Japanese internment camps were established during World War II by President Franklin D. Roosevelt through his Executive Order 9066. From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent, including U.S. citizens, would be incarcerated in isolated camps. Enacted in reaction to the Pearl Harbor attacks and the ensuing war, the incarceration of Japanese Americans is considered one of the most atrocious violations of American civil rights in the 20th century.
On February 19, 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 with the stated intention of preventing espionage on American shores.
Military zones were created in California, Washington and Oregon--states with a large population of Japanese Americans. Then Roosevelt's executive order forcibly removed Americans of Japanese ancestry from their homes. Executive Order 9066 affected the lives of about 120,000 people--the majority of whom were American citizens.
Canada soon followed suit, forcibly removing 21,000 of its residents of Japanese descent from its west coast. Mexico enacted its own version, and eventually 2,264 more people of Japanese descent were forcibly removed from Peru, Brazil, Chile and Argentina to the United States. Continue reading from History.com
Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II (National Archives)
Japanese American Internment (Brittanica)
Japanese American Incarceration (The National WWII Museum)
One Camp, Ten Thousand Lives; One Camp, Ten Thousand Stories (Manzanar, National Park Service)
Manzanar (Densho Encyclopedia)
Japanese Americans at Manzanar (National Park Service)
Executive Order 9066 (National Archives)
Life in Incarceration: Japanese-Americans in Washington Reflect on WWII (Crosscut.)