Internment: Good or Bad? | Teen Ink

Internment: Good or Bad?

May 23, 2010
By l.puff SILVER, Seattle, Washington
l.puff SILVER, Seattle, Washington
5 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Internment camps were used to keep an ethnic group of citizens that were thought to create trouble for the government in enclosed patrolled area. In the Pacific Northwest, Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps during the mid 1900’s. The mistrust that lingered after the camps ended was great among these Japanese Americans. Internment Camps have been present around the world and brought trouble along with them.

In 1941, the bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred. The Japanese Navy bombed the United States Naval Base in Hawaii. This caused lots of judgment and racism towards the Japanese Americans especially in the Pacific Northwest because of its accessibility to Japanese Americans and many lived in the area. Even though the Japanese American Leaders sided with the United States, two months after the bombing, Japanese American Internment camps were made by the order of President Roosevelt.Once the Internment Camps were finished, the Japanese Americans were given a small window of time to sell their belongings or to find someone to take care of their property, before they were taken to the camps. At the camps, the Japanese people were guarded and held within barbed-wire fences.They didn’t have much work to do on the camps because of the barren land and dry conditions. Though the basic idea of the camps were similar to the WWII German Concentration Camps; they were not as severe. In many German camps, labor was forced and many were killed for their beliefs. That was not true of the Japanese American Internment Camps.

In my opinion internment is not a good solution. Even though the camps may have seemed like a good solution to the Americans; they brought hostility later that could have been avoided. Also it was obvious that the Japanese Americans were loyal to the United States and were citizens of the country. Internment Camps did not solve the perceived problems which is why they are not beneficial.


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This article has 1 comment.


on Jul. 19 2010 at 2:43 am
Treefiddy BRONZE, Tarzana, California
1 article 0 photos 158 comments
It's pretty unanimous that it was "bad". I've never heard one person that believed otherwise.