana when she was introduced by a friend to a Texas farmer named Jerry Tanamachi. After a brief courtship the two were married inside the relocation center by the camps preacher and Kikuko was free to leave the camp and join her new husband.

Another incredible fact was that German prisoners of war were being housed by American civilians near some of these camps and were allowed to wander freely while imprisoned Japanese-American families could just watch helplessly. It was figured that the vast size ot the US would prevent German POWs from escaping and rejoining the war effort. Actual enemy combatants were treated better than US citizens.

Race certainly was a big underlying factor in the acceptance of these camps. The fact that German and Italian immigrants were not treated so poorly or with such suspicion even though greatly outnumbering Japanese-Americans is telling of race relations in the US. Even before the war, laws like The Japanese Exclusion Act:Washington, D.C.: Spring 1924 prevented most Japanese from even entering the United States.

Economics and greed were also a factor for the removal of Japanese Americans. Japanese farmers were becoming quite successful and were starting to be looked upon with envy. With less than 2 percent of the total farm acreage in California they were supplying between 30 and 40 percent of all truck crops in California, including more than 90 percent of the snap beans, strawberries, and celery and about half of the artichokes, cauliflower, cucumbers, and tomatoes. With the removal of the Japanese the farms were easily taken over and competition was curtailed. Also removed Japanese families were only allowed to bring a few suitcases with them allowing vacant houses to be easily looted. Nearly all property left behind was lost due to foreclosure on by banks for non-paid taxes and loans or just simply stolen. People profiting from Japanese internment certainly would not have much of a problem with it.