Executive Order 9102

Executive Order 9102, signed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 18, 1942, established the War Relocation Authority (WRA). This order was a direct consequence of Executive Order 9066, which had granted the military the authority to exclude individuals from designated areas. While not explicitly naming any group, Executive Order 9066 was primarily applied to Japanese Americans on the West Coast following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The WRA's mandate was to take Japanese Americans into custody, prevent them from owning land, and eventually return them to their homes after the war. Between 1942 and 1945, approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans were detained in ten internment camps across several western states.12