Events Leading up to Executive Order 9066
Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the authorities on the west coast were "alarmed by a number of reports-all false-of enemy ships offshore. It was in the midst of this atmosphere that the first proposal for a mass evacuation of the Japanese developed. The publication of the report of the Roberts Commission, which had investigated the Pearl Harbor attack, on 25 January had a large and immediate effect on both public opinion and government action. The report concluded that there had been widespread espionage in Hawaii before Pearl Harbor, both by Japanese consular agents and by Japanese residents of Oahu who had "no open relations with the Japanese foreign service." The latter charge, though proved false after the war was over, was especially inflammatory at the time it was made." The Decision To Evacuate the Japanese From the Pacific Coast, Stetson Conn
Executive Order 9066
"Now, Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, ....to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine,..." President Franklin D. Roosevelt, issued Executive Order 9066, February 19, 1942. |
On February 4, 1942 the army designated restricted areas along the coast and imposed a curfew for alien enemies of Japanese, Italian, and German descent, making it illegal for them to travel more than five miles from their homes. The 'Japanese problem' was hotly debated in the US Government.
Members of the Justice Department were against the removal of Japanese individuals because of constitutional concerns. The War Department, especially Lt. General John L. Dewitt, saw this as a necessity. On February14, 1942, Dewitt submitted a recommendation to the Secretary of War for the evacuation of Japanese and other subversive persons from the Pacific Coast. In 1943, Dewitt submitted his report, Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942. The report listed several factors that supposedly made the evacuation a military necessity. Though some of the factors were proven by intelligence sources to be based on rumor, rather than facts, in Dewitt's report the factors are cited as solid reasoning for exclusion. |
“The Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second and third generation Japanese born on United States soil possessed of U.S. citizenship have become “Americanized” the racial strains are undiluted. It then follows that along the vital Pacific Coast over 112,000 potential enemies, of Japanese extraction, are at large today. There are indications that these were organized and ready for concerted action at a favorable opportunity. The very fact that no sabotage has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken...” DeWitt’s Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942, and the government’s brief to the Supreme Court defending Ex. Order 9066.