Project: Japanese-American Relocation

• Introduction

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, people spreaded that Japanese-Americans were accomplices. Discriminating Japanese became more seriously because Japan brought America to World War II. In 1942, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order that ordered all Japanese-Americans to depart from the West Coast. Therefore, ten internment camps were built in order to detain 120,000 Japanese-Americans. Some Japanese-Americans began to be released in 1945. All Japanese-Americans were released and the last internment camp was closed in 1946. In 1988, Congress compensated the survivors for violating the Japanese-Americans’ liberties.

Images

A discriminating Japanese poster in front of a white woman’s house

One of the Internment Camps

Young Lawyer and his Family at a Relocation Center in California

A Japanese-American chef at an Internment Camp in California

Young Men Play Basketball at an Internment Camp in California

Japanese-Americans in a Mess Hall of an Internment Camp 

• Video 

• Most Important Vocabulary 

Evacuate (verb)
Definition: to order people leave a place
Synonyms: withdraw
Word family: evacuated (adjective), evacuation (noun), evacuee (noun)
Original sentence: The U.S. government evacuated Japanese-American from the West Coast in 1942.

Restitution (noun)
Definition: paying people money for the loss
Synonyms: recovery
Word family: restitute (verb)
Original sentence: The government provided restitution to survivors.

Internment (noun)
Definition: putting people in prison
Synonyms: custody
Word family: intern(verb), internee(noun)
Original sentence: They were arrested in an internment camp.

Liberty (noun)
Definition: freedom
Synonyms: freedom
Word family: libertarian (adjective), liberally (adverb), libertarian (noun), liberalize(verb)
Original sentence: People fought for liberty.

Spread (verb)
Definition: more and more people know
Synonyms: extend
Word family: spreader (noun)
Original sentence: The fake news was spreaded.

Rumor (noun)
Definition: fake information
Synonyms: hearsay
Word family: rumormonger (noun)
Original sentence: The rumor is against me.

Seek (verb)
Definition: to find
Synonyms: explore
Word family: seeker (noun)
Original sentence: I need to seek opportunities.

Uphold (verb)
Definition: support and maintain something
Synonyms: agree, encourage, support
Word family: upholder (noun)
Original sentence: Team members have to uphold the rules.

Tragedy (noun)
Definition: very bad cases
Synonyms: disaster
Word family: tragical (adjective), tragic (adjective), tragically (adverb), tragedian (nonu)
Original sentence: The movie is based on a tragedy.

Extreme (noun/ adjective)
Definition: very unusual
Synonyms: excessive, ultra
Word family: extremely (adverb), extremeness(noun), extremism (noun), extremist (noun), extremity (noun)
Original sentence: This is an extreme example.

• Links

A video is about Japanese-American daily life in an internment camp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgkNaK6fviA&t=191s

A short video of a old Japanese-American man recalling his life in an internment camp
https://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/15/japanese-american-recalls-time-in-internment-camp-75-years-later.html

An Article of the event Japanese-American Relocation
https://www.britannica.com/event/Japanese-American-internment

An articles of the event’s consequences
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/world-war-ii/essays/from-citizen-enemy-tragedy-japanese-internment