Not all anniversaries are meant to be celebrated. One such occasion is Feb. 19, the anniversary of executive order 9066 signed by then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt which led to the creation of Japanese internment camps in the aftermath of the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. This year it is a particularly sensitive subject not only because it is the 75th anniversary of the heinous order but also because the use of executive orders has once again become a national issue.
Executive order 9066 is a stain on American history but it’s also something that today’s elected leaders should heed as a reminder. It’s a lesson that must not be forgotten and should inform what policies we as a nation pursue in the name of safety, security, protection or otherwise.
The order itself was born of fear and was sold to the American people as national security and “military necessity,” but a federal commission — the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians — later concluded that the actual motivation was “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”
Failure is too generous a word. It’s an atrocity where more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans were placed in concentration camps, not to mention thousands of German-Americans and Italian-Americans. “The U.S. citizens and long-time residents who had been incarcerated had lost their personal liberties, and many also lost their homes, businesses, property, and savings,” as was noted in a University of California exhibition.
The UC exhibition gave a more vivid description of the scene in 1942: “[F]amilies left behind homes, businesses, pets, land, and most of their belongings. Taking only what they could carry, Japanese Americans were taken by bus and train to assembly centers — hastily converted facilities such as race tracks and fairgrounds.” It was like living in a military barracks.
California was home to many of the Japanese-Americans forced from their houses and communities at the time. In fact, misguided politicians throughout California supported the internment. At the time even the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors passed a resolution encouraging the federal government to act in such a despicable manner, as reported by NBC News.
Lisa Chiya, a second-generation Japanese American businesswoman in Southern California, recalled the experiences of her family: “They were only allowed to take one suitcase and were taken advantage of because they had to rapidly try and sell their businesses and other assets.”
“They had no choice but to acquiesce,” she told me. “They were essentially stripped of everything.” Even Japanese churches were lost.
Decades after World War II the United States formally acknowledged the use of internment camps as an injustice. Republican President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 to officially acknowledge the offenses, provide some recompense, apologize and establish an education fund to ensure that such a practice would not occur again in the future.
“Here we admit a wrong,” Reagan said. “Here we reaffirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law.”
Reagan gave the speech in San Francisco, “whose Japantown was cleared out by interment,” wrote Alexander Nazaryan for Newsweek. “Some of the survivors of the camps, many of them now aged, watched as Reagan, in a mustard-colored suit, apologized for the sins of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
It’s unfortunately common in times of war — or rampant terrorism — to act rashly and reactionarily in making public policy, generalizing and casting blanket blame on an entire group of people. But history never looks kindly on such actions and such policies frankly do not work.
In 1942, sadly, there was widespread support or at least consensus over the internment camps. In fact, only a few voices stood up and rabidly opposed the efforts, like the Orange County Register, which published numerous editorials and columns fighting the abuse. In fact, then publisher R.C. Holies was a near singular, contrary voice in battling the executive order, the internment camps and the confiscation of property.
Too few stood up to the injustice and thus it is a permanent mark on our history.
As the United States grapples with national security, global terrorism and cybersecurity, it’s important to think first about the lessons of history before acting. A discussion and policy framework for dealing with national security in the age of terrorism is a necessary debate to be had. But let’s not take drastic measures punishing or marginalizing an entire group of people for a relatively small percentage of bad actors just because they share a heritage or religious faith.
On this, the 75th anniversary of one of America’s darkest political decisions, let’s reflect on our history and use it as a guide for policymaking.
Brian Calle is Opinion Editor for the Southern California News Group.
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