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 <em>en masse </em>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.
