EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066 Following the devastating Japanese attacks on the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in 1941, many

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EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066
Following the devastating Japanese attacks on the U.S. Pacificfleet at Pearl Harbor in 1941, many in the United States fearedthat Japanese Americans on the West Coast had the potential andinclination to form a fifth column (a hostile group working fromthe inside) for the purpose of aiding a Japanese invasion. Thesefears mingled with existing anti-Japanese sentiment across thecountry and created a paranoia that washed over the West Coast likea large wave. In an attempt to calm fears and prevent any realfifth-column actions, President Franklin D. Rooseveltsigned Executive Order 9066, which authorized the removal ofpeople from military areas as necessary. When the military dubbedthe entire West Coast a military area, it effectively allowed forthe removal of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans from theirhomes. These people, many of them U.S. citizens, were moved torelocation centers in the interior of the country. They lived inthe camps there for two and a half years
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This sign appeared outside a store in Oakland, California, ownedby a Japanese American after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.After the president’s executive order, the store was closed and theowner evacuated to an internment camp for the duration of the war.(credit: the Library of Congress)
The overwhelming majority of Japanese Americans felt shamed bythe actions of the Japanese empire and willingly went along withthe policy in an attempt to demonstrate their loyalty to the UnitedStates. But at least one Japanese American refused to go along. Hisname was Fred Korematsu, and he decided to go into hiding inCalifornia rather than be taken to the internment camps with hisfamily. He was soon discovered, turned over to the military, andsent to the internment camp in Utah that held his family. But hischallenge to the internment system and the president’s executiveorder continued.
In 1944, Korematsu’s case was heard by the Supreme Court. In a6–3 decision, the Court ruled against him, arguing that theadministration had the constitutional power to sign the orderbecause of the need to protect U.S. interests against the threat ofespionage. (Links to an external site.)
Forty-four years after this decision, President Reagan issued anofficial apology for the internment and provided some compensationto the survivors. In 2011, the Justice Department went a stepfurther by filing a notice officially recognizing that thesolicitor general of the United States acted in error by arguing touphold the executive order. (The solicitor general is the officialwho argues cases for the U.S. government before the Supreme Court.)However, despite these actions, in 2014, the late Supreme CourtJustice Antonin Scalia was documented as saying that while hebelieved the decision was wrong, it could occur again.
What does this statement by former Justice Scaliasuggest about the extent of the president’s war powers? What doesthis episode in U.S. history suggest about the power ofan executive order during times ofwar?