Category:Internment Camps

The Japanese Internment Camps were a dark period in American history during World War II, where the United States government forcibly relocated and incarcerated over 125,000 people of Japanese descent. Most of these individuals lived on the Pacific Coast and were sent to concentration camps in the western interior of the country. Of those incarcerated, approximately two-thirds were United States citizens. This action was initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt via an executive order shortly after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

Of the 127,000 Japanese Americans living in the continental United States at the time of Pearl Harbor, 112,000 resided on the West Coast. Around 80,000 of them were Nisei and Sansei, while the rest were Issei immigrants born in Japan who were ineligible for US citizenship under US law. President Roosevelt authorized Executive Order 9066, which allowed regional military commanders to designate "military areas" from which "any or all persons may be excluded." Although the order did not mention Japanese Americans, this authority was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were required to leave Alaska and the military exclusion zones from all of California and parts of Oregon, Washington, and Arizona, with the exception of those inmates who were being held in government camps.

The Japanese Internment Camps are widely considered a violation of human rights and a dark period in American history. The US government eventually acknowledged and apologized for the internment, and in 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, which provided reparations to Japanese Americans who were incarcerated. The act also formally apologized on behalf of the US government and acknowledged the "fundamental injustice" of the internment. The legacy of the internment continues to be felt by many Japanese Americans and remains an important topic in American history.