Liberty Ships, Closed Doors · Episode 7 of 13 · 34 min
Forced Out: Japanese American Incarceration and the War's Mirror Image
Ten weeks after Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066 authorized removing about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast, roughly two-thirds of them citizens, to ten remote camps. No mass disloyalty was found, and a federal commission decades later cited race prejudice, war hysteria and failed leadership. Sons volunteered from the camps, while other migrants sometimes moved into the homes left behind.
Who's who
- Franklin D. Roosevelt+28 more episodesPresident who signed Executive Order 9066
Where it happens
- West Coast of the United States+1 more episodeRegion from which Japanese Americans were removed
- Manzanar, California+2 more episodesOne of ten incarceration camps
- Tule Lake, CaliforniaOne of ten incarceration camps
- Heart Mountain, Wyoming+1 more episodeOne of ten incarceration camps
- Minidoka, IdahoOne of ten incarceration camps
Timeline
- December 7, 1941Attack on Pearl Harbor
- February 19, 1942Executive Order 9066 signed
- 1944Supreme Court upholds removal in Korematsu v. United States
- 1982Commission report Personal Justice Denied condemns the incarceration
- 1988Civil Liberties Act brings apology and $20,000 per survivor
- 2018Supreme Court repudiates Korematsu in dicta
Still debated
Many historians prefer 'incarceration' to 'internment.' The government's military-necessity rationale was rejected by the 1982 commission, and the 2018 repudiation of Korematsu was dicta rather than a formal overruling.
← PreviousThe Hillbilly Highway: How the Other Southern Migration Rewired AmericaNext →The Bracero Bargain and the Zoot Suit Riots
Connected episodes in other series
The Good War's Fine Print: The WWII Draft's Forgotten LosersGreeting: America and the Draft · Episode 5Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt
How the CCC Secretly Rehearsed World War IIRoosevelt's Forest Army · Episode 3Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt
As West Point Serves the Army: The Making of Kings PointThe Fourth Arm · Episode 4Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt
An Honorable Discharge: How the WPA Ended in 1943The Infinite Dividend: The WPA · Episode 12Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt