Through the emergence of a vast anti-Japanese sentiment after Pearl Harbor, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were constrained behind barbed wire in internment camps across Western America. Beyond this wire, the motives and morality surrounding the internment were fiercely debated by Japanese Americans post-internment, as well as some Americans during the incarceration. Debates furthered the diplomatic efforts made by Japanese Americans, forcing the United States government to collectively acknowledge the underlying racist motivation.