HISTORY: Japanese Americans Were Forced Into Concentration Camps During WWII

I've started doing themes for each day on this blog. Mondays are for local things we've experienced. Fridays are for book reviews for books I've read, and Thursdays seem to be the day for history posts. It's critical we remember history so we can learn from past mistakes (sadly, Americans have short memories). Today's blog is a reminder of what happened to Japanese Americans during World War 2. We should never forget this and never do it again.

(Photo: 

The Tule Lake Isolation Center in California in 1945. 

(Jack and Peggy Iwata / Japanese American National Museum)  

Flashback: How Japanese Americans Were Forced Into Concentration Camps During WWII

HISTORY. COM, Dec 18, 2024 

 On February 19, 1942, 10 weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of any or all people from military areas “as deemed necessary or desirable.” The military in turn defined the entire West Coast, home to the majority of Americans of Japanese ancestry or citizenship, as a military area.

By June, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly moved to remote prison camps built by the U.S. military in scattered locations around the country. For the next two and a half years, many of these Japanese Americans endured extremely difficult living conditions and poor treatment by their military guards.

During the course of World War II, 10 Americans were convicted of spying for Japan, but not one of them was of Japanese ancestry.

During World War II, U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issues Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that, effective January 2, 1945, Japanese American “evacuees” from the West Coast could return to their homes.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill to recompense each surviving internee with a tax-free check for $20,000 and an apology from the U.S. government.