Whose civil liberties did the U.S. government violate during WWII, and in what ways did they do this?
1 Answer
Both the US and Canada interned people of Japanese origin. This included confiscation of property and removal of jobs.
Explanation:
Internment was a pretty standard way of dealing with people from belligerent states during wartimes. These people were treated like Prisoners of War. In Canada, Ukrainians and others that may have previously lived in parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were interned in work camps during World War 1. These would mostly men but some families followed their men and were voluntarily interned. Many of the men were paroled in 1916-17 to help with the labor shortage. Germans, Austrians, and Turks were also interned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Canadian_internment
World War 2 Japanese internment included families not just men. and the the confiscation of property was permanent not temporary.
Many Japanese families stayed near where they were interned after the war as they had nothing to return to.
Canada also held a large number of people from Britain of suspect loyalties including over 500 Jews. Also held were Communists, and German and Italian Canadians with Fascist leanings.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/internment/
The US also interned many German-Americans and Italian-Americans. There were over a million Ethnic Germans in the US and about 1% were interned. Contrasted with almost 1 in 2 Ethnic Japanese being interned this would seem out of proportion.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans
