Executive Order 9066
February 19th, 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed The Executive Order 9066, authorizing military commanders to designate military areas and exclusion zones applicable to anyone the military commander might choose, citizen or not. The primary reason of the order was to ensure the military could control, and know the whereabouts, of the Japanese Americans.
"It was in the Japanese American Press that things were happening and that there was likely to be some attempt to remove them and a whole lot of people didn't believe that would ever happen because the majority of people who were eventually relocated were in fact American citizens." - Tony Ishisaka, A Japanese American whose family was held in an Internment Camp
After the Executive Order 9066 was issued, Japanese Americans were given approximately two weeks notice prior to internment to either sell or store their possessions. They could not take anything with them that they could not carry by hand into the camp. Japanese Americans suffered from humiliation and despair while they watched their most valued possessions sold for low and degrading prices. Before they were interned, the government promised many of the Japanese Americans that if they stored their items in designated warehouses their things would be saved for them and would be available for them when they were freed from the camps. When they returned to the warehouses, they discovered their possessions were either stolen or vandalized.
After the Executive Order 9066 was issued, Japanese Americans were given approximately two weeks notice prior to internment to either sell or store their possessions. They could not take anything with them that they could not carry by hand into the camp. Japanese Americans suffered from humiliation and despair while they watched their most valued possessions sold for low and degrading prices. Before they were interned, the government promised many of the Japanese Americans that if they stored their items in designated warehouses their things would be saved for them and would be available for them when they were freed from the camps. When they returned to the warehouses, they discovered their possessions were either stolen or vandalized.
"All Issei males were rounded up and taken first...Many were taken into custody right off their fishing boats as they entered the harbor with their load of fish. This left their wives and families at a total loss." - Takeo Kaneshiro, Author