When Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941 by Japan, Americans didn't feel safe having Japanese in America. That was when they ordered "Japs" out of their homes and into Internment camps.

One of those camps was called MANZANAR. It was located between the towns of Lone Pine and Independence California. Over 2,192 "suspects" had been jailed in Manzanar camp within two months. Most of the Japs put into camps were loyal Americans. There were nine other Internment camps in America. The camps were outlined in barbed wire. Guards with machine guns were put in watch towers , with orders to shoot anyone who tried to escape.

In February 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9006 and 9102 which led to the round up of 70,000 U.S. Japanese decent and 42,000 resident aliens with little more than the clothes they were wearing. Life in these camps was awful. They had few clothes and they didn't get to bathe often.

U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, gave an arm for America in WWII and won the Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart. But, on his way back to Hawaii, he went into a barber shop in San Francisco for a haircut. The barber refused to serve him because he was Japanese.

We were at war with Italy and Germany also, but if you were Italian or German, you weren't put into camps like the Japs were.

To learn more about the Japanese Internment Camps visit these sites:
http://www.children-of-the-camps.org/
http://www.heartmountain.org/
http://www.qnet.com/~earthsun/remember.htm
http://www.lib.utah.edu/spc/photo/9066/9066.htm