"Japanese Americans suffered from deprivation, despair, and disease for much of the war." - John E. Findling, Frank W. Thackeray, Authors
As a reaction to being interned, Japanese Americans suffered mentally and emotionally creating long lasting tensions and problems. Members of the Japanese American community were really hurt by the concentration camp experience. For the Nisei generation, especially, the notion that their citizenship could be arbitrarily overturned and that the government could do something like this to them was injurious and everlasting.
"All kinds of places had signs like 'No Japs here,' and 'Go back to Japan,' and especially 'Get out, we don’t want you folks,' and that went on for years."-Tony Ishiaka, A Japanese American whose family was held in an Internment Camp
Korematsu vs. The United States
Korematsu vs. the United States was a historical case of the United States Surpreme Court concerning the constitutionality of the Executive Order 9066. The Supreme Court justified the Executive Order 9066, as a wartime necessity. When the order was repealed, many Japanese Americans found they could not return to their homes due to continuing hostility toward them. Animosity toward Japanese Americans remained high across the West Coast into the postwar years, as many communities displayed signs demanding evacuees never return. As a result, internees scattered across the country.
"When people migrated back, it was a really tough time. I was just a small boy after WWII but I remember, as a little kid, being scared, totally scared, because of the things that people would do to my family. Like, when I was a little kid, about 5 years old, I remember my whole family being terrified because these white guys on horses, way out in the sticks, decided the best way to get us to move was to shoot up our house, and unfortunately we were in the house when the bullets started to come." -Tony Ishisaka, A Japanese American whose family was held in an Internment Camp