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Despite the reasoning behind these unethical camps, treatment was subjective to location for Japanese Americans.
All Japanese Americans on the West Coast were interned, but only a small percentage of Japanese Americans in Hawaii were given similar treatment.
This is odd because at the time there were more than 150,000 Japanese Americans who made up more than a third of Hawaii's population.
Executive order 9066 was put into effect on February 19, 1942.
Authorized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it allowed for military personnel to create "exclusion zones," which were used to exclude all Japanese persons from the Pacific Coast.
These areas included California and parts of Oregon, Washington and Arizona.
Despite the questionable actions taken by the United States Government, the Supreme Court ruled that the exclusion orders were indeed constitutional.
To make matters worse, the United States Census Bureau was directly involved in disclosing addresses and personal information of Japanese Americans, leading directly to the interment of many Japanese Americans.
It was not until 2007 that the United States Census Bureau's involvement was proven.
Until that point, it was denied that it had any involvement at all.
To appease tensions and uneasy feelings amongst many Japanese American citizens, Ronald Reagan signed legislation that apologized for the atrocities committed against the Japanese Americans in 1942.
Lack of political leadership, war paranoia and racial prejudice were all included as reasons for the United States actions in the legislation signed by Reagan.
Shortly thereafter, about $1.6 billion in reparations were distributed amongst Japanese American citizens who were directly interned or to the heirs of others who had been interned.
Unfortunately, no amount of money will make up for the choices made by the United States in 1942.
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