Executive Order 9066
In 1941, months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Naval Intelligence led by Officer Kenneth Ringle broke into the Japanese consulate in Los Angeles. He determined that Japanese and Japanese Americans were not a threat to national security and advised that “The removal and internment in concentration camps of all citizens and residents of Japanese extraction … ,” he wrote, would be “not only unwarranted but very unwise.” This report was withheld by Charles Fahy, the United States Circuit Judge in order to legitimize the internment of Japanese Americans. This report could have undermined the need for Japanese interment camps.
THE ORDER
“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 places 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”
— President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Declaration of Evacuation
After Executive Order 9066, my grandma, along with 120,000 other Japanese and Japanese Americans along the West Coast, began to see posters like this one from San Francisco nailed onto their house doors, telephone poles, and storefronts. Most had only days or weeks to leave homes that many had lived in for generations, and sell all their belongings, businesses and property to their "fellow Americans."
_________________________________________________________________________________ WESTERN DEFENSE COMMAND AND FOURTH
ARMY WARTIME CIVIL CONTROL ADMINISTRATION
Presidio of San Francisco, California
April 1, 1942
INSTRUCTIONS TO ALL PERSONS OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY
All Japanese persons, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated from the above designated area by 12:00 o’clock noon Tuesday, April 7, 1942.
No Japanese person will be permitted to enter or leave the above described area after 8:00 a.m., Thursday, April 2, 1942, without obtaining special permission from the Provost Marshal at the Civil Control Station.
The Civil Control Station is equipped to assist the Japanese population affected by this evacuation in the following ways:
1. Give advise and instructions on the evacuation.
2. Provide services with respect to the management, leasing, sale, storage or other disposition of most kinds of property including real estate, business and professional equipment, household goods, boats, automobiles, livestock, etc. 3. Provide temporary residence elsewhere for all Japanese in family groups.
4. Transport persons and a limited amount of clothing and equipment to their new residence as specified below.
The Following Instructions Must Be Observed:
1. A responsible member of each family, preferably the head of the family, or the person in whose name most of the property is held, and each individual living alone must report to the Civil Control Station to receive further instructions. This must be done between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Thursday, April 2, 1942, or between 8:00 a.m. and 5 p.m., Friday, April 3, 1942.
2. Evacuees must carry with them on departure for the Reception Center, the following property:
a. Bedding and linens (no mattress) for each member of the family.
b. Toilet articles for each member of the family.
c. Extra clothing for each member of the family.
d. Sufficient knives, forks, spoons, plates, bowls and cups for each member of the family.
e. Essential personal effects for each member of the family.
All items carried will be securely packaged, tied and plainly marked with the name of the owner and numbered in accordance with instructions received at the Civil Control Station.
The size and number of packages is limited to that which can be carried by the individual or family group.
No contraband items as described in paragraph 6, Public Proclamation No. 3, Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, dated March 24, 1942, will be carried.
3. The United States Government through its agencies will provide for the storage at the sole risk of the owner of the more substantial household items, such as iceboxes, washing machines, pianos and other heavy furniture. Cooking utensils and other small items will be accepted if crated, packed and plainly marked with the name and address of the owner. Only one name and address will be used by a given family.
4. Each family, and individual living alone, will be furnished transportation to the Reception Center. Private means of transportation will not be utilized. All instructions pertaining to the movement will be obtained at the Civil Control Station.
Go to the Civil Control Station at 1701 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California, between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Thursday, April 2, 1942, or between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Friday, April 3, 1942, to receive further instructions.
J. L. DeWITT Lieutenant General, U. S. Army Commanding
Fred Korematsu was a Japanese American man living in San Leandro, California. After Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066 was issued. Invoking his rights as an American citizen, Korematsu refused to leave his home for the barbed wire of the interment camps. He was arrested, but argued that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment, which was agreed upon by the Ninth Circuit Court. The case eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court, where Korematsu lost in a 6-3 decision that stated the order was necessary to guarantee the safety of the West Coast from Japan. Justice Robert H. Jackson dissented and argued that the order legitimized the racism that had plagued the United States since the Japanese had begun immigrating to the U.S. generations before.
Korematsu v. United States was finally overruled by the Supreme Court in 2018, almost 73 years after the internment of Japanese Americans began.
"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation"