President Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes in They Called Us Enemy
“In the meantime, we, the people, are already prepared for action.”
That same day the president signed a proclamation declaring that every adult Japanese citizen inside the U.S. was now an “alien enemy” and must follow strict regulations.
On February 19, 1942, seventy-four days after Pearl Harbor... he issued Executive Order 9066.
The order never used the words “Japanese” or “camps”—it authorized the military to declare areas “from which any or all persons may be excluded,” and to provide “transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations” from persons excluded from these areas.
As a teenager, I had many after-dinner discussions with my father... discussing everything from the government’s forced incarcerations of Japanese Americans... to politics.
He taught me the power of American democracy—the people’s democracy.
“People can do great things, George. They can come up with noble, shining ideals.
“But people are also fallible human beings, and we know they made a terrible mistake.”
It was a disastrous depression that Roosevelt pulled us out of.
It took that man, and his determination and creative energy...
To establish all those programs, and lift the fortunes of our great country.
But as we were driving here today, I thought, “I’m going to the home of the man who imprisoned me.”
And now I’m here in his home...
Only in America could that happen.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes in They Called Us Enemy
“In the meantime, we, the people, are already prepared for action.”
That same day the president signed a proclamation declaring that every adult Japanese citizen inside the U.S. was now an “alien enemy” and must follow strict regulations.
On February 19, 1942, seventy-four days after Pearl Harbor... he issued Executive Order 9066.
The order never used the words “Japanese” or “camps”—it authorized the military to declare areas “from which any or all persons may be excluded,” and to provide “transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations” from persons excluded from these areas.
As a teenager, I had many after-dinner discussions with my father... discussing everything from the government’s forced incarcerations of Japanese Americans... to politics.
He taught me the power of American democracy—the people’s democracy.
“People can do great things, George. They can come up with noble, shining ideals.
“But people are also fallible human beings, and we know they made a terrible mistake.”
It was a disastrous depression that Roosevelt pulled us out of.
It took that man, and his determination and creative energy...
To establish all those programs, and lift the fortunes of our great country.
But as we were driving here today, I thought, “I’m going to the home of the man who imprisoned me.”
And now I’m here in his home...
Only in America could that happen.
