Do we know if FDR had any qualms about Executive Order 9066 which interred Americans of Japanese decent during WWII?
As a follow up did FDR ever say that he regretted that particular Executive Order? The order was suspended in December 1944, 4 months prior to his death in April, 1945.
It’s trite to say, but it was an artifact of its times. You have to analyze it in terms of December 1941 - which is not to say excuse or minimize it, only that how people felt even a few years later may not be relevant. It is, of course, the last stage of the great anti-Asian movement that began with the Chinese workers on the transcontinental railroad. Growing up in Sacramento and knowing SF’s history, I’m well aware of just how shitty life as either Chinese or Japanese was from 1880-1950 or so. I knew more than a few camp survivors as well. But… you have to put your head in 1941 to understand what happened, and why, and how FDR and anyone else might have felt about it.
(I’ve asked Unca Cece two questions about this time, and neither has ever come to the top. Maybe they’re just too touchy. The first is “Was there any sabotage by Japanese immigrants during WWII?” and the second is “Did any of the ‘ethnic’ military divisions have a notably poor record?”)
It’s not a lot to go on but perhaps this will help:
Ten Americans were convicted of spying for the Japanese. None of them were of Japanese ancestry.
Folks were frightened when a crashed Japanese pilot was able to get some local people to help him.
Didn’t that take place in Rio?
Your link is oddly repetitive/recursive. Here’s one cycle of it:
This is in fact the incident that preceded (and was used to help justify) XO 9066.
You lost me, dude.
Sure, people were frightened. If a single pilot could talk people into helping him, what would they do in the continental USA? Stories about arrows cut into sugar cane fields became believable. Better lock those guys up lest they commit sabotage.
Maybe it was in Canada, not the USA, but I recall some comments about the Japanese internment that the central government was doing it to shut up the local (State? Province?) government who wanted the order, rather than over any real concerns about fifth columns. Another issue was the risk of mob action against the Japanese immigrant community.
(emphasis added). You guys buried people of Japanese descent??
Hey, we walled Canuks up alive. Sad.
For the love of God, Montresor-san!
George Takei’s family was interred in Camp Rohwer here in Arkansas, North of Lake Enterprise.
For the love of God, eh?
I lived in a house for about eight years that I later found was smack on where the barracks had been for Assembly Camp Kohler. Most of it’s now under a stretch of I-80, but there’s still a tiny memorial at the back edge of a park, where some of the admin buildings were and the door thresholds remain. I doubt there are many who remember.
ETA: Pretty good link. My house was around the back “intersection of thirds” in the barracks area.
I’ve not been to Roher, but I understand all that is left is a cemetery.
And yet, there was no internment in Hawaii.
Yeah, there was.