User blog:ARTaylor/75 Years of Japanese Internment

Today marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the infamous Executive Order 9066 allowing for the internment of Japanese Americans by the United States government. This order was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and resulted in the internment of between 110,000 and 120,000 individuals either from Japan or of Japanese descent. George Takei, then only five years old, was one such person who was interned. The internment lasted throughout World War II until March 20, 1946.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter opened an investigation as to whether the internment was justified, who found little evidence that the Japanese people interned were disloyal to the American government. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act that formally apologized for the internment saying the actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership," as well as paying reparations to the interned Japanese and their heirs.