U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, on February 19, 1942, ten weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The order authorized the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to "relocation centers" further inland.
The implementation resulted in the incarceration of more than 110, 000 Japanese Americans, Two thirds of those incarcerated were U.S. citizens. For the next two and a half years, they 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. 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. More
