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Topaz
by
Erica Pacal
Imagine being taken out of your wonderful home and being sent to live in horse stables in the middle of the desert. That is what happened to many Japanese-Americans during World War II. President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 to send Japanese-Americans to relocation camps across the United States, which among them was Topaz. It was located in Delta, Utah, which is in the middle of a blazing hot desert. Topaz and many other internment camps around the United States were both unconstitutional and unconscionable and furthered the conviction of many that the United States was racist by nature.
What the United States Government did to the Japanese was unconstitutional. They violated the 14th amendment, which basically states that you can't discriminate against race. The United States Government was discriminating against the Japanese race and pointing guns at them all the time. The United States Government considered it justifiable to put them in camps, but it was still very wrong. Their reason was that they thought the Japanese-Americans were still loyal to Japan and would tell them war secrets.
The United States Government was unconscionable for many different reasons. One reason is that the Japanese were forced to be moved to the camp and be guarded with guns and be watched over all the time. At one time a man was even shot for walking around the camp. Guards thought he was trying to escape when he was only getting some exercise. Another unconscionable thing is that they had to live in horse stables that weren't even cleaned out before they got there.
During this time the United States Government was extremely racist. In 1870, Japanese-Americans were allowed to become citizens in the United States. By 1924, no more immigrants were allowed to become citizens anymore.
February 19, 1942, was when Executive Order 9066 was passed and on August 12, the 110,000 Japanese were moved from the West Coast to ten inland camps.
Finally, by June of 1952, congress passed Public Law 414, which let the Japanese have the right to become naturalized United States citizens. Obviously, it was very wrong to do such a terrible thing to many nice people. Doing this made America look bad, because America represents freedom. The United States Government made it seem like Americans were prejudging people, when many were even against this whole thing. Hopefully, the government has changed and will never do something this bad ever again.
Topaz had a lot more controversy on whether it was a good thing or a bad thing to send Japanese to camps.
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