Executive Order 9066 Quotes



The Proclamation was a belated admission of the disgraceful internment of loyal Japanese Americans during WWII. See {587961}. “Evacuation” was the euphemism for rounding up Japanese American citizens and putting them in internment camps. Not a single Japanese American was involved in any effort to sabotage or undermine the United States. The same cannot be said about the German Americans where a few did work against U. S. interests and yet the German-Americans were never rounded up. The explanation of the difference has been long debated. Racism was a part of it; California paranoia, another. And unfortunately, Japanese Americans owned very desirable land in California and when they could no longer make their payments some interests gobbled up the land and that was a motivation for some. Regardless, it was one of the low points in American history, and warranted this Presidential and national apology.