It was, in the words of historian John W. Dower, a “war without mercy,” in which both Japan and the United States promoted racist, dehumanizing language about and perceptions of the other nation. In the United States, a Time magazine article reported that the “ordinary unreasoning Jap is ignorant. Perhaps he is human. Nothing . . . indicates it.” Within this climate of racism and political fear-mongering, the U.S. government rounded up and interned an estimated 120,000 Japanese American citizens and “resident aliens” deemed high risks for espionage and sabotage.
