This Day In History

February 19th 1942: FDR approves interning Japanese Americans

On this day in 1942, 70 years ago today, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 which allowed the military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps. The order allowed the military to declare certain areas ‘military areas’ which were used to intern Japanese Americans who were considered a national threat since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour which prompted the USA to join World War Two. Other groups were also interned, but it was Japanese Americans who were mostly targeted, with 120,000 being held in camps. The victims eventually received an official government apology and reparations in the 1990s. The executive order was repealed by President Gerald Ford on February 19th 1976.