Personal Reflection (Lance's)

Personal Reflection (Mike's)

Salem Witch, Japanese internment comparison

Salem Witch Trials

1. Puritans were imprisoned and killed due to accusations of witchcraft involvement.


2. The accused were part of the same community as the accusers.


3. The Puritan judge apologized after the Salem Witch trials and offered the victims’ families compensation.


4. The ‘discrimination’ sprouted from anger built up since the establishment of their Puritan community.


5. When knowledge of witchcraft was introduced to the Puritans, they jumped on the idea and immediately concluded that witchcraft was becoming the source of several issues w/in the community.


6. Jealousy and grudges often resulted in false accusations that got Puritans put under trial. Unexplained sickness and activity considered unlawful, immoral or just suspicious were also claimed to be culprits of witchcraft.


7. The accused were harshly punished in numerous ways. Some were killed and others tortured. This pushed the boundaries of Puritan morals and law.


8. Several of those accused died in prison.


9. Hysteria among members of multiple Puritan communities rose at the time of the Salem Witch Trials, and for a period of time tore those communities apart.
   
   

Japanese Internment Camps

1. Approximately 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans were forcefully placed into internment camps.


2. 62% of those transported were American citizens.


3. In the end, the U.S. government apologized and offered partial compensation.


4. Tension between Japanese and American people originated from decades ago, especially in the 1890s. When Asian immigrants came to California and began filling jobs that Americans felt they should’ve been hired for, prohibiting of naturalization and land owner ship for the immigrants was introduced.


5. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans quickly developed suspicions that the Japanese in America were planning a full-scale attack on the U.S.’s west coast.


6. Civilian and government officials questioned the loyalty of Japanese citizens in America and declared them security risks; their conclusions were purely drawn from racial bias.


7. Conditions in the camps were harsh and unsanitary. The idea of placing the Japanese in internment camps pushed the boundaries of the Constitution, but the Supreme Court ruled that the act was permissible b/c the civil rights of a racial group may be restricted when a “pressing public necessity” is at hand.


8. Many died in their internment camps.


9. Hysteria engulfed Americans during the time of Japanese internment camps, and, like the Salem Witch Trials, may be viewed as unnecessary.

Japanese Internment Camps: Background Info

Japanese internment camps mainly rose as a result of Japan’s military attack on Pearl Harbor. For the remainder of WWII, Japanese citizens residing in America were forced to leave their homes and live in specified areas of exclusion with their families and other members of the same race. Mistrust of Japanese people by the rest of America rapidly came into play, and the hysteria that followed relates to that of the Salem Witch Trials.