Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps during World War II as a result of anti-Japanese prejudice and fear. Many of those who were interned had actually lived in the United States for a number of generations. Nevertheless, policymakers feared these individuals still held loyalty to Japan and would sabotage US war efforts despite the fact that similar internment camps were not constructed en masse for Germans or Italians. In reality, the internment was just as much a consequence of deep-seated racism on the West Coast as much as it was based on fear.
