SAVING FACE | Remembering Executive Order 9066

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt infamously signed and issued Executive Order 9066. For the unaware, Executive Order 9066 was the authorization for the Secretary of War to create military zones and exclude certain people from these zones after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Although the order does not explicitly mention people of Japanese descent, it cleared the way to allow subsequent military orders that led to the eviction and internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans (which came out to every Japanese American in California, Washington, and Utah). For comparison, only 3000 Italians were rounded up. This year marks the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066.