Persecution. The word paints negative and abrasive pictures in the mind of almost any and every human being. It can be defined as the wrongful treatment of an individual or group. To say that someone or something has been persecuted is to say that he did not deserve the punishment or treatment he received. That being understood that according to numerous authors and researchers the Japanese Americans were indeed persecuted by the United States government and public during the time of World War II. In her book Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of Americas Concentration Camps, Michi Nishiura Weglyn uses profound research and personal experience to express her educated opinion on the internment of the Japanese during World War II. Many people objected to the internment in the U.S. including Harold Ickes, the appointed Secretary of the Interior in 1933 (Weglyn 69), and Attorney General Clark, the founder and Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California from 1934 to 1971 (Weglyn 70). One FBI investigator, Curtris B. Munson, was hired by President Roosevelt to thoroughly look into the loyalty of those Japanese descendants residing on the West Coast on the United States and in Hawaii. After weeks of s

Weglyn reveals that the miniscule knowledge of the Japanese minority was the main cause of the fear (36). Naval Lieutenant Commander Kenneth D. government took up the same sickening methods to solve their own problem. However, that was only the beginning. The public revolted against the Japanese by boycotting Japanese restaurants, overturning Japanese trucks, and throwing rotten eggs at Japanese laundries (Stanley 7). Matsumura concludes that "they had broken no laws," and those imprisoned received no trial, no hearing. In all 93 students 25 were moved to Chinatown, of who were American citizens (Stanley 7). There was no space for privacy in the over crowded camps (Levine 47). In 1943 the Supreme Court went as far as to revoke the rights of Japanese, whether citizen or not (Matsumura). Everything was done as a group (Levine 47). , while the remaining 35 percent were reserved from becoming citizens under U.