Internment of Japanese Americans, 1942

In an era where we have a president and a controlling party that are eager to take away our civil liberties, I want to reflect on the fact that we have not always done the right thing.  Do not reassure yourself with those thoughts.  This is such a horrible chapter in our history, and one to remember because amongst other things, the rights and privileges of people who have immigrated to this country are being called into question.  So best that we remember past mistakes in order to prevent them in the future.




The internment of Japanese Americans was one of the most blatant restrictions on civil liberties in our history.  Two months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 ordering all Japanese-Americans to evacuate the West Coast. This resulted in the relocation of approximately 120,000 people, many of whom were American citizens, to one of 10 internment camps located across the country. Traditional family structure was upended within the camp, as American-born children were solely allowed to hold positions of authority. Some Japanese-American citizens of were allowed to return to the West Coast beginning in 1945, and the last camp closed in March 1946.  Ansel Adams, a Western photographer best known for his photos of national parks, provided some of the best lasting images of this time.