Executive Order 906: Internment Of Japanese Americans In The United States Military

The Japanese attacked the United State Military base on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, with that aggressive act of war the United States officially declared war and joined with Allied Forces for combat in World War II. Due to nationwide hysteria and fear of other attacks on American soil the president felt compelled to act, he made a decision to take precautionary measures of immediate national Security. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, (Korematsu) this order would authorize forced deportation, relocation and internment of Japanese Americans. This selected group of Americans would be forced to leave their west coast homes and businesses that they had worked so hard for only to be housed for

an indeterminate amount of time in selected areas in California and the Northwest. On March 9, 1942, the Executive order 9066 became enforceable, and any one residing in the United States of Japanese heritage was forced into mass relocation. The creation of laws following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 was based on fear of the unknown, and the fear of Japan, this fear manifested itself through prejudice. Japanese Americans were victims of prejudice through Executive order 9066, because the American government had succumb to fears of the unknown, and it was all carried out legally in the name of National security.
The vernacular of the Executive Order 9066 does not contain any verbiage pertaining to what race of people this pertains to however anyone Japanese ancestry was targeted.

These orders gave power to the Secretary of War, its commanders and power the Military to make decisions over the Attorney General without Due Process of the law. All decisions made in regard to Order 9066 under the order of the President were accepted by Congress in doing so it created law 503 to enforce the order. The order was in direct reference to the people of Japanese descent although this was never stated, ironically only Japanese Americans were interned and deemed a threat. During the enforcement of this order more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated and detained, more than two-thirds of happen to be born on the soil of the United States Of America which made them Citizens of the very America that is now forcing them into

internment.
Japanese Americans were not allowed to own land or seek citizenship they were often accused of involvement in espionage.

Evidence of espionage never surfaced according to historical FBI investigations of the time. Racism laws were enacted against and enforced on this group of American people and Fred Korematsu felt that his civil rights protections under the Fourteenth Amendment would protect him on May 3 from the Exclusion Order Number 34 instead he was arrested for refusing to follow this evacuation order. Korematsu was represented by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). Korematsu v. The United States (1944), the decisions made in this historic case failed to adjudicate him, the Korematsu decision in turn legitimized internment as a necessary military obligation, to this day evidence has never been found to corroborate the act of internment. There was great disagreement amongst the justices in regards to the violation of the civil liberties of Japanese Americans but the Korematsu ruling was made with a vote of

6-3.
In 1983, Korematsu sought to have his conviction overturned; he sought out to challenge the earlier decision by filing for a writ of coram nobis. Coram Nobis is a writ of error that is directed to a court for review of its own judgment based on alleged errors of fact is termed a writ of error. In a ruling from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted the Koromatsu the writ, it voided Korematsu’s original conviction. The fact is that in the original case, the government knowingly presented information to the Supreme Court that had direct effect on the Court's decision. August 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, passed by Congress, the white house made an official Presidential apology for the its role in the internment of American people, monetary reparations were made to Japanese American citizens who had been wrongly interned. Although Korematsus’ case has been voided from the records of the courts, Executive order 9066 is still a written United States law for our generation to reflect on it is a written testament to the fact that racism and violation of human and civil rights is allowed even in the United States of America.