Introduction
Throughout World War II many interned Japanese Americans actually volunteered for service although their draft eligibility had essentially been revoked. The number of Chinese Americans who participated in this war is estimated to be between 12,000 and 20,000. Of those serving roughly 40% were basically not citizens, and not like the Filipino and Japanese Americans, 75% served in units that were non-segregated. It is interesting to note that these Chinese Americans in fact distinguished themselves from the Japanese Americans hence they suffered less discrimination. Therefore, this essay explores how the Second World War changed these two Asian Americans communities and their live.
The Japanese Americans during this war were ostracized and then put into the concentration camps. After this war, many individuals distrusted them for a while hence this presented some obstacles on their advancement. What this war changed for them was growth of atheism. In Hawaii, racism against them was very strong. After 1941 Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbor, federal government rounded up and then relocated about 120,000 Japanese in name of the national security. Most of them were incarcerated in ten guarded and remote relocation camps for over 2 years, in spite of never being convicted. In the camps, their conditions were unwelcoming or miserable.
On the other hand, during the war, the Chinese Americans were conscious of racism that was made worse by this war. They distinguished themselves from the Japanese and even some wore clothes that were written that they were Chinese. Given their country’s ally status, this Asian American community in reality suffered less discrimination than the Japanese. Many of them even joined the military as mentioned above. Just like the other American women, during war based- labor shortage, their women were not discriminated since they worked on home front.
The Congress in 1948 passed Magnuson Act that repealed Chinese Exclusion Act. It did this with twofold reasons. First, U.S. sought out China as a partner during the war. In addition, the other reason was to seek to deflect the Japanese propaganda back in Asia, which called U.S. a racist country due to its segregationist and exclusionary practices. The provisions of this Act and a later War Brides Act enabled the Chinese Americans bring their wives to America.
Upon their release at the end of this war, majority of Japanese Americans really found themselves poor, stripped of their possessions, businesses, and homes hence this forced them to start again building their lives in the United States. Albeit life might have improved for a number of Filipinos after their service in WWII, several of them remained in a migrant labor world. Nonetheless, many of them unionized after this war and became active in United Farm Workers. In contrast, the lives of Chinese Americans were not negatively affected since after the 1943 Exclusion Act, numerous took the advantage of their military service during the war to become naturalized.
The change in racial ideologies fueled Civil Rights movement. The U.S congress after recognizing injustice of relocation campaigns made partial reparations to the Japanese Americans in the year 1848. Some years later, the Congress passed Civil Liberties Act in 1988 after intense lobbying by the community activists. It mandated $20,000 compensation for the former internees, a formal apology, and creation of fund to educate public about camps and internment unconstitutional nature. Over 82,000 Japanese Americans received payments. However, stigma of being labeled the national enemies due to their race lingered among several second-generation Japanese Americans.
Works cited
"Japanese Relocation - 1943 / WW2 Japanese American Internment & Relocation Centers." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July 2013.
"Becoming American Part II." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July 2013.
"Fred Korematsu - PROTEST." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July 2013.
