Savannah+M.

I think both the United States and Japan shared responsibility for the Japanese Internment. Some Americans had an abundant amount of fear about the Japanese: these included the National Security worried about the Japanese spying to assist on another Pearl Harbor like attack. it also seems as if the United States were worried that the Japanese were going to do better economically, this means that maybe the farmers would do better, therefore the United States was fearing Japanese espansion. The Department of Treasury speculated that 20,000 secret agents could cripple the United States war efforts defending itself towards Japan. Now, when I say that the U.S. shared the responsibility for the interment I really am referring to for the United States, the president (Franklin D. Roosevelt). He thought that the Japanese were a threat to the U.S. in many ways, in which I have shown above. Again, he figured that by condemning every Japanese American living in the Pacific Northwest to be put in internment camps or would have another choice to go into the United States Army. I don't know about you, but that seems like pretty poor civics.
 * What is your //general// belief about who or what is most responsible for causing the conflict?**

**What is the relevant background information (i.e. who, what, when, where)?** The Japanese Internment was between the United States and Japan. The conflict was basically in my eyes paranoia coming from the United States government. The government, led by Franklin D. Roosevelt, feared that the Japanese were a threat to national security. Franklin D. Roosevelt thought that some of the Japanese were spying or planning an attack. Walter Lippman suggested that even though no acts of sabotage had occured yet, there might eventually be one massive attack by loyal Japanese citizens living along the West Coast. So the government put some 120,000 into internment camps, it did not matter whether they had immigrated to the U.S. or a japanese born in America, the japanese were still going into the internment camps. These camps were basically somewhat like concentration camps, they were guarded by military personnel and they recieved food. I don't blames the Japanese for maybe still being mad at The United States. This took place after Pearl Harbor, which would be the early 1940's, during the outbreak of World War II. (Lambert 322-323)

**What were 3 factors that helped cause the conflict (politics, economics, geography, history)?** The first factor that helped cause the conflict was ignorance. How is this for ignorance? We will just put every person with 1/8 Japanese lineage into camps so they won't spy or steal our secrets! Or we will give them an alternative to join our army and fight for our country. In fact we will even take the kids away and into internment camps. I mean they put innocent children into internment camps because the bottom line was they were misinformed, they didn't put every detail into consideration. I mean did they really think that the kids were going to do any damage? Another factor I believe that contributed to the conflict was fear. They were fearful because the government (Franklin Roosevelt) was fearing that the Japanese would cripple the United States ability to defend themselves against Japan. The last factor that I think is the most important on causing the conflict was World War II. Without World War II the United States would not have feared a Japanese invasion of the West Coast of the United States.The fears of Japan were definatley widespread. Bottom Line, is if there was no World War II, there would not be a Japanese Intermnet. The United States were not even planning on any big attacks on other countries, and they definately were not planning on fighting Japan because they were probably depending on their commerce.

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**Explain why one factor is more important than the others.** World War II was more important than the others because not only did the outbreak of World War II affect Washington's economy but the society as well. The bombing of Pearl Harbor caused the increase in discrimination as well as suspicion of Japanese Americans living in the U.S. The Japanese had already experienced discrimination both in Washington and nationally. Like I have said before president Franklin Roosevelt and much of the government was very concerned about a Japanese expansion, this is when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9006 to remove and incarcerate over 110,000 Japanese Americans. If you think about it, without the outbreak of World War II there would be no reason for the United States and Japan to hold grudges against each other.

**How could the conflict have been avoided?** The conflict could have been avoided if the Japanese would not have been under so much heavy pressure on Western Economic sanctions. The Japanese were basically breaking relations with the United States. But the even bigger reason was when Japan did the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. I have not quite figured out why the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor ,but I am thinking that we were such an easy target with a couple of our military ships being in repair. Also, since World War II had just started, we had tried our best to stay out of the war because we didn't have a very strong military program. The Japanese had a perfect plan, they were to come secretely over the mountains and through the valleys to stay as much undercover as they could. They knew that the United States were in Pearl Harbor. The Japanese figured that if and when the United States came into the war, they would fight Europe's army, and they feared that the United States army, even though it was not that strong, would at sometime face them. In addition, if the United States would not have had Russia's help in World War II we definately would have lost the war. So, yes the Japanese Internment could have been avoided if it weren't for shared fear of the United States and the Japanese, as well as World War II.

Wagner, Carol. Telephone Interview. 28 May 2009.

**What sources of information have you used?** Works Cited Lambert, A. Dale, Clark, W. Dustin. Washington A state of contrasts. East Wenatchee, Washington: Directed Media Inc, 2008

Author Unknown. "Japanese-American Internment Camps." [|http://www.bookmice.net]. Date Unknown. Book Mice. Accessed 5/20/09. []