Why Did the Internment Camps Happen with Grant Ujifusa and Kermit Roosevelt III

This year's Presidents' Day Weekend coincided with a Day of Remembrance of Japanese American Incarceration, the anniversary of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's signing of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. President Roosevelt's action resulted in the traumatic detention of 120,000 Japanese Americans at 10 desolate camps during World War II. Two thirds of those imprisoned were American citizens. To better illuminate this tragic chapter in American history, Jay Heritage Center (JHC) and Japan Society of Greater Fairfield County (JSGFC) presented a discussion called "Why did the Internment Camps Happen?" with two noted authors, Grant Ujifusa and Kermit Roosevelt III.
In his talk, Ujifusa explained why he thought FDR, perhaps the most liberal president of the 20th century issued Executive Order 9066 and why Reagan, perhaps the most conservative president of the 20th century signed the Japanese American Redress Bill (HR 442) on August 10, 1988. Ujifusa attributed Roosevelt's unconscionable policy to "race prejudice, war hysteria and the failure of political leadership." Ujifusa recounted how it was Reagan's admiration of the heroism of a Japanese American soldier, Kaz Masuda, who was killed in action in 1944, that ultimately swayed him to sign HR 442. Republican Governor Tom Kean of New Jersey helped Ujifusa remind Reagan of a speech he delivered at a ceremony in 1945 presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Masuda's family, where Reagan said “The blood that has soaked into the sand is all one color. America stands unique in the world, the only country not founded on race, but on a way - an ideal. Not in spite of, but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way." Reagan signed the bill after that reminder.
Following Ujifusa's keynote, Penn Carey Law Professor Kim Roosevelt III, an expert in constitutional law, spoke further with Ujifusa and they discussed the controversial 1944 Supreme Court decision in Korematsu v. United States. That case upheld the constitutionality of the internment camps and has since been rebuked and overturned for reasons of its violation of civil rights.
Read more and see photos from the day here. jayheritagecen...