As a Multi-generational American Citizen, in the Wake of Pearl Harbor, Do you Support the Internment of your Japanese Neighbor?

Foremost, the doctrine of multi-generational citizenship embraces a flexible and relational approach to individual civilians. This concept helps recognize children as international and national citizens. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order authorizing the secretary of war to designate military regions within the United States (Nagata, 2013). The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States was the forced relocation and incarceration in camps of Americans of Japanese ancestry. It was inconsiderate as to whether the people of Japanese descent were citizens or non-citizens of the United States. The incarceration took place mainly on the Western Coast. More than 30,000 Japanese Americans residing in the United States mainland were forcibly moved from their West Coast homes (Heinrichs, 2010).

As a multi-generational United States citizen, I do not support the internment of my Japanese neighbor. Foremost, it is imperative to comprehend that the detention leads to closure of businesses, abandoning of farms and homes, and marginalization (Nagata, 2013). The internment is part of stereotyping and negatively profiling a whole community for the misdeeds of a particular individual. For example, the attack on the Pearl Harbor was not orchestrated and supported by all Japanese more so those living in America. The decision by the then government to negatively profile them was not only archaic but also gross mistreatment (Heinrichs, 2010).

The world is a global village, as citizens of the world we should live together harmoniously and by the rule of law. Perpetrators of crimes and delinquencies should bear strict individual responsibility. Profiling individual community members don’t help in resolving the prevailing impasse. In fact, when the internment happened, the relationship between the United States and Japan deteriorated leading to the suffering of innocent citizens (Heinrichs, 2010). In such a conflict, it is progressive to devise other means that would solve impasse and hold the individual perpetrators strictly liable for their acts or omission.