LAD/Blog #37: FDR’s Executive Order 9066

In Executive Order 9066, President Roosevelt allowed Secretary of War Henry Stimson to declare areas as military zones. This would allow for the interment of Japanese Americans in these military camps. As described in "Home Was a Horse Stall, conditions in these camps were absolutely horrible, with large numbers of people being forcefully relocated and made to stay in tiny, unsanitary living conditions. Roosevelt justified these actions by saying that it was necessary to protect against espionage and sabotage to ensure that the nation was secure. Soon after the order was signed, around 125,000 Japanese Americans, almost all of whom fully supported the United States in the war against Japan, were evicted from there homes and forced to live in these interment camps. In my opinion, this executive order was too extreme. While spies were certainly a threat, imprisoning over 100,000 Americans in the faint hope of being able to find a few spies was unnecessary and overkill. While it would have been justified to allow the government keep a closer eye on areas with a large Japanese-American population to make sure nothing suspicious was going on, this executive order was mostly unjustified.


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Executive Order 9066


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Synthesis: Many other Presidents have used executive orders as well, though often for less drastic purposes. President Obama used an executive order to create a minimum wage for federal contractors, and President Trump issued an executive order to secure the Mexican-American border by building a wall.

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