User:Quoncen/Executive Order 9066

Background to the Order
'''Originating from a proclamation that was signed on the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, December 7, 1941, Executive Order 9066 was enacted by President Franklin Delenor Roosevelt to strictly regulate the actions of Japanese Americans in the United States. At this point, Japanese Americans were not allowed to apply for citizenship in the United States, despite having lived in the United States for generations. This proclamation declared all Japanese American adults as the "alien enemy," causing for a strict travel bans and mass xenophobia toward Asian Americans. Tensions rose in the United States, ultimately causing President Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. '''

The Order was consistent with Roosevelt's long-time racial views toward Japanese Americans. During the 1920s, for example, he had written articles in the Macon Telegraph opposing white-Japanese intermarriage for fostering "the mingling of Asiatic blood with European or American blood" and praising California's ban on land ownership by the first-generation Japanese. In 1936, while president he privately wrote that, in regard to contacts between Japanese sailors and the local Japanese American population in the event of war, “every Japanese citizen or non-citizen on the Island of Oahu who meets these Japanese ships or has any connection with their officers or men should be secretly but definitely identified and his or her name placed on a special list of those who would be the first to be placed in a concentration camp." In addition, during the crucial period after Pearl Harbor the president had failed to speak out for the rights of Japanese Americans despite the urgings of advisors such as John Franklin Carter. During the same period, Roosevelt rejected the recommendations of Attorney General Francis Biddle and other top advisors, who opposed the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Termination, apology, and redress
In 1943 and 1944, Roosevelt did not release those incarcerated in the camps despite the urgings of Attorney General Francis Biddle, Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes. Ickes blamed the president's failure to act on his need to win California in a potentially close election. In December 1944, Roosevelt suspended the Executive Order after the Supreme Court decision Ex parte Endo. Detainees were released, often to resettlement facilities and temporary housing, and the camps were shut down by 1946.

On February 19, 1976, President Gerald Ford signed a proclamation formally terminating Executive Order 9066 and apologizing for the internment, stated: "We now know what we should have known then—not only was that evacuation wrong but Japanese Americans were and are loyal Americans. On the battlefield and at home the names of Japanese Americans have been and continue to be written in history for the sacrifices and the contributions they have made to the well-being and to the security of this, our common Nation."

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation to create the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC). The CWRIC was appointed to conduct an official governmental study of Executive Order 9066, related wartime orders, and their effects on Japanese Americans in the West and Alaska Natives in the Pribilof Islands.

In December 1982, the CWRIC issued its findings in Personal Justice Denied, concluding that the incarceration of Japanese Americans had not been justified by military necessity. The report determined that the decision to incarcerate was based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership". The Commission recommended legislative remedies consisting of an official Government apology and redress payments of $20,000 to each of the survivors; a public education fund was set up to help ensure that this would not happen again ( Pub. L. Tooltip Public Law (United States) 100–383).

On August 10, 1988, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, based on the CWRIC recommendations, was signed into law by Ronald Reagan. On November 21, 1989, George H. W. Bush signed an appropriation bill authorizing payments to be paid out between 1990 and 1998. In 1990, surviving internees began to receive individual redress payments and a letter of apology. This bill applied to the Japanese Americans and to members of the Aleut people inhabiting the strategic Aleutian islands in Alaska who had also been relocated.

Life After the Camps
In the years after the war, the interned Japanese Americans had to rebuild their lives after having suffered heavy personal losses. United States citizens and long-time residents who had been incarcerated lost their personal liberties. Many also lost their homes, businesses, property, and savings. Individuals born in Japan were not allowed to become naturalized US citizens until after passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, '''which canceled the Immigration Act of 1924 and reinstated the legality of immigration from Japan into the US. '''

'''Many Japanese Americans hoped they would be going back to their homes, but soon realized that all of their possessions that they could carry with them were seized by the government. In place of their homes, the Federal government provided trailers in some areas for returning Japanese Americans. The populous Asian American community prior to the incarceration drastically decreased as many felt there was no life to go back to, choosing to start over somewhere else. With the residual effects of being incarcerated wihtout committing a crime, the Japanese American community experienced strong trauma and continuing racism from their fellow Americans. Though hey did receive redress of $20,000 per surviving incarcerate, many Japansese Americans feared increased Xenophobia and a minimizing of the trauma that the Japanese community endured during the WWII incarceration. Managing the wrongs committed to their community, Japanese Americans slowly managed to overcome their community's criminalization and incarceration and came to recognize Februrary 19, the day President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, as a National Day of Remembrance for Americans to reflect on the events that took place. '''

Korematsu v. United States
'''After the signing of Executive Order 9066 in February 1942 that required all Japanese Americans to be removed from their homes and moved into military camps as a matter of national security. Fred Korematsu, 23 at the time, was someone who elected not to comply, unlike his parents who left their home and flower nursery behind. Instead, Korematsu had plastic surgery to alter the appearance of his eyes and changed his name to Clyde Sarah, claiming Spanish and Hawaiian heritage. Sixth months later, on May 30, Korematsu was arrested for violating the order, leading to a trial in a San Fransisco Federal Court. His case was presented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which attempted to challenge whether this order was constitutional or not. After losing the case, Korematsu appealed the decision all the way to the Supreme Court, where in a 6-3 decisions, the order remained for reason of "military necessity." '''

Hirabayashi v. United States
'''Included in FDR's order was a curfew starting at 8pm and ended at 6 am for all those of Japanese descent. University of Washington student, Gordon Hirabayashi, refused to abide by the order in an act of civil disobedience, resulting in his arrest. Similar to Korematsu's case, it was appealed and up to the Supreme Court. It was held by the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision that his arrest was constitutional on the basis of military necessity. He was sentenced six months in prison as a result of his civil disobedience. '''

Yasui v. United States
'''Earning his JD in 1939 from the University of Oregon, Minoru Yasui was the first Japanese American attorney admitted to the state of Oregon's bar. He began working as a consulate in Chicago for the Japanese government, but resigned shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Returning to Oregon, where he was born, he tried to join the US Army but was denied. He was arrested in December of 1941 for violating the military curfew, leading to his arrest and freezing of his assets. Looking to test the constitutionality of the curfew, Yasui turned himself into the police station as 11pm, five hours past the curfew. Yasui was found guilty of violating this curfew and was fined $5000 for not being a US citizen, despite being born in Oregon. He served a one year prison sentence. Yasui appealed his case up to the Supreme Court, where it was held that the curfew was constitutional based on military necessity. '''

Reopening and Justice
'''In 1983, Peter Irons and Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga discovered crucial evidence that allowed for them to petition to reopen the Korematsu case. The evidence was a copy of Lieutenant Commander K.D. Ringle's original report by the US Navy, which had not been destroyed. The report was in response to the question of Japanese loyalty to the US. It was stated in the report that Japanese Americans did not truly pose a threat to the US government, showing that the passage of Executive Order 9066 was entirely based on the false pretense that Japanese Americans were "enemy aliens." This new found evidence was a document that failed to be destroyed by the US government in which included government intelligence agencies citing that Japanese Americans posed no military threat. The cases of Korematsu, Hirabayashi, and Yasu i were reopened and overturned on the basis of government misconduct on Novermber 10, 1983. In 2010, the state of California passed a bill that would name January 30 Fred Korematsu Day, making this the first day to be named after an Asian American. '''