National Security (H8) and the Rights of the Individual: Internment Debate

Covers the basics of the Supreme Court’s decision that determined the government acted constitutionally when it detained people of Japanese ancestry inside internment camps during World War II.

Early in World War II, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, granting the U.S. military the power to ban tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry from areas deemed critical to domestic security

Manzanar tells its story

In 1942 the United States made the decision to forcibly remove Japanese nationals, Japanese resident aliens, and American citizens of Japanese descent from the West Coast of the United States.* While some West Coast Japanese who previously had been identified as suspect were arrested as early as December 1941, Civilian Exclusion Order No. 1 applied to Bainbridge Island. Published accounts of the time suggest that the Japanese were removed because of their proximity to the Bremerton Naval Station; it appears they were actually removed because of the presence on Bainbridge Island of “Station 5,” one in a chain of radio intercept stations that collected vital information on Japan

On this day--Feb. 19--in 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order clearing the way for some 120,000 U.S. residents of Japanese descent to be evicted from their homes and imprisoned

The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate. The finished map can be saved, e-mailed, or printed.

Yukio Shimomura has vivid memories of Tanforan Racetrack. He spent quite a bit of time at the San Bruno, Calif., track as a child -- but he wasn't there to watch the horses run. Shimomura was one of more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry forced into internment camps during World War II.

During World War II, more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans were forced to abandon their homes and businesses and move to guarded camps surrounded by barbed wire