Download Executive Order 9066

EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066: THE PRESIDENT AUTHORIZES JAPANESE RELOCATION
In the atmosphere of World War II hysteria, President Roosevelt, encouraged by officials
at all levels of the federal government, authorized the internment of tens of thousands of
American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. Roosevelt’s Executive
Order 9066, dated February 19, 1942, gave the military broad powers to ban any citizen from a
fifty- to sixty-mile-wide coastal area stretching from Washington state to California and
extending inland into southern Arizona. The order also authorized transporting these citizens to
assembly centers hastily set up and governed by the military in California, Arizona, Washington
state, and Oregon.
Although it is not well known, the same executive order (and other war-time orders and
restrictions) were also applied to smaller numbers of residents of the United States who were of
Italian or German descent. For example, 3,200 resident aliens of Italian background were
arrested and more than 300 of them were interned. About 11,000 German residents (including
some naturalized citizens) were arrested and more than 5,000 were interned. Yet, while these
individuals (and others from those groups) suffered grievous violations of their civil liberties, the
war-time measures applied to Japanese-Americans were worse and more sweeping. Entire
Japanese- American families and communities were uprooted and both citizens and resident
aliens were targeted. The evacuation order commenced the round-up of 120,000 Americans of
Japanese heritage to one of 10 internment camps in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming,
Colorado, and Arkansas.
Why Were the Camps Established?
Roosevelt's executive order was fueled by anti-Japanese sentiment among farmers who
competed against Japanese labor, politicians who sided with anti-Japanese constituencies, and
the general public, whose frenzy was heightened by the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. More
than 2/3 of the Japanese who were interned in the spring of 1942 were citizens of the United
States.
The official titles of these camps were "relocation centers." Though the Axis powers who
threatened the Allies included Japan, Germany, and Italy, only Americans of Japanese (not
German or Italian) descent were forced to move to the relocation centers. The U.S. internment
camps were overcrowded and provided poor living conditions. According to a 1943 report
published by the War Relocation Authority (the administering agency), Japanese Americans
were housed in "tarpaper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or
cooking facilities of any kind." Coal was hard to come by and internees often did not have
enough blankets to stay warm in the winter. Food was rationed out at an expense of 48 cents per
internee, and served by fellow internees in a mess hall of 250-300 people.
Leadership positions within the camps were only offered to the Nisei, or American-born,
Japanese. The older generation, or the Issei, were forced to watch as the government promoted
their children and ignored them. Eventually the government allowed internees to leave the
concentration camps if they enlisted in the U.S. Army. This offer was not well received. Only
1,200 internees chose to do so.
Legal Challenges to Internment
Two important legal cases were brought against the United States concerning the
internment. The landmark cases were Hirabayashi v. United States (1943), and Korematsu v.
United States (1944). The defendants argued their fifth amendment rights (due process) were
violated by the U.S. government because of their ancestry. In both cases, the Supreme Court
ruled in favor of the U.S. government.
Closure of the Camps
In 1944, two and a half years after signing Executive Order 9066, second-term President
Franklin D. Roosevelt rescinded the order. The last internment camp was closed by the end of
1945.
Government Apologies and Reparations
Forced into confinement by the United States, 5,766 Nisei ultimately renounced their
American citizenship. In 1968, nearly two dozen years after the camps were closed, the
government began reparations to Japanese Americans for property they had lost. In 1988, the
U.S. Congress passed legislation which awarded formal payments of $20,000 each to the
surviving internees - 60,000 in all.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066
...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 place 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…
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
The White House
February 19, 1942