Internment Camp in the USA

Interment camps were prisons that were used during wars to segregate some groups of people from military areas. Japanese American internment camp was one of such camps that had been created by the American government to imprison prisoners of war (Estlack 56). The camp acted as relocation as well as an internment centre set up by the government of United States in 1942 (Albert Einstein University par. 2). The camp housed more than one hundred thousand Japanese of the American origin as well other Japanese who were not of the American origin. The Japanese who lived in this camp were drawn from the Pacific coast of USA.

Those who lived in this camp were denied the right to interact with other people. They were separated from other people as military strategy during the Second World War. The life for Japanese in this camp was a hell. They were ill mistreated by the military officer. The main goal of creating the camp was to separate all the Americans of the Japanese origin from military activities in the coast of Pacific Ocean (Drinnon 67). First, anyone violated the orders in this internment camp received harsh treatment from military officers who were in-charge of the camp. Many individuals did loss lives as result of the treatment that they received from those who were supposed to oversee law and order is maintained in the camp. Most of the individuals in this company lost millions dollars worth of property to the white. Any white who was not happy with farming activities of the American Japanese would use the military to take way the property from these farmers. In addition, the camp was used as a strategy by the whites to take away properties from Japanese who lived in this camp (Albert Einstein University par. 7).

Those who lived in this camp suffered psychological pains due to the disconnection and the ill treatment they used to get. Being separated from the other people for crimes that you have not committed or because of the race that you come from is a painful experience that one has to go through. One is denied the chance to develop socially and economically (Estlack 128). This was the case for those living in this camp. The individuals received orders that segregated them from their fellow Americans making hard for them to share visions and ideas on how to improve their standard of living (Stetson 45). The action of the government to keep the Japanese in this camp denied them their constitutional rights that are fundamental for the growth and progress of any given community. The life in the camp was not favorable for the Japanese as they never enjoyed any constitutional protection, as it was a requirement in the constitution. The inhabitants of the internment were denied the right to proper medications (Dickerson par. 8). Studies have shown that in most cases those who used to get ill did not get proper treatment as it is the requirement of the law for all citizens to get proper health care services despite their color, sex and race.

In conclusion, the internment camp under review was not the best place for the Japanese population to be in, given the kind of inhuman treatment that they received from the American military. Such camps should be discouraged in future as they lower the human dignity of the communities that are put in the camps.

Work Cited

Albert Einstein University. Japanese American Internment. Web. 15. Feb. 2013 < http://medbib.com/Japanese_American_internment >

Dickerson, James. Inside America’s Concentration Camps: two centuries of internment and torture. 2010. Web 15 Feb.2013. < http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1078 >

Drinnon, Richard. Keeper of Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Meyer and American Racism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Print.

Estlack, W. Russell. Shattered Lives, Shattered Dreams: the disrupted lives of families in America’s internment camps. New York: Cedar Fort, 2011. Print.

Stetson, Conn. The Decision to Evacuate the Japanese from the Pacific Coast. New York: United States Armycenter of Military History. 2000. Print< http://www.history.army.mil/books/70-7_05.htm >