"It Can't Happen Here!" (Part 2, Forced Internment)

Yesterday we looked at MKULTRA and Operation Paperclip, both of which were clandestine programs/experiments that were carried out on American civilians. Unfortunately these were not the first or the last examples of a the U.S. Government overstepping its bounds.

Today we are going to look at Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066. Executive Order 9066 was issued February 19, 1945 and eventually led to the internment of those with “foreign enemy ancestry”. This eventually lead to the internment of more than 120,00 Japanese of which roughly two thirds were American citizens. 11,000 Germans, and 3,000 Italians, along with some Jewish refugees fleeing from Europe.

Not only did this order lead to the internment of these people but many more were forced to relocate from their homes to other areas of the country. Mind you that none of these people at the time were ever proven to be a threat to the nation or the government. Amazingly this order was not rescinded until 1976.

So far we have seen how government entities and agencies have experimented on civilians, and forced civilians into internment camps. All along violating rights guaranteed to be protected by the Constitution of the United States. So tell me again how “It can't happen here!”

More sources: http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist9/evacorder.html

http://home.comcast.net/~chtongyu/internment/camps.html

http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/89manzanar/89manzanar.htm