{"id":1705,"date":"2025-06-02T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/?p=1705"},"modified":"2025-11-06T15:15:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T22:15:12","slug":"executive-order-9066","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/executive-order-9066\/","title":{"rendered":"Executive Order 9066"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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America had completed the largest racially motivated forced removal in its history. And called it a success.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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June 2, 1942: The U.S. Army announced the \u201csuccessful completion\u201d of the forced removal of every person of Japanese ancestry from half of the West Coast.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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In just under four months, the United States government carried out one of the most sweeping violations of civil rights in its history. By June 2, 1942, the military proudly announced that it had successfully removed every Japanese American from what it called Military Area No. 1 \u2014 a zone that included all of Southern California and the western halves of Washington, Oregon, and California.<\/p>

This wasn\u2019t a military victory. It was a bureaucratic one. A paperwork victory. The trains had run on time. The notices had gone up. The so-called exclusion zones had been cleared of over 110,000 civilians, two-thirds of whom were American citizens.<\/p>

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Civilian Exclusion Order No.5, photo by Dorothea Lange, 1942<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Map of Calfornia indicating boundaries for military areas prepared from Proclamation No. 1, credit California State Archives<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Military zone sign, April 2, 1942, Lancaster, CA, credit National Archives<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Arrival of the incarcerees at Heart Mountain Relocation Center, 1942<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Japanese American evacuees were given only days, sometimes less, to sell their homes, shops, and belongings before being forcibly removed, credit Russell Lee, Library of Congress<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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San Francisco\u2019s Japantown, April 1942, photo by Dorothea Lange. Japanese Americans waited in line \u2014 not because of anything they had done, but because of who they were. \n<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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A newspaper headline celebrating the removal of Japanese Americans, Oakland, CA, February 1942<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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The announcement came not long after the final groups had been removed from cities like Los Angeles, where entire neighborhoods such as Little Tokyo were emptied in a matter of days. Families had received only six days\u2019 notice or less to leave their homes, sell what they could, and report to designated assembly centers carrying only what they could hold.<\/p>

And then, the government called it a job well done.<\/p>

Newspapers at the time echoed the tone, describing the removals as orderly and efficient. Some even praised Japanese Americans for their “cooperation” \u2014 ignoring the fact that noncompliance meant arrest and imprisonment.<\/p>

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But the Army wasn\u2019t finished. While Military Area No. 1 had been cleared, the removals soon began in Military Area No. 2, targeting Japanese Americans in the eastern halves of the same states, and parts of Arizona.<\/p>

The project of incarceration was only just beginning. Manzanar and Poston were open. Tule Lake was being expanded. And new camps were still under construction.<\/p>

The government called it exclusion. History now calls it what it was: racial removal, under the false banner of national security.<\/p>

And in their own words, they had completed it successfully.<\/p>

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Carpenters constructing quarters for Japanese American evacuees at Manzanar, credit NARA<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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A California woman points towards an anti-immigrant sign posted outside her home, credit National Japanese American Historical Society<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\"Three Boys Behind Barbed Wire\" by Toyo Miyatake, 1944, credit Toyo Miyatake Studio<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Share this article<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced removal and incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans. The order paved the way for one of the largest violations of civil liberties in U.S. history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,31,248,8,6,246,32,10,261,245,15],"class_list":["post-1705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aapi-history","tag-civil-rights","tag-civil-rights-activism","tag-executive-order-9066","tag-japanese-american-history","tag-law-justice","tag-quiet-americans","tag-racial-injustice","tag-trending","tag-wartime-incarceration","tag-wwii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5272,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions\/5272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}