ard the Japanese. Posters with derogatory and racists messages were also common, actually advocating the murder of all Japanese and portraying Japan as an evil power. It was such views that fueled resentment against Japanese in America and generated support for government legislation legalizing forced internment.
WWII and the bombing of Pearl Harbor fostered unity and overwhelming support for American ideals like freedom and democracy. It also created a need to scapegoat an enemy that was positioned as a threat to such ideals. The Japanese became such a scapegoat after the attack on Pearl Harbor. As Geoffrey Smith (1991) point out in an essay on racial Nativism, ôPearl Harbor resurrected the image of Pacific Coast Japanese as advance agents of the dreaded Yellow Peril,ö and the attack also subjected them to the most broadly based and effective nativist crusade in American History. After the attack, west coast politicians started a crusade against Japanese Americans. Few protests against such actions arose, because many Americans considered support for the Japanese as anti-patriotic in light of the circumstances. Mounting hostilities toward the Japanese from both American citizens and legislators pressured Washington to act. Presidential Proclamation No. 2525 was issued, authorizing the U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle to authorize a roundup of suspects of suspects, many under surveillance prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. In addition to this action, the Treasury Department took seizure of all Japanese bank accounts and businesses, the FBI warned ôagainst possession of cameras or guns by suspected enemy aliensö, and the Attorney General ordered that all ôenemyö aliens in the Western U.S. surrender short wave radios and cameras.
When the new year began, Attorney General Biddle ordered the establishment of specific strategic areas throughout the west coast. In these areas all suspected ôenemyö aliens were ...