Heroes

World War II (WWII) officially began in Europe in 1939. However, the United States maintained an isolationist stance and refused to become involved beyond manufacturing planes, ships, and weapons to be sent to Allied forces. Meanwhile, the war spread to Asia, where Imperial Japan took advantage of the chaos in Europe to invade parts of China, including territories that had long been under British and French control, such as French Indochina. Though the US still refused to join the war effort, President Roosevelt moved the bulk of the Pacific Fleet to Hawaii, the closest territory to Japan, as a show of force.

In response, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the Naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, hoping to impair American forces and forestall their entry into the war. The surprise attack came on a Sunday morning, when many American sailors, on their day off were slow to respond. The attack lasted only two hours but resulted in the damage or destruction of 20 American battleships and 350 planes, as well as the deaths of approximately 2,400 American sailors, Marines, and soldiers. More than half of these casualties came from the explosion of the USS Arizona, which remains in Pearl Harbor to this day, as a memorial.

In contrast, “the Imperial Japanese Navy [...] lost only twenty-nine planes, five submarines, and sixty-four men” (239). However, the Japanese intention to delay America’s entry into the war proved fatal. President Roosevelt called December 7, “a date which will live in infamy” (41), and the American public, long divided about the war, became united in their desire to fight back. This ultimately led to America’s involvement in defeating the Germans in Europe, and the United States using atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

The Pearl Harbor attack had the tragic effect of reigniting already-simmering anti-Asian racism in the United States. White Americans had long displayed racist attitudes against Japanese Americans and other Americans of Asian descent. Afterward, such racism grew widespread, violent, and government-sanctioned. Without proof of wrongdoing, American forces began arresting and detaining Japanese American citizens in Hawaii and parts of California immediately after the attack. Then, two months later, in February 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the detention of over 120,000 Japanese Americans without cause or due process, stealing their homes, properties, and businesses, and imprisoning them in concentration camps for the duration of the war. Critically, the US government did not feel it necessary to use such extreme and unjust measures against German or Italian Americans, despite Germany and Italy’s roles in the war, highlighting the racism underlying the executive order. Not a single Japanese American citizen was ever convicted of spying for Japan. The US government did not officially acknowledge the illegality of this executive order or apologize until 1988, nearly 50 years later.