"Our government had in its possession proof that not one Japanese American, citizen or not, had engaged in espionage, not one had committed any act of sabotage."
Michi Weglyn, Years of Infamy, 1976
Reality
Even though FDR and the government claimed that the internment was to protect the American people from Japanese sabotage and espionage, the United States government had no proof for this. The US congress later admitted that the actions, "were motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership" (US Congress, 1983).
Context of Racial Prejudice
1891 : Arrival of Japanese immigrants to mainland US, mainly as agricultural workers
June 27, 1894 : Court ruling that Japanese Americans cannot become American citizens, because they are not "a free white person of good character" (Naturalization Act of 1790.)
October 11, 1906 : The San Francisco Board of Education orders segregation of Asian children into separate schools, "to save white children from begin affected by association with pupils of the Mongolian Race." (San Francisco Board of Education, 1906)
1913 : California Alien Land Law of 1913 - prohibiting "all aliens ineligible for citizenship" to own land
1924 : Immigration Act of 1924 stops all Japanese immigration
November 1941 : President FDR commissions Munson Report on the loyalty of Japanese people living in the US - "For the most part the local Japanese are loyal to the United States...We do not believe that they would be at least any more disloyal than any other racial group in the United States with whom we went to war...The Japanese are loyal on the whole"
Click here for full text of the Munson Report
February 19, 1942 : Executive Order 9066
June 27, 1894 : Court ruling that Japanese Americans cannot become American citizens, because they are not "a free white person of good character" (Naturalization Act of 1790.)
October 11, 1906 : The San Francisco Board of Education orders segregation of Asian children into separate schools, "to save white children from begin affected by association with pupils of the Mongolian Race." (San Francisco Board of Education, 1906)
1913 : California Alien Land Law of 1913 - prohibiting "all aliens ineligible for citizenship" to own land
1924 : Immigration Act of 1924 stops all Japanese immigration
November 1941 : President FDR commissions Munson Report on the loyalty of Japanese people living in the US - "For the most part the local Japanese are loyal to the United States...We do not believe that they would be at least any more disloyal than any other racial group in the United States with whom we went to war...The Japanese are loyal on the whole"
Click here for full text of the Munson Report
February 19, 1942 : Executive Order 9066
Conclusion
The United States, therefore, neglected its responsibility to "promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty, to ourselves and our Posterity" (US Constitution), as it unjustifiably interned and took away the rights of tens of thousands of Japanese, American citizens.
