Revisited – Eighty years after Pearl Harbor, survivors of Japanese internment camps remember ordeal
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After Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the US forcibly displaced 120,000 people of Japanese origin into 10 internment camps in the western United States. Eight decades on, our correspondents went to meet survivors, who reflected on their ordeal.
The surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which took place on December 7, 1941, is no doubt one of the most famous battles in recent history. Nearly 2,500 Americans were killed. The next day, the US declared war on Japan, an ally of Nazi Germany, and entered into World War II.
But what happened that day also had ramifications for tens of thousands of people of Japanese descent living in the US. All of a sudden, they were seen as the enemy. Two months later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorising the incarceration of all persons of Japanese origin suspected of being traitors. In the end, nearly 120,000 were deported to “relocation centres”. Entire families were locked up behind barbed wire for up to three years.
National security was given as the reason for the policy, even though it violated the constitutional rights of those detained. Although they were prisoners, those inside did their best to live normal lives – starting markets and schooling their children.
It’s estimated the detainees lost some $400 million during their incarceration. Some 40 years on, Congress approved $20,000 payments for every living person who was detained.
Our correspondents Valérie Defert, Pierrick Leurent and Ryan Thompson went to meet survivors of this painful chapter in US history.
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