Lost River Camps

How were the "Internment Camps" during WW2 in the USA for the Japanese different from?

The concentration camps in Europe?

Public Comments

1. They weren't exterminated, but segregated. Also, they were treated a lot better compared to those in Europe.
2. From what i've read, the Americans didn't make the Japanese work, or at least not to the point of death. they weren't put into gas chambers or anything like what happened during the Holocaust.
3. the nazis killed the jews in gas chambers, but the americans just locked the japanese up
4. In US camps, they didn't kill people, they just kept them prisoner, in the ones that the nazis controlled, they killed the people.
5. concentration camps had the goal of exterminating the jews, the japanese camps in the us were just for isolation during a period of time that we were at war with the japanese, for reasons such as to avoid any spys, and violence within society against or from japanese
6. There wasn't massive extermination and torture on the level that there was in Europe, but otherwise it was quite similar: poor food, poor healthcare and squalid living facilities. Basically people being treated like animals.
7. They were taken from theyre homes their businesses were liquidated and they were fenced in BUT they were not made to work and murdered if they could not. Also, the the Japanese Americans were not put in the internment camps to be systematically murdered and the US govt was NOT trying to exterminate the Japenese like the Nazis were trying to with the Jews.
8. The goals of the two camps were different. The german camps were intended to eliminate various groups of people from the planet by efficiently killing them. The american camps were a paranoid reaction to the bombing of pearl harbor. The united states was blindsided by the japanese attacking them, and feared all japanese. They put their own Japanese citizens in camps to temporarily keep an eye on them during the war. They were scared that Japanese-Americans might be secretly helping Japan. The United States was not involved in genocide during WWII. The Japanese camps didn't have gas chambers. The Japanese were not starved, and were probably treated slightly better than the Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, etc. That said, both events were heinous violations of human rights. People should not be allowed to do such things to each other.
9. Japanese "intermittent camps" weren't as much as labor/extermination camps as the concentration camps. the camps in the US were more of poor housing/food/living camps, i guess
10. They relocated Japanese-Americans away from the coastal areas and into places in the Heartland like Iowa. There were actual houses and garden plots for the families, which is significantly different than the barracks that the extermination camps in Europe. The Japanese were allowed to work and earn a modest living, though they couldn't use telephones or have access to Western Union. It's fair to say they were under serious scrutiny, but they weren't physically harmed or under risk of death. There weren't armed guards or land mines around the camps, though there was a significant barrier with barbed wire. People lost their dignity in the camps and their civil rights were trod upon, but they didn't lose their lives or get separated from their loved ones.
11. there is realy a big difference. THe internment camps in the us were harsh, but almost nothing compared to the concentration camps in Europe. IN europe the jews were singled out in masses and exterminated, in america the japanese were singled out and just put in the camps. THe Jews were beaten, attacked, killed and tortured for no reason besides the fact that they were jews. THe japanese may have been beaten, and some may have died, but not even close to the 6 million jews that were gased then burned in masses. I am not saying that it wasnt harsh in the us, but in europe it was much worse THese events in history should not be forgotten so we can learn from our mistakes.. HOpe this helped
12. Just to comment on someone's post, there were armed guards. I've been to talks given by internees and they have mentioned the armed guards and how you didn't go too close to the fence or else you would be shot at. Some of the detainees were there to be used in trades with Japan for POWs. These were often Japanese living in Latin America. So what is similar in this respect to Europe is that you have people being taken from their homes and losing everything, shipped to a camp in another country. It wasn't just Japanese in the camps but that was the majority. Just like Jews were not the only ones in the Nazi camps but the majority. In both areas, there were anti- sentiments rising from the people, such as businesses looted or people beaten up. In both cases, xenophobia and scapegoating came into play and people were taking their rage out on "others" who were doing well. Once the war was over, some were shipped to war torn Japan, some were stripped of their home citizenship (Latin Americans) and were not allowed to stay but didn't have papers to go anywhere else, and some lucky ones had friends who fought to save their homes/businesses and were able to rebuild their lives that way.