Okla-homey
2/19/2007, 07:23 AM
Feb 19,1942: FDR signs Executive Order 9066
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/8503/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjvb1.gif (http://imageshack.us)
SF headline, Feb 27, 1942
65 years ago on this day in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, initiating a controversial World War II policy with lasting consequences for Americans of Japanese descent. The document ordered the “removal of resident enemy aliens” from parts of the West vaguely identified as “military areas.”
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941, Roosevelt came under increasing pressure by military and political advisors to address the nation’s fears of further Japanese attack or sabotage, particularly on the West Coast, where naval ports, commercial shipping and agriculture were most vulnerable.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/1337/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjrt1.gif (http://imageshack.us)
This U.S. soldier of Japanese descent and American citizenship waits at a train station in Florin, CA. He, along with nine other servicemen, were granted furloughs from their service to return to the U.S. to assist with their families' relocation and internment. April 10, 1942
Included in the off-limits “military areas” referred to in the order were ill-defined areas around West Coast cities, ports and industrial and agricultural regions. While 9066 also affected Americans of Italian and German heritage, the largest numbers of detainees were by far Japanese.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/8370/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjku3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Los Angeles, California. Japanese-Americans going to Manzanar gather around baggage car at the old Santa Fe Station. (April 1942)
On the West Coast, long-standing racism against Americans of Japanese descent, motivated in part by jealousy over their commercial success, erupted after Pearl Harbor into furious demands to remove them en masse to “relocation camps” for the duration of the war.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3865/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjxh8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Japanese internment camp in Jerome, Arkansas
Japanese immigrants and their descendants, regardless of American citizenship status or length of residence, were systematically rounded up and placed in detention centers. “Evacuees,” as they were sometimes called, could take only as many possessions as they could carry and were housed in crude, cramped quarters.
In the western states, camps on remote and barren sites such as Manzanar and Tule Lake housed thousands of families whose lives were interrupted and in some cases destroyed by Executive Order 9066. Many lost businesses, farms and loved ones as a result.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/9564/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjer8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The triangles denote the largest internment camps
Roosevelt delegated enforcement of 9066 to the War Department, telling Secretary of War Henry Stimson to “be as reasonable as possible” in executing the order. Attorney General Francis Biddle recalled Roosevelt’s grim determination to do whatever he thought was necessary to win the war.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/8341/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjym7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
A baseball game at Manzanar. Picture by Ansel Adams circa 1943
Biddle observed that Roosevelt “was [not] much concerned with the gravity or implications” of issuing an order that essentially contradicted the Bill of Rights. In her memoirs, Eleanor Roosevelt recalled being completely floored by her husband’s action. A fierce proponent of civil rights, Eleanor hoped to change Roosevelt’s mind, but when she brought the subject up with him, he interrupted her and told her never to mention it again.
During the war, the U.S. Supreme Court heard two cases challenging the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, upholding it both times citing the executive branch's relatively unfettered powerin wartime on matters of national security.
As an aside, Canada had a similar policy and large numbers of Canadians of Japanese descent were rounded up and interned as well.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9517/jjjjjjjjjjjjapaneseinteps0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Japanese relocation camp in British Columbia in 1945.
Finally, on February 19, 1976, decades after the war, President Gerald Ford signed an order prohibiting the executive branch from reinstituting the notorious and tragic World War II order. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan issued a public apology on behalf of the government and authorized reparations for former Japanese internees and their descendants.
On September 27, 1992, the Amendment of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, appropriating an additional $400 million in order to ensure that all remaining internees received their $20,000 redress payments, was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush, who also issued another formal apology from the U.S. government.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7974/insane7zoso8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/8503/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjvb1.gif (http://imageshack.us)
SF headline, Feb 27, 1942
65 years ago on this day in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, initiating a controversial World War II policy with lasting consequences for Americans of Japanese descent. The document ordered the “removal of resident enemy aliens” from parts of the West vaguely identified as “military areas.”
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941, Roosevelt came under increasing pressure by military and political advisors to address the nation’s fears of further Japanese attack or sabotage, particularly on the West Coast, where naval ports, commercial shipping and agriculture were most vulnerable.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/1337/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjrt1.gif (http://imageshack.us)
This U.S. soldier of Japanese descent and American citizenship waits at a train station in Florin, CA. He, along with nine other servicemen, were granted furloughs from their service to return to the U.S. to assist with their families' relocation and internment. April 10, 1942
Included in the off-limits “military areas” referred to in the order were ill-defined areas around West Coast cities, ports and industrial and agricultural regions. While 9066 also affected Americans of Italian and German heritage, the largest numbers of detainees were by far Japanese.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/8370/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjku3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Los Angeles, California. Japanese-Americans going to Manzanar gather around baggage car at the old Santa Fe Station. (April 1942)
On the West Coast, long-standing racism against Americans of Japanese descent, motivated in part by jealousy over their commercial success, erupted after Pearl Harbor into furious demands to remove them en masse to “relocation camps” for the duration of the war.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3865/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjxh8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Japanese internment camp in Jerome, Arkansas
Japanese immigrants and their descendants, regardless of American citizenship status or length of residence, were systematically rounded up and placed in detention centers. “Evacuees,” as they were sometimes called, could take only as many possessions as they could carry and were housed in crude, cramped quarters.
In the western states, camps on remote and barren sites such as Manzanar and Tule Lake housed thousands of families whose lives were interrupted and in some cases destroyed by Executive Order 9066. Many lost businesses, farms and loved ones as a result.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/9564/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjer8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The triangles denote the largest internment camps
Roosevelt delegated enforcement of 9066 to the War Department, telling Secretary of War Henry Stimson to “be as reasonable as possible” in executing the order. Attorney General Francis Biddle recalled Roosevelt’s grim determination to do whatever he thought was necessary to win the war.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/8341/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjym7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
A baseball game at Manzanar. Picture by Ansel Adams circa 1943
Biddle observed that Roosevelt “was [not] much concerned with the gravity or implications” of issuing an order that essentially contradicted the Bill of Rights. In her memoirs, Eleanor Roosevelt recalled being completely floored by her husband’s action. A fierce proponent of civil rights, Eleanor hoped to change Roosevelt’s mind, but when she brought the subject up with him, he interrupted her and told her never to mention it again.
During the war, the U.S. Supreme Court heard two cases challenging the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, upholding it both times citing the executive branch's relatively unfettered powerin wartime on matters of national security.
As an aside, Canada had a similar policy and large numbers of Canadians of Japanese descent were rounded up and interned as well.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9517/jjjjjjjjjjjjapaneseinteps0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Japanese relocation camp in British Columbia in 1945.
Finally, on February 19, 1976, decades after the war, President Gerald Ford signed an order prohibiting the executive branch from reinstituting the notorious and tragic World War II order. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan issued a public apology on behalf of the government and authorized reparations for former Japanese internees and their descendants.
On September 27, 1992, the Amendment of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, appropriating an additional $400 million in order to ensure that all remaining internees received their $20,000 redress payments, was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush, who also issued another formal apology from the U.S. government.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7974/insane7zoso8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)