FDR's Executive Order 

  No. 2 of 4

     Liberal columnist Walter Lippmann wrote that the Pacific Coast was in "imminent danger of an attack from within and from without." He cited as evidence the fact that there was no evidence. The next day every member of Congress from the West Coast signed a letter to President Roosevelt recommending "immediate evacuation of all persons of Japanese lineage." 

     FDR signed Executive Order 9066 permitting the military to remove citizens from California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii. They were relocated to barbed-wire-encircled camps, in some of the most inhospitable land...such as Arizona desert and swampland in Arkansas.

     Sympathetic Americans helped them as best they could, such as storing their belongings. Our article featured Robert Fletcher Jr., who spent the rest of the war doing nothing but maintaining several properties, not his own. 

     Able-bodied Japanese were sent off on trains. It was practical that elderly relatives, who didn't speak English, went with them. Children on the trains wondered if they would be killed or used as slaves. Teenagers became family leaders.

     Until some camps were ready, Japanese were settled on fairgrounds near Fresno, in the desert. There were rows of ugly, tar paper covered buildings, and no trees. At its peak, Fresno held more than 5,000 Japanese Americans, some of them kept in horse stalls. 

     They were shocked to have armed guards. The government said it was for their protection. So, they wondered "why are they pointing the guns at us?" They were cramped, food was sickening, and bathrooms abominable. Toilets were in rows, in full view. 

     A routine included a newsletter, baseball games, and a summer school for basic English. 

 Tomorrow: Carving out a life