The Significance of Japanese Persecution During the 1940s

Throughout history, Americans have constantly persecuted immigrants from countries in Asia to a much greater extent than their European counterparts. From the Gentlemen's Agreement between the US and Japan preventing Japanese laborers from entering America for many years to the increased expectations put on the Japanese entering through Angel Island as opposed to Europeans entering through Ellis Island, suffice to say the Japanese were heavily persecuted against time and time again in America's history. However, I believe the significance to these racial tensions was not just a barely noticeable social issue affecting the country, especially during the Second World War when hatred between Japan and the US grew exponentially over territorial and trade disputes. So, I think that it's important to look at persecution and racism in the US throughout this time period because it sheds a lot of light on the differences between how Japanese immigrants were treated in comparison to their German and Italian counterparts. As we all know, when the US first joined the war after being attacked by the Japanese in Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which  forced all of the Japanese individuals in the West Coast to live in guarded internment camps far from society due to fears of Japanese immigrants being involved in plots against the government. These individuals, no matter what their situation was for a great amount of time, had to live in crowded, unsuitable, and depressing conditions after being forced to leave everything they had behind this Executive Order was made, causing Japanese persecution to grow more and more. In comparison, few German or Italian immigrants were forced into similar internment camps even though Germany and Italy were both extremely powerful countries that had the potential to hurt the US as badly as Japan could. According to a report by the American government analyst, Peter Sheridan written in 1980, "a significantly smaller number of number of Germans and Italien aliens [...] were also interned, despite the fact that they comprised a greater population than the Japanese Americans, and were present in larger numbers in equally sensitive and strategic areas of the United States." From this quote, it is clear that to some extent, racial tensions and segregation towards the Japanese had to play a major part in causing them to get put in internment camps rather than German and Italian immigrants, as they lived in smaller numbers than the Germans and Italians in America but were still considered the bigger threat. And although reasons for not putting Germans and Italians into internment camps simply due to its inviability (since there were millions of people in the US who were either German/Italian or had heritage from these countries) played a role in this decision, I still think prejudices, racism, and past persecution were also major factors for the Japanese being mistreated to a much greater extent than the Germans/Italians in the US during WWII. What other reasons can you think contributed to the Japanese being persecuted in the US to a greater extent than the Germans and Italians?