Japanese Internment - Internment

Once the United States entered World
War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The law allowed the government to round up nearly 120,000 Japanese to live in designated areas (Turnbull). Their reasoning for such a law was that these people could not be trusted because the enemy in the war was Japan. The establishment of Order 9066 left many Japanese-Americans doubting the political system that the U.S. was

Stockton, California. The first day at an assembly center. A barracks is being opened for eight busloads of arrivals. The luggage and bed-rolls which have come in by truck are deposited here for inspection for contraband. Evacuees then take their possessions to their assigned barracks.

Image Source: A More Perfect Union

running. Approximately two-thirds of the Japanese interned were official American citizens (NAATA). Deprived of basic civil liberties, they were tested in terms of courage and perseverance. The traumatic experience that the Japanese went through might not be as traumatic as the Jewish Holocaust, but it was still an unjust experience.

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