02.15.08
The racist internment of Japanese Americans
Feb. 19 is the anniversary of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066. The order led to the internment of over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
It is commemorated by Japanese Americans and supporters of redress as a “Day of Remembrance.”
Anti-Asian Racism has been intensifying in the United States since the 19th century.
In the late 19th century, U.S. Congress decided to discourage Japanese immigration, prohibit naturalization of Japanese immigrants and curtail land ownership by Japanese.
U.S. government banned virtually all immigration from Japan in 1924.California banned marriages between white people and people of Asian descent, Japanese Americans were subjected to a strict curfew, their bank accounts were frozen and many had their insurance policies canceled. The U.S. government encouraged anti-Japanese racism amongst the white working class.
This was an era when Japanese Americans faced pure racism