This Day in History: FDR signs executive order to send Japanese Americans to internment camps, ended by Gerald Ford
Executive Order 9066 was the authorization signed by President Franklin D Roosevelt to intern Japanese Americans during World War II.
February 19, 1942 was the day military zones were created to detain and house thousands and thousands of individuals. Americans of Italian and German ancestry were also targeted by these restrictions, including internment. 11,000 people of German ancestry were interned, as were 3,000 people of Italian ancestry, along with some Jewish refugees. The interned Jewish refugees came from Germany, as the U.S. government did not differentiate between ethnic Jews and ethnic Germans
On this day in 1976, President Gerald Ford rescinded the order and in 1980 President Carter created a commission to investigate the order.
In December 1982, the commission stated that the order “had not been justified by military necessity” and determined that the decision to incarcerate was based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership”.
The anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 is now the Day of Remembrance, an annual commemoration of the internment in the Japanese American community.
Full transcript:
“Now, therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated Commander deems such action necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion. The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to provide for residents of any such area who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations as may be necessary, in the judgment of the Secretary of War or the said Military Commander, and until other arrangements are made, to accomplish the purpose of this order. The designation of military areas in any region or locality shall supersede designations of prohibited and restricted areas by the Attorney General under the Proclamations of December 7 and 8, 1941, and shall supersede the responsibility and authority of the Attorney General under the said Proclamations in respect of such prohibited and restricted areas.”
They were concentration camps, and were referred to as concentration camps by FDR and others.
@Robert Seward: Korematsu doesn’t address the issues you mention because Korematsu was a U.S. citizen. As were approximately 2/3 of the people of Japanese descent in the camps.
There is a evidence to indicate that there may have been as many as 30,000 to 60,000 German American Inernees. The most important aspect of German American internment is that one of the German refugees has a Supreme Court case. In Ludecke v. Watkins, the court said that when the US goes to war, all immigrant from the beligerent country find their immigration status changed to civilian alien enemy. The overnment can arrest, intern and deport them at the government’s whim. Ana American spouse nor child can prevent this. Korematsu doesn’t address these issues.
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