Change of Date!
Monday, Mar 18 (re-scheduled date)
In association with Creighton University
On February 19, 1942 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, initiating the mass incarceration of 120,000 American residents and citizens of Japanese ancestry solely on the basis of race. The Supreme Court found the order to be unconstitutional in 1944 and by 1946 the American media referred to Japanese American confinement as “America’s worst wartime mistake.”
The Omaha JACL Chapter, Day of Remembrance Committee, and the Creighton University American Studies Program invite you to join us for an important conversation about the state of American civil liberties.
Monday, Mar 18 (re-scheduled date)
In association with Creighton University
On February 19, 1942 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, initiating the mass incarceration of 120,000 American residents and citizens of Japanese ancestry solely on the basis of race. The Supreme Court found the order to be unconstitutional in 1944 and by 1946 the American media referred to Japanese American confinement as “America’s worst wartime mistake.”
The Omaha JACL Chapter, Day of Remembrance Committee, and the Creighton University American Studies Program invite you to join us for an important conversation about the state of American civil liberties.
Day of Remembrance
February 19th is a significant date for the Japanese American community. On this day in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which gave the U.S. Army the authority to remove civilians from the military zones established in Washington, Oregon, and California during WWII. This led to the forced removal and incarceration of some 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast, who had to abandon their jobs, their homes, and their lives to be sent to one of ten concentration camps scattered in desolate, remote regions of the country.
No Japanese Americans were ever charged, much less convicted, of espionage or sabotage against the United States. Yet they were targeted, rounded up, and imprisoned for years, simply for having the “face of the enemy.”
Every February, the Japanese American community commemorates Executive Order 9066 as a reminder of the impact the incarceration experience has had on our families, our community, and our country. It is an opportunity to educate others on the fragility of civil liberties in times of crisis, and the importance of remaining vigilant in protecting the rights and freedoms of all.
-- From National Japanese American Citizens League website
No Japanese Americans were ever charged, much less convicted, of espionage or sabotage against the United States. Yet they were targeted, rounded up, and imprisoned for years, simply for having the “face of the enemy.”
Every February, the Japanese American community commemorates Executive Order 9066 as a reminder of the impact the incarceration experience has had on our families, our community, and our country. It is an opportunity to educate others on the fragility of civil liberties in times of crisis, and the importance of remaining vigilant in protecting the rights and freedoms of all.
-- From National Japanese American Citizens League website