In this paper, I will discuss the signing of Executive Order 9066, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, regarding the Japanese relocation and connecting back to the Pearl Harbor attack, thus, resulting in further negative opinions of both the first generation Japanese and the second generation of Japanese Americans.
Event Description:
Internment was brought about by a justifiable fear for the security of the nation. Japan had figured out how to pull off the assault on Pearl Harbor, which nobody had thought was conceivable. The possibility that they may assault the West Coast while the US military was still in shock was on everyone’s mind. Secondly, it was caused by racism. There was profound racism against the American Japanese both from the society and some government policies. White farmers in the West Coast were highly prejudicial against their Japanese counterparts and the attack on Pearl Harbor offered them an opportunity to condemn and take away the farms owned by people of Japanese descent. Such groups instigated and fully supported the internment camps to enable them reach their objectives.(Trowbridge, 2016) After receiving contradictory advice and popular opinion, President Roosevelt signed an executive order in February 1942 authoritatively mandating the Relocation of all Americans of Japanese ancestry to what would become known as Internment Camps in the interior of the United States. Evacuation orders were posted in JAPANESE-AMERICAN communities giving instructions on how to comply with the executive order. Many families sold their
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Order No. 9066, 7 C.F.R. 1407 (1942). Retrieved from http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/fdrrelocation1942.html
Shaffer, R. (1999). Opposition to internment: Defending Japanese American rights during World War II. The Historian, 61(3), 597–619.
Trowbridge, D. J. (2016). A history of the United States: 1865 to present. Asheville, NC: Soomo Learning. Available from
Beginning with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the effects of World War II on Japanese-Americans (albeit, not limited to Japanese-Americans) in the United States motivated further racial divisions between the “foreign” and the “true American.” Probably the most significant sign of changing social and racial relationships between Japanese-Americans and Caucasian Americans was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's signature of Executive Order 9066. This policy made legal the forced removal of Japanese-Americans, forcing them to relocate to Internment Camps, while abandoning their homes, businesses, and sometimes even families. Some “resident enemy aliens” were detained and transferred to Justice Camps for questioning as suspects of sabotage and espionage, as depicted by the character of the father in Julie Otsuka’s, When the Emperor was Divine.
Feb19, 1942 Franklin D Roosevelt, issued Executive Order 9066. This allowed americans to move Japanese to the internment camps. Why would they do this? After Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, America thought Japanese Americans were spies for Japan.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942 and authorized the internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans for the duration of World War II. At the time of the order the nation was reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor and citizens, especially along the West Coast, feared another attack was imminent. Many believed that Japanese Americans were still loyal to Japan and would act as spies, even though almost twothirds of internees were United States citizens. Racial stereotypes and propaganda pieces that were prevalent before and during the war depicted the Japanese as less than human and barbaric in nature. Internees in most cases lost their homes, businesses and possessions when they were interned.
The Executive Order 9066 is where the order for the internment camps originated from. It shows how the American government addressed the Japanese-Americans living in the United States. At first everyone including the President defended the Japanese living in the United States until the Niihau incident where two Hawaiian born with Japanese ethnics helped and aided a downed pilot that assisted in the attacks of Pearl Harbor. After that the fear of Espionage became a huge concern and the racially motivated crimes and discrimination against the Japanese-American’s, is why the Executive Order 9006 was signed and enforced. The order forced 120,000 Japanese-Americans with most of them being American citizens to leave their homes, businesses and American constitutional rights behind and spend the war years behind barbed wire (By, 1988).
On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii causing the United States to enter World War II. Soon after, President D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 approving the removal of any and all civilians from “military areas” to prevent any acts of espionage from being committed. Over 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds being American born citizens, living in the West coast were forcibly sent to internment camps. The U.S. government released a film discussing how the relocation was accomplished. However, the video blatantly disregards the true personal effects and conditions of the Japanese-American WWII relocation.
We do not forgive easily. After World War II, our fear and resentment of Japan was strong in our hearts, as approximately 106,207 Americans were murdered and 248,316 Americans were wounded or declared missing by the hands of the Japanese. Even after the dust settled between our people, America never forgave Japan for their stubborn refusal to surrender and needless desire to drag on the war in hopes of negotiable bargains that would profit the cities of Japan. With Japanese American citizens in the heart of our country, President Roosevelt, clouded with war hysteria and racial discrimination against those with Japanese ancestry, he ordered Executive Order 9066 which resulted in the internment of Japanese American citizens. Many Americans felt that this order would protect America from Japanese espionage and attacks on our nation, but the Executive Order 9066 ushered an unjust wave of misinformation and insinuations to develop in
On December 8th, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt branded Japan as an infamous enemy, a target that must and would be defeated. In February of 1942, FDR issued Executive Order 9066, initiating internment camps in America. Thousands of people with Japanese ancestry were rounded up and unceremoniously forced into sites across the country. Whole families lives were uprooted for what the government called “military necessity”. Sixty-two percent of those imprisoned were citizens of the United States.
In World War II under the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt a document was signed that changed the lives of more than 120,000 people. This document was Executive Order 9066 which disclosed the orders of evacuating all Japanese-Americans from the West Coast (Lecture 12/1). This decision came to realization two months after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 1941. This event sparked paranoia with the President and the American people, because there were Japanese people living within the U.S. and they feared that the Japanese population would invaded America thinking that they were loyal to Japan. Due to the concern of the public, President Roosevelt was pressured to sign Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942 (Lecture
These guys felt the blunt force of discrimination during this time. Japanese-Americans were forced into one of ten permanent camps. This was the result of Executive Order 9066 and Pearl Harbor. These camps were given the name internment camps. The point of internment was to test the loyalty of the Japanese-Americans.
Jayna Marie Lorenzo May 23, 2023 Historiography Paper Professor Kevin Murphy Historiography Final: Japanese Internment “A date which will live in infamy,” announced President Roosevelt during a press conference after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Due to the military threat by the Japanese on the West Coast, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ordering for the incarceration of all people of Japanese descent. The Order forced about 120,000 Japanese Americans into relocation centers across the United States where they remained in captivity until the war ended.
When internees found out that they were free, you would expect that they would be happy and joyful, but they weren’t. Once they got back into their homes, and were free, there was still hatred shown toward them. They didn’t get paid in the camps, they had no insurance; and once they got back into their homes, they found broken windows, empty living rooms, and lost memories. But for some, they don’t want to live in a life of depression. They had just spent several years in the camps, and had the rest of their lives to spend.
The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was not justified. After Pearl Harbor, many Americans were scared of the Japanese Americans because they could sabotage the U.S. military. To try and solve the fear President Franklin D Roosevelt told the army in Executive order 9066 to relocate all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. They were relocated to detention centers in the desert. Many of them were in the detention centers for three years.
How would you feel if one day you were told to leave your whole life behind to live in captivity just because people halfway across the world did something wrong? This horror story was all too true for the thousands of Japanese Americans alive during World War II. Almost overnight, thousands of proud Japanese Americans living on the west coast were forced to leave their homes and give up the life they knew. The United States government was not justified in the creation of Japanese internment camps because it stripped law-abiding American citizens of their rights out of unjustified fear.
December 7th of 1941 America would face a horrific scene in their own homeland, the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor with their Air Force not once but twice. That same day President John F. Kennedy would decide to place the Japanese Americans, living in the country at the time, in internment camps. The civilians would not have a clue what they would be put up against, now they would have to encounter various obstacles to make sure they would be able to survive. “The camps were prisons, with armed soldiers around the perimeters, barbed wire. and controls over every aspect of life”(Chang).
Thesis statement: Though many speculate that the act of dropping the atomic bomb on Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) while not doing so on Europe (Germany and Italy) was racially motivated, racism played little to no role in these bombings. The United States of America and her allies were willing to end World War II at any cost, had the atomic bombs been available they would have been deployed in Europe. In the 1940’s there is no doubt that the United States of America was engulfed by mass anti-Japanese hysteria which inevitably bled over into America’s foreign policy. During this period Japanese people living in both Japan and the United States of America were seen as less that human.