Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II

On February 19, 1942, seventy-three days after the United States entered World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, resulting in the removal of 120,000 Japanese American men, women, and children from their homes in the western states and Hawaii. Allowed only what they could carry, families were forced to abandon homes, friends, farms, and businesses and live in ten remote relocation centers guarded by armed troops and surrounded by barbed wire fences, and some remained there until March 1946. In addition, 4,500 were arrested by the Justice Department and held in internment camps such as Santa Fe, New Mexico, while 2,500 were also held at the family camp in Crystal City, Texas. At the same time, young Japanese Americans entered military service alongside many pre-war draftees. The 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, fighting in Europe, became the most highly decorated Army unit for its size and length of service in American military history. Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service used their bilingual skills to help shorten the war in the Pacific and saved countless American lives, and the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion helped fortify infrastructure essential for victory. In 1983, almost forty years after the war ended, the federal Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians found that there had been no military necessity for the mass imprisonment of Japanese Americans and that a grave injustice had been done. In 1988, President Ronald W. Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, which apologized for the injustice, provided minimal compensation, and reaffirmed the nation's commitment to equal justice under the law for all Americans.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States