In late 1941, President Roosevelt faced enormous decisions. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States could no longer unofficially be a part of the ongoing world war that had been raging since Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931. After December 7, 1941, the United States government entered into a series of highly questionable acts in the name of military need. This analysis will examine the effects of Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, which led to the assembly and incarceration of over 120,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry from the west coast of the United States.
Careful consideration will be given to the rationale behind the origins of Executive Order 9066 along with the government's effort to maintain public support of such a controversial policy. With the use of primary and secondary sources, a broader narrative can be examined that intersects not only racism as the driving factor behind the order but also introduces greed and opportunity into the discussion. Was racism the chief factor behind Executive Order 9066 or were their other influences that contributed to the implementation and sustaining of the policy? With a small population inhabiting the mainland United States, over 90% of all Japanese-Americans were sent to internment camps located in remote areas of the United States. In contrast, less than 1% of Japanese inhabitants of Hawaii were sent to internment camps. This glaring discrepancy in internment rates points to factors in addition to racist views of the United States government. Factors such as greed to confiscate the wealth of the Japanese-American community and fomenting a united front against the military of Japan are plausible reasons behind the policy of exclusion and internment by the United States government. Other factors include the economic dependency that the territory of Hawaii had to the Japanese community. Sending over half of the Hawaiian population to internment camps would have decimated the local economy of such a vital military importance. Examining films, photos, interviews, along with official government documents allows a student to consider additional factors, in addition to racism, as factors that influenced the internment policy.
