Why were Japanese Americans removed from the U.S. West Coast after Pearl Harbor?

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the U.S. government forcibly removed approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast and placed them in internment camps. This action was driven by a combination of war hysteria, long-standing race prejudice, and a failure of political leadership.1

Despite a lack of evidence, the U.S. War Department suspected that Japanese Americans might act as espionage agents or saboteurs for Japan. Because many Japanese Americans lived near vital military and industrial assets on the Pacific coast, military commanders pressured the government to intervene. Consequently, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, authorizing the military to exclude any persons from designated areas.2134

The policy was fundamentally unjust, as it prioritized perceived national security over the civil liberties of U.S. citizens and residents. In 1988, the U.S. Congress formally acknowledged this "grave injustice" by passing the Civil Liberties Act, which included an official apology and reparations to survivors.214