internment, Japanese

The evacuation of all people of Japanese ancestry living on the West coast of the USA to detention centres in 1942, after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.

Anti-Japanese sentiment, rooted in racial prejudice and economic competition, rose to public hysteria after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The US government responded by establishing the War Relocation Authority, which oversaw the evacuation. More than 110,000 Japanese-Americans were interned in ten detention camps scattered across Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. These people lost their land, homes, and jobs, and were forced to live behind barbed wire in military-style barracks.

In Korematsu v. US (1944), the US Supreme Court ruled that the evacuation and internment of Japanese-Americans were constitutional on the grounds of national security. However, the government had already begun to release the interned Japanese-Americans.

Over the years Japanese-Americans lobbied the US government for an apology and for compensation to the internees. In 1988 the government made an official apology and passed legislation under which surviving internees would each receive $20,000 in compensation.