Informational Essay-They Called Us Enemy

Name Instructors’ name Course Date Informational Essay-They Called Us Enemy The imprisionment of Japanese Americans during World War II illustrates starkly a violation of democratic ideals, in particular, a right to due process and equal protection under the law. The family of George Takei and other high-profile figures faced the erosion of their constitutional rights firsthand during this dark period of American history. Consistent with the betrayal of Japanese Americans' legal and civil liberties, to which they were denied their due process, not only did these measures deeply tarnish the ethos of democracy in the United States, but they also exacerbated threats to American democracy. Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942, stripped away the due process rights of the Japanese Americans, including the Takei family (DeWitt 2). Nearing a year after the Pearl Harbour attack, the President signed an executive order that permitted the removal and imprisonment of over 120,000 Japanese Americans — many of them American citizens — and yet no evidence of wrongdoing or a fair trial indicated that they were to be relocated or incarcerated (Brown 21). As a result of the wholesale denial of due process rights, Japanese Americans suffered not only the abrogation of their fundamental liberties but also the denial of individual hearings. The egregious violations of due process rights do not simply impact the immediate victims but do so throughout the entire American populace. It's a dangerous precedent to disregard the rights of one group – whatever that group may be, based on factors like ethnicity or background – and disregard it...