San Leandro, California · May 30, 1942 On this date in California in 1942, California-born Japanese American Fred Korematsu was arrested for refusing to comply with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which authorized the Secretary of War and his military commanders to require all Japanese Americans be removed from designated “military areas” and…
Washington, D.C. · February 19, 1942 On this date in 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. It authorized the War Department to designate “military areas” in the U.S. and exclude from them anyone whom the department felt to be a danger to the security of the nation. Although the order was carefully…
Roosevelt was elected president in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Roosevelt had served as Assistance Secretary of the Navy during Woodrow Wilson’s presidency. After contracting polio in 1921 he fought to resume his political career in his native New York State and was elected governor in 1928. In 1932 he was…