Japanese-American Internment in 1942:

Presidential Executive Order 9066 Uproots Americans of Asian Descent

Michael Streich

August 5, 2009

In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, giving the U.S. army the authority to impose curfews on persons deemed a potential internal security threat. On the west coast, the curfew orders were followed by the mandatory evacuation of all Japanese-Americans to relocation centers. Ultimately, sixteen camps operated by the War Relocation Authority housed over 100,000 Japanese-Americans, most of whom were United States citizens.

 

Nativism, Racism, and the Fear of Japan

 

Throughout the 19^th century, Americans viewed immigrants with deep misgivings. Immigrant groups, notably the Italians, tended to avoid assimilation by creating their own ethnic neighborhoods in the emerging urban centers. On the west coast, it was the Chinese and later the Japanese immigrants that gave rise to racist stereotypes, prompting persecution and legislative acts to curb their liberties. In the year FDR was born – 1882 – the U.S. Congress passed one of the first Chinese Exclusion Acts.

 

By the end of World War One, Japan emerged as the one Pacific power able to compete and possibly threaten the interests of the United States. Several successful regional wars, including the 1905 Russo-Japanese War, had established Japan as a rising imperialist power. Within Japan, liberal political trends gave way to more conservative views supported by on-going militarism.

 

The early 20^th century witnessed a plethora of books and articles warning of the Japanese “menace” and even predicting war between Japan and the United States. Americans, on top of their post-war nativist leanings, seemed predisposed to view Japanese expansionism with mistrust. This became even more acute after Japan’s occupation of Manchuria and her refusal to abide by and renegotiate naval treaties designed to limit the production of capital warships.

 

American Isolationism and Inability to Defend Asian Interests

 

After the First World War, Americans refused to become actively involved in the gathering storms of war in both Asia and Europe. Isolationism was the favored policy, particularly after the onset of the Great Depression; domestic considerations superseded foreign entanglements.

 

Congressional and military leaders knew that an adequate defense of American colonial properties, like the Philippines and Samoa, was not possible. Thus, relations with an ever more belligerent Japan were based on diplomatic efforts and concerted responses designed not to antagonize a potential enemy.

 

In the months before Pearl Harbor, however, President Roosevelt had taken a harder line, freezing Japanese assets, embargoing oil and scrap metal. By December 7, 1941, Japan and the United States were at war. Within three months, Japanese-Americans were confined to what Roosevelt himself called “concentration camps” during a November 22, 1944 White House press conference.

 

Court Challenges

 

Hirabayashi v U.S. (1943) challenged the curfew order but attempted to obtain a ruling on the internments. The Supreme Court, however, confined its ruling to the constitutionality of the curfew order. The court ruled that race was an irrelevant issue and FDR’s Executive Order was covered under Presidential war powers.

 

In Korematsu v U.S. (1944) the court held that the exclusion program was a “military necessity.” Justice Roberts used the term “concentration camp” in his opinion while Justice Frank Murphy stated that the action was the “brink” of constitutional power.

 

Japanese Loyalty

 

There was no evidence of disloyalty to the U.S. by the Japanese-Americans. Seditious Japanese – as well as Germans and Italians, were already known to the FBI. Questionable Germans were permitted to defend themselves and prove their loyalties, although several thousand were also incarcerated like the Japanese-Americans. The 112,000 Japanese-Americans, however, never had an opportunity to defend themselves; their property was confiscated and apologies and restitution only came in the 1980s under the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

 

Sources:

 

Alfred H. Kelly and Winfred A. Harbison, The American Constitution: Its Origins & Development 5^th Ed. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1976)

Greg Robinson, By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004)

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