Internment Camps

Gayle Y. Iwamasa

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed military authorities to exclude “any or all persons” from areas they designated as a military or exclusion zone. On February 25, 1942, this order was used to begin excluding people of Japanese ancestry from the entire Pacific Coast. Thus, almost 120,000 Japanese Americans who lived in California, western Oregon, western Washington, and southern Arizona were removed from their homes in the largest forced relocation of U.S. citizens in U.S. history. Some residents of German and Italian descent also were arrested on an individual basis and interned when deemed to be security risks. Idaho Governor Chase Clark stated before a Congressional committee in February 1942 that Japanese Americans would be welcome in Idaho only if they were in “concentration camps under military guard.” This statement has often been discussed as the precursor to the establishment of internment ...

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