President Joe Biden issued a statement Feb. 19, declaring ‘shameful’ the incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.
82 years ago, former President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which removed all Japanese Americans from their homes — including children — and relegated them to internment camps. Between 1942 and 1945, 10 internment camps were opened, primarily in the West and mid-West. Many of the incarcerated never returned to their homes, as their mortgages had elapsed while they were in the camps.
“Families were separated. Communities were torn apart. People were stripped of their dignity. And the unconstitutional and unconscionable policy was even upheld by the Supreme Court,” said Biden in a statement. He noted the service of 33,000 Japanese American soldiers who fought for the US during World War II.
Biden issued a formal apology to Japanese Americans. “Nidoto Nai Yoni. Let It Not Happen Again.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a “Day of Remembrance” Feb. 19. “A decision motivated by discrimination and xenophobia, the internment of Japanese Americans was a betrayal of our most sacred values as a nation that we must never repeat,” he wrote.
Japanese American families are shown dining together at the Manzanar Lake, California internment camp. (Wikimedia / Creative Commons license)
