Executive Order 9102 is a

United States president The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

ial

executive order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of t ...

creating the

War Relocation Authority The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a United States government agency established to handle the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It also operated the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, which was t ...

(WRA), the US civilian agency responsible for the forced relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The executive order was signed by President

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

on March 18, 1942, and it officially expired on June 30, 1946. The Director reported directly to the president of the United States.

Leadership

Milton S. Eisenhower Milton Stover Eisenhower (September 15, 1899 – May 2, 1985) was an American academic administrator. He served as president of three major American universities: Kansas State University, Pennsylvania State University, and Johns Hopkins Universit ...

, previously an official of the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...

, was chosen to head the WRA. Eisenhower stepped down as the Director of the WRA in June 1942 to take a position as

Elmer Davis Elmer Holmes Davis (January 13, 1890 – May 18, 1958) was an American news reporter, author, the Director of the United States Office of War Information during World War II and a Peabody Award recipient. Early life and career Davis was born i ...

's deputy at the

Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and othe ...

, and Dillon S. Myer was appointed in his place. Myer asked Eisenhower if he should accept, and according to Myer, Eisenhower advised him "Dillon, if you can sleep and still carry on the job my answer would be yes. I can’t sleep and do this job. I had to get out of it." By the time Myer was appointed Director of the WRA on June 17, 1942, plans for the complete relocation of Japanese-Americans had already been announced. Myer later recalled that he soon discovered after his appointment that "most of the reasons General_DeWitt's_actions.html" ;"title="John_L._DeWitt.html" ;"title="or the evacuation and John L. DeWitt">General DeWitt's actions">John_L._DeWitt.html" ;"title="or the evacuation and John L. DeWitt">General DeWitt's actionswere phony and many of the rumors which were used to justify the evacuation which came out of the attack on Hawaii were proven to be completely untrue". Myer also stated that influential figures were backing the evacuation, including "Earl Warren, [who] was Attorney General of California but looking forward to being candidate for governor in the fall of 1942 which he was and he favored the evacuation" and "[Col. Karl Bendetsen] was a prime mover in recommending to General DeWitt that he carry out the evacuation. As a matter of fact after the evacuation order was issued here on the mainland he tried for weeks to get a large group of people evacuated from Hawaii with the idea I am sure of justifying their West Coast evacuation." Within nine months, the WRA had opened ten facilities in seven states, and transported over 100,000 people from the WLCA facilities of whom 64 percent were

American citizen Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constit ...

s. Over the course of the next 19 months, approximately 120,000 Japanese-Americans were removed from the Pacific coast and placed in internment camps.

References

External links

Executive Order 9102 Establishing the War Relocation Authority. March 18, 1942, the American Presidency Project (UCSB).
Legal history of the United States 9066 1942 in American law Internment of Japanese Americans Civil detention in the United States {{US-stub

Leadership

See also

References

External links