February 19, 1942: In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066. According to the official report of the National Archives, "This order authorized the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to 'relocation centers' further inland -- resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans."
Notably, far more Americans of Asian descent were forcibly interned than Americans of European descent, both in total and as a share of their relative populations. Those relatively few German-Americans and Italian-Americans who were sent to internment camps during the war were sent under the provisions of Presidential Proclamation 2526 and the Alien Enemy Act, part of the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798 -- surprisingly, still on the books then, and now.
So, while the U.S. went to war with Nazi Germany, and its "concentration camps," it opened its own "internment camps" -- using the term "relocation centers." There were two in Arkansas, two in Arizona, two in California, one in Idaho, one in Utah, one in Wyoming, and one in Colorado.
They weren't slave labor camps, like the Nazi concentration camps or the Soviet gulags. Adults were given jobs, paying $12 to $19 per month. (About $215 to $349 in today's money.) Not much, but they were paid. Still, the camps were guarded by soldiers, and no one could leave. Mail was delivered in and sent out, but, in each case, was inspected by the U.S. Army.
In all, there were 112,000 people of Japanese ancestry who were interned. Two-thirds of them were U.S. citizens, born and raised in the United States. Among them was 5-year-old Hosato Takei of Los Angeles, later to call himself George Takei, and to play Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek franchise. He went on to write a play about the experience, titled Allegiance.
On December 18, 1944, forced to do so by the Supreme Court decision Ex parte Endo, FDR suspended Executive Order 9066. Detainees were released, often to resettlement facilities and temporary housing, and the camps were shut down by 1946.
In 1976, President Gerald Ford, who had served in the Pacific Theater of Operations with the U.S. Navy, signed a proclamation formally terminating Executive Order 9066 and apologizing for the internment. He said, "We now know what we should have known then: Not only was that evacuation wrong, but Japanese-Americans were, and are, loyal Americans. On the battlefield and at home, the names of Japanese-Americans have been, and continue to be, written in history for the sacrifices and the contributions they have made to the well-being and to the security of this, our common Nation."
But the internment remains a black mark on American history, and especially on FDR's record as President. However, let the record show that the opposition, the Republican Party, raised no objection at the time. Pretty much the only major politician, of either party, who did was Ralph Carr, the Republican Governor of Colorado -- and he was defeated for re-election. Even Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, the man so conservative he was known as "Mr. Republican," was convinced to support it.
Nor did anyone, including Taft, suggest a better idea. Certainly, no politician of any renown stood up and said it would have been better to do nothing. Even though it would have been better to do nothing.
On February 26, 1942, 1 week after FDR signed the Order, Canada followed suit with the internment of Japanese-Canadians. So our neighbor to the North, so often showing more freedom to their citizens than we have shown to ours, did the same bad thing.
(UPDATE: As of the elections of 2024, 4 Japanese-Americans have been elected to the U.S. Senate, and 14 have been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In the case of each house of Congress, all but 1 have been Democrats. And 3 members have been elected to both houses. George Ariyoshi and David Ige of Hawaii are the only Japanese-Americans to have been elected Governor of any State.)
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February 19, 1942 was a Thursday. This was also the day that Japanese planes bombed the Australian port city of Darwin. I have a separate entry for that event. Also, British rock singer Graham Nash, of The Hollies, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, was born on this day.
Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 2 games in the NHL:
* The Brooklyn Americans beat the Boston Bruins, 6-4 at Madison Square Garden. Desperate to attract fans, the Amerks changed their geographic identifier from "New York" to "Brooklyn," but continued to play at Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan. Despite this win over the Stanley Cup holders, they suspended operations due to the war, and never resumed. The NHL was down to 6 teams -- the falsely named "Original Six" -- until 1967, and the New York Tri-State Area had only the Rangers until the arrival of the Islanders in 1972.
* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
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