Overview

Executive Order 9066 was a piece of legislation issued by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II on February 19, 1942. The order granted the secretary of war and his commanders the power to declare particular sections of the country as military areas and to force the removal of people deemed to be “enemy aliens” from such areas. The document had particularly serious consequences for Japanese Americans, about 122,000 of whom were forcibly removed from their homes on the West Coast of the US and evacuated to internment camps for the remainder of the war. German and Italian Americans were similarly impacted, though to a much lesser degree.

Order 9066 is highly controversial as an instance in which the US government targeted ethnic or racial groups and denied them their civil liberties in the interest of national security. President Roosevelt issued the order in the wake of pressure from lobbyists on the West Coast of the US and in the face of objections of some members of Congress. Although several Japanese Americans challenged the order in court cases—including Korematsu v. United States—the Supreme Court upheld its legality; in Ex parte Mitsuye Endo, however, the Court placed limitations on the military’s ability to detain citizens for extended periods and paved the way for the dissolution of the internment camps.

Starting with that court decision, and even more so in the years and decades after the war, the tide turned against Order 9066, and Japanese Americans sought and received reparations for the government’s actions. In June 1946, President Harry Truman ordered the liquidation of the War Relocation Authority and allowed the internees to return home (“Japanese-American Internment.” Harry S. Truman Library Museum). Thirty years later, in 1976, President Gerald Ford formally prohibited the government from ever reinstituting Order 9066, and in 1988 President Ronald Reagan issued an apology and partial monetary restitution to the former internees and their heirs.

Content Warning: Some of the source material referred to in this guide uses outdated, offensive terms for Japanese people, which is replicated in this guide only in direct quotes of the source material.

Summary

President Franklin D. Roosevelt situates Executive Order 9066 in continuity with a line of legislation dealing with national defense and protecting the US from espionage and sabotage going back to the end of World War I.

Invoking his authority as president of the United States and commander in chief of the Army and Navy, Roosevelt authorizes the secretary of war and the commanders of the military under him to designate as “military areas” such places as they determine and to exclude “any or all persons” from said areas. At the same time, Roosevelt authorizes the secretary of war to provide transportation, food, shelter, and other necessary accommodations to persons so excluded. The designation of military areas shall supersede previous legislation on “prohibited and restricted areas” made in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, as well as the present authority of the attorney general.

Roosevelt gives the military permission to use federal troops or agencies to enforce the order in individual “military areas.” He also authorizes the agencies of the federal government to assist the military in carrying out the order, including by providing medical aid, food, transportation, etc.

Finally, Roosevelt stresses that this order does not modify or limit the powers granted to the FBI, the attorney general, and the Department of Justice by previous legislation on securing national defense and prosecuting sabotage; the exception is when those laws are “superseded” by the designation of military areas under the present order.