Executive Order 9066?

Question

Executive Order 9066: The President Authorizes Japanese Relocation

In an atmosphere of World War II hysteria, President Roosevelt, encouraged by officials at all levels of the federal government, authorized the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, dated February 19, 1942, gave the military broad powers to ban any citizen from a fifty- to sixty-mile-wide coastal area stretching from Washington state to California and extending inland into southern Arizona. The order also authorized transporting these citizens to assembly centers hastily set up and governed by the military in California, Arizona, Washington state, and Oregon. Although it is not well known, the same executive order (and other war-time orders and restrictions) were also applied to smaller numbers of residents of the United States who were of Italian or German descent. For example, 3,200 resident aliens of Italian

background were arrested and more than 300 of them were interned. About 11,000 German residents—including some naturalized citizens—were arrested and more than 5000 were interned. Yet while these individuals (and others from those groups) suffered grievous violations of their civil liberties, the war-time measures applied to Japanese Americans were worse and more sweeping, uprooting entire communities and targeting citizens as well as resident aliens.


The Question is: Was this Ethical for FDR to do?

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5154

Many of these people were American citizens, not just visitors. Most lost their businesses and homes that they had to abandon when they were rounded up.

Answer 1

It was Germans, Italians, and Japanese.

It is difficult to look back and know what you would do if you were Roosevelt.

Pearl Harbor was first attack on American soil since the War of 1812. And like islamic facists, Japanese at that time were considered religious fanatics. They thought their emperor was a god and they would do anything to protect their country. During World War two, around 13,000 Japanese American males renounced their citizenship to help Japan fight against America. That worked out to at least one in nine Japanese internees renouncing their U.S. citizenship. That is very high considering less than 40% of 120,000 interned Japanese Americans were adult males. So basically at least one third of male Japanese American citizens wanted to fight against America.

Their religion Shintoism was officially given up as a condition of Japan's surrender at the end of WW 2.

China still gets angry anytime a Japanese Prime Minister vists a Shinto Shrine.

Answer 2

I don't know if it was ethical. But, the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed it and found it to be legal. FDR was acting in his role as commander-in-chief of the military. The ranking military commander on the West Coast couldn't issue such an order because it would have violated the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 which forbade military members from interfering with civilian jurisdictions.
There also was a relocation camp outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. So, they really were moved inland in many cases.
Not all of the internees were peaceful Americans and resident aliens who wished us well. Manzanar contained a number of Japanese aliens who were, in fact, quite hostile to the U.S. before the Pearl Harbor attack and would have carried out acts of sabotage and espionage.
One of my wife's bridesmaids was born in one of those camps. Despite that, she harbored no ill will against the U.S. government for the actions taken under that Executive Order.

Answer 3

Well hindsight, not in the least, many Japanese men who were interned proved their patiortism in battle. However bare in mind the time, it wasn't like it was today. Pretty easy to look back and judge people back then but remember, the Japanese attacked us, we were very paranoid then. And unlike the Germans and Italians, you could tell who was Japanese. Even early in the war we saw that the Japanese weren't going to play fair. However, I will say this, compared to what the Japanese did to us, the Internment camps were paradise. I'm sure that if you ask a Bataan survivor to compare to two incidents he'd probaby lose little sleep with the internment.

Answer 4

How do you know who the enemy is? Do they put a tatoo on their forehead?
The Japanese had already launched a large quantity of bombs attached to helium balloons toward the U.S.
The move was a good one, but the way they were treated was not. In todays world we are fighting a totally different kind of war, where the enemy has no conscience, no morals, no passion or sympathy for the enemy what so ever.
He did what he felt was necessary to protect America, and by the way he was also protecting the ethnic population forom citizens who would profile and cause good honest Americans harm, just because they were of that ethnic group.
Think about it, don't judge...

Answer 5

Not ethical, but the hysteria brought on by the attack on pearl harbor was the primer for that act!!
i am sure his advisers were bringing a lot of pressure on that act!
Remember as i talked about this with my parents that vigilantes were hunting down and beating Japanese Americans!!
So maybe in a bizarre way it saved some lives!!

Answer 6

IT worked as they thought , at the time.
THAT is why we need to study history so we learn & not repeat the horrible errors.
What I can not understand is during an election campaign why few look beyond? As if Bush is bad guy, noneb4 existed and a woman named Hillary shall take us away from all our misery.

Silly . No one really learns unless they open themselves to education. Beyond Media Matters? Or Reality TV? tu

Answer 7

There was evidence that the Japanese had been infiltrated by a fifth column(Sort a like how we would put moles in Russia).He was afraid of being attacked from within.

Answer 8

No, and it could happen again tomorrow. When the climate in the Nation is one of fear and confusion, anything is possible.

Answer 9

Thank you for education the fools who are answering my question that don't know what the hell they're talking about.

To answer you question - I believe that it was immoral, simply because it undermined civil liberties.

Watch someone bring bush into this convo : (

Answer 10

You do what ever has to be done, period. (Remember, he was the one in charge of Pearl Harbor) Maybe he was trying to resurrect himself?