By Order of the President : FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans

On February 19, 1942, following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and Japanese Army successes in the Pacific, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed a fateful order. In the name of security, Executive Order 9066 allowed for the summary removal of Japanese aliens and American citizens of Japanese descent from their West Coast homes and their incarceration under guard in camps. Amid the numerous histories and memoirs devoted to this shameful event, FDR's contributions have been seen as negligible. Now, using Roosevelt's own writings, his advisors' letters and diaries, and internal government documents, Greg Robinson reveals the president's central role in making and implementing the internment and examines not only what the president did but why. Robinson traces FDR's outlook back to his formative years, and to the early twentieth century's racialist view of ethnic Japanese in America as immutably foreign and threatening. These prejudicial sentiments, along with his constitutional philosophy and leadership style, contributed to Roosevelt's approval of the unprecedented mistreatment of American citizens. His hands-on participation and interventions were critical in determining the nature, duration, and consequences of the administration's internment policy. By Order of the President attempts to explain how a great humanitarian leader and his advisors, who were fighting a war to preserve democracy, could have implemented such a profoundly unjust and undemocratic policy toward their own people. It reminds us of the power of a president's beliefs to influence and determine public policy and of the need for citizen vigilance to protect the rights of all against potential abuses. Publishers Weekly In 1942, FDR authorized the army to evacuate more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans from the Pacific Coast states, stripping them not of their citizenship, which he considered absolute, but of their civil rights, which he considered contingent. Robinson, a historian at George Mason University, argues that, because of FDR's deserved reputation as a humanitarian, this action has been treated as an aberration and, therefore, not thoroughly explored. In this lucid, comprehensive and balanced examination, Robinson maintains that Roosevelt's decision was, in fact, not fundamentally inconsistent with his overall political philosophy and world view. Rather, a deep-seated belief that Japanese-Americans were biologically incapable of being true Americans enabled FDR, though he deplored open prejudice, to be willingly misled by bad counsel and misinformation about the perceived Japanese-American threat, despite reliable reports, including one by J. Edgar Hoover, to the contrary. Since boyhood, FDR had admired Japan's naval strength, but following Japan's victory over Russia in 1904-1905 and its invasion of China in the 1930s, Roosevelt saw Japan as a potent economic and political rival. Consequently, after the Pearl Harbor attack incited anti-Japanese hysteria, West Coast politicians and the military pressured FDR to take action at home; the president's racist views, compounded by what Robinson describes as his loose administrative style and lack of moral leadership, contributed to his passive indifference toward the physical and psychological fate of a group of Americans. Robinson's conscientious arguments and meticulous documentation movingly clarify a little-understood failure ofAmerican democracy. Agent, Charlotte Sheedy. (Oct. 26) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. On February 19, 1942, following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and Japanese successes in the Pacific, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed for the summary removal of Japanese aliens and American citizens of Japanese descent from their West Coast homes, and their incarceration under guard in camps. Amid the numerous histories of this shameful event, FDR's contributions have been seen as negligible. Now, using Roosevelt's own writings and other documents, historian Robinson reveals the president's central role in the internment and examines not only what the president did but why. This book attempts to explain how a great humanitarian leader, while fighting a war to preserve democracy, could have implemented such a profoundly unjust and undemocratic policy toward his own people. It reminds us of the power of a president's beliefs on public policy and of the need for citizen vigilance to protect against potential abuses.--From publisher description. Racial fear emerges War abroad, suspicion at home FDR's decision to intern Implementing an undemocratic policy Covering a retreat Equal justice delayed President of all the people? Greg Robinson. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [264]-310) And Index.