Japanese American Internment: WWII, Not WWI

No Japanese Americans were interned during World War I. The internment occurred during World War II.

WWII Internment (1942–1946)

• Executive Order 9066 (Feb 19, 1942) — Authorized exclusion zones
• ~120,000 people — 2/3 U.S. citizens (Nisei); 1/3 immigrants (Issei)
• 10 War Relocation Authority camps — Manzanar, Tule Lake, Heart Mountain, Topaz, Poston, Gila River, Granada, Minidoka, Jerome, Rohwer
• Pretext: "Military necessity" — West Coast defense
• Reality: Racism, war hysteria, economic competition, political pressure
• No evidence of espionage/sabotage by Japanese Americans

WWI Context (1917–1918)

• Japanese Americans served in U.S. military (100th Battalion/442nd RCT roots)
• Japan was U.S. ally (Anglo-Japanese Alliance)
• Anti-Asian immigration laws existed (1924 Immigration Act later), but no mass incarceration

Redress

• 1988: Civil Liberties Act — Formal apology, $20,000 reparations
• 1990: First payments; President Bush apologized
• Korematsu v. US (1944) conviction vacated 1983; formally repudiated 2018

The WWI/WWII confusion is common but historically critical: internment was a WWII-specific civil rights catastrophe.