“The treatment of people of Japanese origin was consistent throughout the Americas during the Second World War.” Discuss.

The question requires that candidates offer a considered and balanced review of the assessment that the treatment of people of Japanese origin was consistent throughout the Americas during the Second World War. Candidates are likely to say that it was, offering the US and Canada as examples. In both countries, Japanese were discriminated against and relocated to internment camps. Often their homes and businesses were confiscated by the government and sold. Many Latin American countries arrested their Japanese and deported them to the US. Some candidates will note differences in treatment of Japanese, even within a country. Japanese Americans on the west coast were relocated, those on the east coast were not, nor were those in Hawaii. Some Japanese–American citizens enlisted in the armed forces. Argentina, Brazil and Chile did not mistreat their Japanese population to any great extent.