World War II and American Racism The United States was a divided nation at the time of World War II. Divided by race and racism. This division had been much greater in the past with the institution of slavery. As the years passed those beliefs slowly deteriorated, but they were still present during the World War II years. This division was experienced in two forms, legislation and social behavior. Legislation came in the form of the “Jim Crow” laws. The belief that some people were naturally superior and others inferior, scientific racism, was the accepted belief of the time. These cultural traits were declining. After the end of the Second World War their decline would be even more rapid. In the early days of World War II the common people of this country were already sensing the great change to come. Interviews from the Library of Congress, in the collection titled “After the Day of Infamy,” offer a window into the past. In the America that existed in the first days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entry into the war. Within the collection the pulse of the nation is revealed. Ordinary people, some of whom do not reveal their names, are given the opportunity to express their opinions on the war, on the Japanese people and on race relations within the union. In these open letters to the president and in “Man on the Street” interviews, the American public reveals its prejudices and concerns in the most frank way. American society, like German society, was contaminated by fanaticism and racial prejudice. The Japanese were considered particularly treacherous people for the attack on Pearl Harbor. The treason was obviously thought to lie in... middle of paper... that it was legal for non-white immigrants to become naturalized citizens. Many of those Japanese-born immigrants who were held in concentration camps could now apply for citizenship status. It would take many years for African Americans to gain the freedoms they had fought for overseas. These efforts were accelerated by the war and the prosperity it brought. Jim Crow would eventually fall in the South, and African Americans would take their fight to every part of the nation. It was never a sudden sensation. The civil rights movement was a long, ongoing effort that occurred before and after World War II. The process was long and still continues.[1] After the Day of Infamy: Interviews with the Man on the Street after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, United States Library of Congress, American Folk Life Center