FDR's "relocation camps"?

Question

What's your view on Franklin D. Roosevelt's 'relocation camps' for the Japanese-Americans during WWII?

Was he justified in his actions or not?

Answer 1

No, he was not. The simple inconsistency that people of German descent were not rounded up and put in camps. IMO it was racism, pure and simple. Japanese people looked different and thus were easy to identify and vilify. People of German origin look like everybody else so they might have lived next door with an "americanized" name and gone unnoticed.

Answer 2

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and practically destroyed our fleet, the wave of hysteria that swept across America was astounding. The Chinese suffered. because lots of Americans could not tell them apart from the Japanese in our country, and some people even boycotted Chinese Restaurants. We did not have a large Japanese population in New York where I lived. The West coast was another story. Many Japanese lived in Hawaii and especially in California. All were to the best of my knowledge , loyal American citizens,. Politics being what they are, forced the government to relocate thousands of Japanese to these Camps, on the grounds that they "might" be spying for Japan. The truth of the matter was they they were decent people who paid a terrible price for being Japanese. The strange thing that I observed first hand was the number of Japanese Americans who were born here,( who's parents were in Relocation Camps )served in the armed forces. They served honorably and were the best soldiers that I ever saw, Roosevelt made a very big mistake when he relocated the Japanese Americans.

Answer 3

Obviously not, as in December, 1944, the Supreme Court ruled the detainment of loyal citizens unconstitutional. And in 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation which apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government. The legislation stated that government actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership", and beginning in 1990, the government paid reparations to surviving internees.

But the main fault lays with Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, who administered the internment program.