Several events compelled the United States to be involved in the Second World War, including the infamous Pearl Harbor Attack by the Japanese. This event led to the imprisonment of thousands of citizens who had Japanese ancestry. The majority of targeted individuals were living near the Pacific Coast where the attack took place. The Americans focused on Japanese Americans as a form of revenge and punishment. Historians acknowledge that such actions targeted a specific group or race (Nagata et al. 39). White Americans were the ones who identified and incarcerated Japanese Americans. The primary source of suspicion or fear during the period included an increasing level of racism due to the ongoing upheaval in the world, the Pearl Harbor Attack, war hysteria, and the Niihau Incident.
This occurrence was primarily mass imprisonment of individuals who had Japanese ancestry without official charges. The targeted individuals were forced to live in such camps without being able to regain their freedoms or pursue their goals in life. The majority of the identified victims died in these prisons due to the absence of high-quality medical support and inhumane treatment (Nagata et al. 41). The nature of this event could be compared with the Salem witch hunts since it targeted specific individuals who were associated with occurrences that many people did not like. Additionally, both attacks resulted in the death of citizens who were innocent. They also amount to crimes against humanity since they were inappropriate and lacked legal backing (Murphy 103). Modern populations need to learn from these attacks and consider evidence-based practices to protect all human beings irrespective of their social, economic, and racial backgrounds.
References
Murphy, Daniel P. “Satan and Salem: The Witch‐Hunt Crisis of 1692, Benjamin C. Ray. University of Virginia Press, 2015.” The Journal of American Culture, vol. 40, no. 1, 2017, pp. 103-104.
Nagata, Donna K., et al. “The Japanese American Wartime Incarceration: Examining the Scope of Racial Trauma.” American Psychologist, vol. 74, no. 1, 2019, pp. 36-48.