Reference Entry
EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066 SIGNED
On February 19th, 1942, a little more than two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The order authorized military commanders to establish exclusion zones and remove people from them, a power soon applied mainly along the West Coast. In practice, this meant that more than one hundred thousand people of Japanese ancestry, the majority of them American citizens, were forced from their homes and sent to inland camps under guard.
Dated Historical Context
A RECORDED MOMENT IN HISTORY
Executive Order 9066 signed
On February 19th, 1942, a little more than two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The order authorized military commanders to establish exclusion zones and remove people from them, a power soon applied mainly along the West Coast. In practice, this meant that more than one hundred thousand people of Japanese ancestry, the majority of them American citizens, were forced from their homes and sent to inland camps under guard. Smaller numbers of German and Italian nationals were also affected, but the broadest impact fell on Japanese American communities. For the armed forces, the order created new responsibilities: guarding facilities, processing families, and managing vast restricted zones supposedly in the name of wartime security. Decades later, official reviews would conclude that fear, racism, and political pressure had outweighed sound military judgment. The episode remains a reminder that wartime decisions about security and loyalty can leave long shadows over both civil liberties and military institutions.
Read the complete weekly DispatchTrackpads Source Register
