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Internment Camps were large unused plots of land dedicated to house 'evacuees' from America, who were largely Japanese-American, but also took in Italian and German Americans. Thousands of families would be housed in each internment camp, with many famous sites such as Manzanar and Tule Lake.

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In his speech to Congress, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was "a date which will live in infamy." The attack launched the United States fully into the two theaters of World War II. Prior to Pearl Harbor, the United States had been involved in the European war only, by supplying England and other anti-fascist countries of Europe with munitions.

The attack on Pearl Harbor also launched a rash of fear about national security, especially on the West Coast. In February 1942, just two months later, President Roosevelt, as commander-in-chief, issued Executive Order 9066 that resulted in the internment of Japanese Americans. The order authorized the Secretary of War and military commanders to evacuate all persons deemed a threat from the West Coast to internment camps, that the government called "relocation centers," further inland.

Prior to the outbreak of World War II, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had identified German, Italian, and Japanese aliens who were suspected of being potential enemy agents; and they were kept under surveillance. Following the attack at Pearl Harbor, government suspicion arose not only around aliens who came from enemy nations, but around all persons of Japanese descent, whether foreign born ( issei) or American citizens ( nisei). During congressional committee hearings, representatives of the Department of Justice raised logistical, constitutional, and ethical objections. Regardless, the task was turned over to the U.S. Army as a security matter.

The entire West Coast was deemed a military area and was divided into military zones. Executive Order 9066 authorized military commanders to exclude civilians from military areas. Although the language of the order did not specify any ethnic group, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt of the Western Defense Command proceeded to announce curfews that included only Japanese Americans. Next, he encouraged voluntary evacuation by Japanese Americans from a limited number of areas; about seven percent of the total Japanese American population in these areas complied. On March 29, 1942, under the authority of the executive order, DeWitt issued Public Proclamation No. 4, which began the forced evacuation and detention of West Coast residents of Japanese-American ancestry on a 48-hour notice. Only a few days prior to the proclamation, on March 21, Congress had passed Public Law 503, which made violation of Executive Order 9066 a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Because of the perception of "public danger," all Japanese within varied distances from the Pacific coast were targeted. Unless they were able to dispose of or make arrangements for care of their property within a few days, their homes, farms, businesses, and most of their private belongings were lost forever.

From the end of March to August, approximately 112,000 persons were sent to "assembly centers" - often racetracks or fairgrounds - where they waited and were tagged to indicate the location of a long-term "relocation center" that would be their home for the rest of the war. Nearly 70,000 of the evacuees were American citizens. There were no charges of disloyalty against any of these citizens, nor was there any vehicle by which they could appeal their loss of property and personal liberty.

"Relocation centers" were situated many miles inland, often in remote and desolate locales. Sites included Tule Lake, California; Minidoka, Idaho; Manzanar, California; Topaz, Utah; Jerome, Arkansas; Heart Mountain, Wyoming; Poston, Arizona; Granada, Colorado; and Rohwer, Arkansas. (Incarceration rates were significantly lower in the territory of Hawaii, where Japanese Americans made up over one third of the population and their labor was needed to sustain the economy. However, martial law had been declared in Hawaii immediately following the Pearl Harbor attack, and the Army issued hundreds of military orders, some applicable only to persons of Japanese ancestry.)

In the internment camps, four or five families, with their sparse collections of clothing and possessions, shared tar-papered army-style barracks. Most lived in these conditions for nearly three years or more until the end of the war. Gradually some insulation was added to the barracks and lightweight partitions were added to make them a little more comfortable and somewhat private. Life took on some familiar routines of socializing and school. However, eating in common facilities, using shared restrooms, and having limited opportunities for work interrupted other social and cultural patterns. Persons who resisted were sent to a special camp at Tule Lake, California, where dissidents were housed.

In 1943 and 1944 the government assembled a combat unit of Japanese Americans for the European theater. It became the 442d Regimental Combat Team and gained fame as the most highly decorated of World War II. Their military record bespoke their patriotism.

As the war drew to a close, internment camps were slowly evacuated. While some persons of Japanese ancestry returned to their hometowns, others sought new surroundings. For example, the Japanese-American community of Tacoma, Washington, had been sent to three different centers; only 30 percent returned to Tacoma after the war. Japanese Americans from Fresno had gone to Manzanar; 80 percent returned to their hometown.

The internment of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II sparked constitutional and political debate. During this period, three Japanese-American citizens challenged the constitutionality of the relocation and curfew orders through legal actions: Gordon Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu, and Mitsuye Endo. Hirabayashi and Korematsu received negative judgments; but Mitsuye Endo, after a lengthy battle through lesser courts, was determined to be "loyal" and allowed to leave the Topaz, Utah, facility.

Justice Murphy of the Supreme Court expressed the following opinion in Ex parte Mitsuye Endo:

I join in the opinion of the Court, but I am of the view that detention in Relocation Centers of persons of Japanese ancestry regardless of loyalty is not only unauthorized by Congress or the Executive but is another example of the unconstitutional resort to racism inherent in the entire evacuation program. As stated more fully in my dissenting opinion in Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 , 65 S.Ct. 193, racial discrimination of this nature bears no reasonable relation to military necessity and is utterly foreign to the ideals and traditions of the American people.

In 1988, Congress passed, and President Reagan signed, Public Law 100-383 that acknowledged the injustice of internment, apologized for it, and provided a $20,000 cash payment to each person who was interned.

One of the most stunning ironies in this episode of American civil liberties was articulated by an internee who, when told that the Japanese were put in those camps for their own protection, countered "If we were put there for our protection, why were the guns at the guard towers pointed inward, instead of outward?"

The Documents

1. "Conference with General De Witt" at Office of Commanding General, Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth Army; January 4, 1942.
National Archives Identifier:296057
View Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

2. Transcript of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt, February 19, 1942. Available from OurDocuments.gov: http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=74

3. Coal Crew at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. It takes approximately four carloads of coal a day to provide heat for residents at this Wyoming relocation center during the cold winter months. Here a crew of men load trucks from the coal gondola for delivery to barracks.
National Archives Identifier:538770

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Japanese-American Internment During World War II

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In his speech to Congress, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was "a date which will live in infamy." The attack launched the United States fully into the two theaters of World War II.

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The Executive Order 9066 was to remove Japanese, German, and Italian Americans from the general population and into internment camps to protect national security. About 117,000 citizens were sent to these camps, leaving behind businesses and houses that would be lost. The order was placed due to pressure from American fear and panic, as well as political pressure on President Eisenhower. American citizens were worried that after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese would continue to attack on American soil, using Japanese Americans that resided in the US already. To help these fears, the Executive Order 9066 was born.

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When the Supreme Court Justified Japanese Internment Camps | Korematsu v. United States

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Americans were sent to these camps in order to protect the US from espionage. The bombing of Pearl Harbor sparked mass panic and fear of future attacks. The West Coast was the main center for the panic, due to their close proximity to Pearl Harbor, but also being the closer side of the US to Japan. This increased the worry potential enemies within the US and began the evacuation of Japanese, German, and Italian Americans.

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Internment camps were mostly on the West Coast, in remote and desolate locations. The states that camps were located in were California, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado, and Hawaii. Americans were taken from all over the US, along with some from surrounding countries, such as Mexico and Canada. 

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The primary source documents on this page highlight pivotal moments in the course of American history or government. They are some of the most-viewed and sought-out documents in the holdings of the National Archives.

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Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941. After a roughly three months of panic and fear, the order was then issued on February 19, 1942. Congress then implemented the order on March 21, 1942. They did this by passing Public Law 503. These camps were open for three years, closing in 1945. 

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Executive Order 9066

On February 19, 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 with the stated intention of preventing espionage on American shores.

Military zones were created in California, Washington and Oregon-states with a large population of Japanese Americans. Then Roosevelt's executive order forcibly removed Americans of Japanese ancestry from their homes. Executive Order 9066 affected the lives about 120,000 people-the majority of whom were American citizens.

Canada soon followed suit, forcibly removing 21,000 of its residents of Japanese descent from its west coast. Mexico enacted its own version, and eventually 2,264 more people of Japanese descent were forcibly removed from Peru, Brazil, Chile and Argentina to the United States.

Anti-Japanese American Activity

Weeks before the order, the Navy removed citizens of Japanese descent from Terminal Island near the Port of Los Angeles.

On December 7, 1941, just hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the FBI rounded-up 1,291 Japanese American community and religious leaders, arresting them without evidence and freezing their assets.

In January, the arrestees were transferred to prison camps in Montana, New Mexico and North Dakota, many unable to inform their families and most remaining for the duration of the war.

Concurrently, the FBI searched the private homes of thousands of Japanese American residents on the West Coast, seizing items considered contraband.

One-third of Hawaii's population was of Japanese descent. In a panic, some politicians called for their mass incarceration. Japanese-owned fishing boats were impounded.

Some Japanese American residents were arrested and 1,500 people-one percent of the Japanese population in Hawaii-were sent to prison camps on the U.S. mainland.

Photos of Japanese American Relocation and Incarceration

John DeWitt

Lt. General John L. DeWitt, leader of the Western Defense Command, believed that the civilian population needed to be taken control of to prevent a repeat of Pearl Harbor.

To argue his case, DeWitt prepared a report filled with known falsehoods, such as examples of sabotage that were later revealed to be the result of cattle damaging power lines.

DeWitt suggested the creation of the military zones and Japanese detainment to Secretary of War Henry Stimson and Attorney General Francis Biddle. His original plan included Italians and Germans, though the idea of rounding-up Americans of European descent was not as popular.

At Congressional hearings in February 1942, a majority of the testimonies, including those from California Governor Culbert L. Olson and State Attorney General Earl Warren, declared that all Japanese should be removed.

Biddle pleaded with the president that mass incarceration of citizens was not required, preferring smaller, more targeted security measures. Regardless, Roosevelt signed the order.

War Relocation Authority

After much organizational chaos, about 15,000 Japanese Americans willingly moved out of prohibited areas. Inland state citizens were not keen for new Japanese American residents, and they were met with racist resistance.

Ten state governors voiced opposition, fearing the Japanese Americans might never leave, and demanded they be locked up if the states were forced to accept them.

A civilian organization called the War Relocation Authority was set up in March 1942 to administer the plan, with Milton S. Eisenhower from the Department of Agriculture to lead it. Eisenhower only lasted until June 1942, resigning in protest over what he characterized as incarcerating innocent citizens.

Relocation to 'Assembly Centers'

Army-directed removals began on March 24. People had six days notice to dispose of their belongings other than what they could carry.

Anyone who was at least 1/16th Japanese was evacuated, including 17,000 children under age 10, as well as several thousand elderly and disabled residents.

Japanese Americans reported to "Assembly Centers" near their homes. From there they were transported to a "Relocation Center" where they might live for months before transfer to a permanent "Wartime Residence."

Assembly Centers were located in remote areas, often reconfigured fairgrounds and racetracks featuring buildings not meant for human habitation, like horse stalls or cow sheds, that had been converted for that purpose. In Portland, Oregon, 3,000 people stayed in the livestock pavilion of the Pacific International Livestock Exposition Facilities.

The Santa Anita Assembly Center, just several miles northeast of Los Angeles, was a de-facto city with 18,000 incarcerated, 8,500 of whom lived in stables. Food shortages and substandard sanitation were prevalent in these facilities.

Life in 'Assembly Centers'

Assembly Centers offered work to prisoners with the policy that they should not be paid more than an Army private. Jobs ranged from doctors to teachers to laborers and mechanics. A couple were the sites of camouflage net factories, which provided work.

Over 1,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans were sent to other states to do seasonal farm work. Over 4,000 of the incarcerated population were allowed to leave to attend college.

Conditions in 'Relocation Centers'

There were a total of 10 prison camps, called "Relocation Centers." Typically the camps included some form of barracks with communal eating areas. Several families were housed together. Residents who were labeled as dissidents were forced to a special prison camp in Tule Lake, California.

Two prison camps in Arizona were located on Native American reservations, despite the protests of tribal councils, who were overruled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Each Relocation Center was its own "town," and included schools, post offices and work facilities, as well as farmland for growing food and keeping livestock. Each prison camp "town" was completely surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers.

Net factories offered work at several Relocation Centers. One housed a naval ship model factory. There were also factories in different Relocation Centers that manufactured items for use in other prison camps, including garments, mattresses and cabinets. Several housed agricultural processing plants.

Violence in Prison Camps

Violence occasionally occurred in the prison camps. In Lordsburg, New Mexico, prisoners were delivered by trains and forced to march two miles at night to the camp. On July 27, 1942, during a night march, two Japanese Americans, Toshio Kobata and Hirota Isomura, were shot and killed by a sentry who claimed they were attempting to escape. Japanese Americans testified later that the two elderly men were disabled and had been struggling during the march to Lordsburg. The sentry was found not guilty by the army court martial board.

On August 4, 1942, a riot broke out in the Santa Anita Assembly Center, the result of anger about insufficient rations and overcrowding. At California's Manzanar War Relocation Center, tensions resulted in the beating of Fred Tayama, a Japanese American Citizen's League (JACL) leader, by six men. JACL members were believed to be supporters of the prison camp's administration.

Fearing a riot, police tear-gassed crowds that had gathered at the police station to demand the release of Harry Ueno. Ueno had been arrested for allegedly assaulting Tayama. James Ito was killed instantly and several others were wounded. Among those injured was Jim Kanegawa, 21, who died of complications five days later.

At the Topaz Relocation Center, 63-year-old prisoner James Hatsuki Wakasa was shot and killed by military police after walking near the perimeter fence. Two months later, a couple was shot at for strolling near the fence.

In October 1943, the Army deployed tanks and soldiers to Tule Lake Segregation Center in northern California to crack down on protests. Japanese American prisoners at Tule Lake had been striking over food shortages and unsafe conditions that had led to an accidental death in October 1943. At the same camp, on May 24, 1943, James Okamoto, a 30-year-old prisoner who drove a construction truck, was shot and killed by a guard.

Fred Korematsu

In 1942, 23-year-old Japanese-American Fred Korematsu was arrested for refusing to relocate to a Japanese prison camp. His case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where his attorneys argued in Korematsu v. United States that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment.

Korematsu lost the case, but he went on to become a civil rights activist and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. With the creation of California's Fred Korematsu Day, the United States saw its first U.S. holiday named for an Asian American. But it took another Supreme Court decision to halt the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Mitsuye Endo

The prison camps ended in 1945 following the Supreme Court decision, Ex parte Mitsuye Endo. In this case, justices ruled unanimously that the War Relocation Authority "has no authority to subject citizens who are concededly loyal to its leave procedure."

The case was brought on behalf of Mitsuye Endo, the daughter of Japanese immigrants from Sacramento, California. After filing a habeas corpus petition, the government offered to free her, but Endo refused, wanting her case to address the entire issue of Japanese incarceration.

One year later, the Supreme Court made the decision, but gave President Truman the chance to begin camp closures before the announcement. One day after Truman made his announcement, the Supreme Court revealed its decision.

Reparations

The last Japanese internment camp closed in March 1946. President Gerald Ford officially repealed Executive Order 9066 in 1976, and in 1988, Congress issued a formal apology and passed the Civil Liberties Act awarding $20,000 each to over 80,000 Japanese Americans as reparations for their treatment.

Sources

Japanese Relocation During World War II. National Archives.
Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites. J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord and R. Lord.
Lordsburg Internment POW Camp. Historical Society of New Mexico.
Smithsonian Institute.

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Japanese Internment Camps: WWII, Life & Conditions | HISTORY

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Japanese internment camps were established during World War II by President Franklin D. Roosevelt through his Executive Order 9066. From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent, including U.S. citizens, be incarcerated.

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The citizens were rounded up by military. The West Coast was divided into military zones, making it easier to find and round up those that were going to the camps. Many Americans voluntarily evacuated, but most and to be forced out. Public Law 503 made violating Executive Order 9066 a misdemeanor punishable by one year in prison and a $5,000 fine. On March 29, 1942, Public Proclamation No. 4 was issues, which began the forced evacuation of West Coast residents that were to report to the camps.

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Ugly History: Japanese American incarceration camps - Densho

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A Conversation with George Takei: Life in the Camps

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Japanese, German, and Italian Americans were affected by this order. It was mostly Japanese Americans that were in these camps, but other nationalities were there as well. About 117,000 Americans were taken to the camps. This order was issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt due to American fear of Japanese attacks and political pressure.

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On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, initiating a controversial World War II policy with lasting consequences for Japanese Americans. The document ordered the forced removal of resident "enemy aliens" from parts of the West vaguely identified as military areas.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941, Roosevelt came under increasing pressure by military and political advisors to address the nation's fears of further Japanese attack or sabotage, particularly on the West Coast, where naval ports, commercial shipping and agriculture were most vulnerable. Included in the off-limits military areas referred to in the order were ill-defined areas around West Coast cities, ports and industrial and agricultural regions. While 9066 also affected Italian and German Americans, the largest numbers of detainees were by far Japanese Americans.

On the West Coast, long-standing racism against Japanese Americans, motivated in part by jealousy over their commercial success, erupted after Pearl Harbor into furious demands to remove them en masse to Relocation Centers for the duration of the war.

Japanese immigrants and their descendants, regardless of American citizenship status or length of residence, were systematically rounded up and placed in prison camps. Evacuees, as they were sometimes called, could take only as many possessions as they could carry and were forcibly placed in crude, cramped quarters. In the western states, camps on remote and barren sites such as Manzanar and Tule Lake housed thousands of families whose lives were interrupted and in some cases destroyed by Executive Order 9066. Many lost businesses, farms and loved ones as a result.
READ MORE: These Photos Show the Harsh Reality of Life in WWII Japanese-American Internment Camps

Roosevelt delegated enforcement of 9066 to the War Department, telling Secretary of War Henry Stimson to be as reasonable as possible in executing the order. Attorney General Francis Biddle recalled Roosevelt's grim determination to do whatever he thought was necessary to win the war. Biddle observed that Roosevelt was not much concerned with the gravity or implications of issuing an order that essentially contradicted the Bill of Rights.

In her memoirs, Eleanor Roosevelt recalled being completely floored by her husband's action. A fierce proponent of civil rights, Eleanor hoped to change Roosevelt's mind, but when she brought the subject up with him, he interrupted her and told her never to mention it again.

During the war, the U.S. Supreme Court heard two cases challenging the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, upholding it both times. Finally, on February 19, 1976, decades after the war, Gerald Ford signed an order prohibiting the executive branch from re-instituting the notorious and tragic World War II order. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan issued a public apology on behalf of the government and authorized reparations for former Japanese American internees or their descendants.
READ MORE: Japanese Internment

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asian american and pacific islander history

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FDR orders Japanese Americans into internment camps

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On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, initiating a controversial World War II policy with lasting consequences for Japanese Americans. The document ordered the forced removal of resident "enemy aliens" from parts of the West vaguely identified as military areas.

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This executive order was forced and pressured out of President Franklin D. Roosevelt by military and political advisors. The concern of these advisors was of the fear and hysteria that followed the attacks of Pearl Harbor. Because of these attacks, many Americans wondered when and where the next attack might be, and they became suspicious of anyone of Japanese heritage. Their fear and reasoning soon became a slippery slope, and their conclusion was to isolate all Japanese-Americans, in an attempt to hide away any spies that might have been lurking in their midst. While it would have been wise to be cautious about the Japanese-Americans, it was the fear and hysteria that brought to life the internment camps these Americans had to suffer through during World War II.

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In February of 1942, just 10 weeks after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government issued Executive Order 9066, calling for the internment of Japanese Americans. Intended initially to prevent Japanese spies from receiving intel, this order authorized their removal from military areas "as deemed necessary or desirable" during World War II.

These areas covered much of the West Coast, where many Japanese-Americans resided, including California, Washington and Oregon. By June, more than 110,000 people would be forcibly removed from their homes and placed in prison camps scattered throughout the country.

Under the order, anyone with 1/16th or more of Japanese heritage was required to be removed. At first, about 15,000 Japanese Americans willingly moved to the designated areas. By March 24, the U.S. Army began leading the removals, giving people just six days of notice to clear out with their belongings.

Many of the Relocation Centers were meant as temporary holding spaces, but some people waited many months before receiving permanent placement. These centers were in remote areas and reconfigured hastily to house the masses that were sent there. Food shortages and poor sanitation were common in these facilities.

The Relocation Centers housed Japanese Americans in barracks, with multiple families living together in communal areas. Each functioned as its own town with schools, a post office, and farmland, all monitored by guards and closed off to the outside world with barbed wire fences.

Jobs were offered to the prisoners during their times at these isolated camps, with a range as wide as their professions outside the camps had been. However, a policy was put in place that no person would receive wages higher than an Army private while there, no matter how critical or specialized their job was.

By December 1944, the Supreme Court put an end to Japanese internment camps with its ruling in Ex parte Mitsuye Endo. In this case, the court stated the War Relocation Authority "has no authority to subject citizens who are concededly loyal to its leave procedure."

The following month, Japanese American "evacuees" from the West Coast were finally allowed to return to their homes. The last camp did not close until March 1946.

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These Photos Show the Harsh Reality of Life in WWII Japanese American Internment Camps | HISTORY

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More than 100,000 Japanese Americans were sent to 'War Relocation Centers' between 1942 and 1946.

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The cause of the Executive Order 9066 was fear of possible attacks from the Japanese on American soil. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt became under pressure (military and political) about addressing the attack. The nation's fears combined with the vulnerable West Coast cities and ports, the response was Executive Order 9066. The immediate effect was citizens from Japan or of Japanese descent were rounded up and placed in relocation camps, also known as detention centers. German and Italian Americans were also affected by this, but most Japanese Americans were the largest group. As a result, many businesses, farms, and houses were left behind and were lost. Long term effects were families that were destroyed as a result of Executive Order 9066. The order also resulted in long lasting hostility and racism towards Japanese Americans. While already dealing with daily issues of violence and discrimination, the fear from Pearl Harbor fueled these issues even more.

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Conditions at the camps were spare. Internees lived in uninsulated barracks furnished only with cots and coal-burning stoves. Residents used common bathroom and laundry facilities, but hot water was usually limited. The camps were surrounded by barbed-wire fences patrolled by armed guards who had instructions to shoot anyone who tried to leave. Although there were a few isolated incidents of internees' being shot and killed, as well as more numerous examples of preventable suffering, the camps generally were run humanely.

People at the camps tried to establish some sense of community. Residents were allowed to live in family groups, and the internees set up schools, churches, farms, and newspapers. Children played sports and engaged in various activities. Nevertheless, the internment took its toll on Japanese Americans, who spent as long as three years living in an atmosphere of tension, suspicion, and despair.

The roundup and internment of Japanese American citizens led to a few peaceful protests as well as several legal fights. One legal battle, the case of Korematsu v. United States, led to a Supreme Court ruling in 1944 that the evacuation and internment of Nisei was constitutional. Meanwhile, however, the government had begun to investigate Japanese Americans more closely and concluded that some were loyal Americans. Individuals certified as loyal were allowed to leave the camps, usually to take jobs in the Midwest or the East. Others were allowed to work as temporary migrant labourers in the West, and still others enlisted in the U.S. Army. On the same day as the Korematsu decision, in its ruling on Ex parte Endo, the Supreme Court skirted the constitutionality of internment as a policy but determined that the government could not detain a U.S. citizen whose loyalty was recognized by the U.S. government.

On December 18, 1944, the government announced that all relocation centres would be closed by the end of 1945. The last of the camps, the high-security camp at Tule Lake, California, was closed in March 1946. With the end of internment, Japanese Americans began reclaiming or rebuilding their lives, and those who still had homes waiting returned to them.

An American promise

In 1976 Pres. Gerald R. Ford officially repealed Executive Order 9066. He used that opportunity to express regret for that policy:

February 19th is the anniversary of a sad day in American history. It was on that date in 1942...that Executive Order 9066 was issued...resulting in the uprooting of loyal Americans....We now know what we should have know then-not only was that evacuation wrong, but Japanese Americans were and are loyal Americans....I call upon the American people to affirm with me this American Promise-that we have learned from the tragedy of that long-ago experience forever to treasure liberty and justice for each individual American, and resolve that this kind of action shall never again be repeated.

A presidential commission in 1982 identified race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership as the underlying causes of the government's internment program. In 1988 the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act, which awarded more than 80,000 Japanese Americans $20,000 each to compensate them for the ordeal they had suffered. Congress also issued a formal apology for the government's policy toward Japanese Americans.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Amy Tikkanen.

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Japanese American internment - Relocation, Segregation, Injustice

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Japanese American internment - Relocation, Segregation, Injustice: Conditions at the camps were spare. The internments led to legal fights, including Korematsu v. United States. In 1976 Gerald Ford repealed Executive Order 9066. In 1988 the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act, which awarded more than 80,000 Japanese Americans compensation for the ordeal they had suffered.

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Although people sent to internment camps were completely uprooted from their normal lives, they still found ways to live normally inside the camp. Every family was given a small shack in which to live, and very little was given to furnish the shack. Normal life was attempted during the time Americans spent in the camps, whether it was establishing schools for the children, churches, farms, or even creating social gatherings to bring the community together to help relieve the tension inside the internment camps during the war.