Japanese American Internment

During World War 2, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. This allowed for the War Relocation Authority to forcibly relocate and incarcerate about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry in concentration camps. Most of the internees were American citizens and many were children.

The government claimed that internment was needed because some Japanese Americans posed a security risk. All of California and parts of Oregon, Washington, and Arizona were declared to be military exclusion zones. Japanese Americans across these areas were placed into one of 10 internment camps. The government produced this propaganda video about the process:

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. This officially apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government and authorized a payment of $20,000 to each former internee who was still living. The legislation admitted that government actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership."