Day of Remembrance: Executive Order 9066

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Monday February 19, 2007 · 11:58 AM PST

2007/02/19 · 11:58

Sixty-five years ago today it was not Presidents Day. In fact, February 19, 1942 stands out as one of the low points for presidents in the twentieth century, if not one of the low points for presidents ever. On this day in 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which went on to make scapegoats and prisoners out of an entire group of citizens. Japanese Americans who lived on the west coast of the United States, as a result of the Executive Order, were rounded up with only what they could carry and forced into internment camps. They were eventually forced to prove their loyalty to a country that, up until that point, they loved unconditionally, and to a country that, at that particular time, didn't care much for them.

In the Japanese American community we call this the "Day of Remembrance." So, let us remember, and also let us learn.

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