Harris. L i am the executive director here. It is very nice to see everyone out here this afternoon. Certainly we want to thank you , on behalf of all of our supporters, and we want to thank you for your support. Support of our members, trustees , and the National Archives and records administration, of which we are a part. The, an organization like humanities of new york for their vision and action grant that is the longest to be possible today. Fdr establish this library as a place not just to hold and display the materials heat generated throughout his career but also a place to study and learn about his administration and learn about the role of chief executive and about the times in which he was working. Little could he have appreciated the immense Economic Impact cities, of the ultimate war, which helped define his administration and his presidency. We take the charge very seriously, and we seek to encourage the exploration and analysis into all facets of his life, his leadership, his choices and his decisions. Especially, in retrospect, of mrs. Roosevelt. Everything that was controversial must be taken with the good and the appreciation and the honor. This isnt to tear down but to understand, and it is to foster atmosphere here that the president would have encouraged for debate and dialogue, based on evidence, not only evidence here in the archives, the evidence that is here for interpretation and review. And not merely on opinion. We may not agree with any given author, but we can trust that the sources here at the library are without question and that this forum is open to everyone. For everyones views, conversation. We are pleased to have here today greg robinson. He will speak about his book by order of the president fdr and the internment of japanese americans. Greg provided us with valuable insight. We encourage all of you here to go over and, if you have not seen it, go through the exhibit and appreciate the hard work that our team did to create this exhibit. Greg is a noted scholar on internment, the author of multiple works, including a tragedy of democracy and after camp. He is a professor of history at the university of quebec, montreal. I have been given permission to say it that way and not in the french, because my accent is disastrous. It may cause a break in relations, so i do not want to cause that. He is a good friend of the library, so greg, please . Thank you very much. [applause] prof. Robinson good afternoon. It is a very great honor to be here at the fdr library. Thank you all for coming, thank you to the library for inviting me. It is really impressive that we have this kind of turnout on a sunday afternoon. It is very nice of you to take time from your schedules for this. I wanted to talk today about the clash between franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt on the subject of japanese americans. President Franklin Roosevelt and first Lady Roosevelt clashed strongly about their view of the internment of japanese americans. The president signed executive order 9066, which authorized the removal of over 110,000 japanese americans from the west coast on the basis of their ancestry and sanctioned their imprisonment in government camps, or as the president himself referred to them as publicly concentration , camps. Mind you, he meant concentration camps in the old sense of where people were concentrated together, not in the sense of nazi death camps. And when we talk about this affair, commonly called japaneseamerican internment, internment technically refers to the confinement of enemy aliens. This was the case of a government confining its own people. So internment is slightly inaccurate. But because there is no other word for this treatment, we use it as kind of a placeholder. In the same time, the president allowed japanese americans to be stripped of their property and to be confined without charge, in which they remained for most of the war. We will talk about what happened in a minute. His wife was a human rights activist who considered arbitrary confinement unjust and unamerican. Forced to remain publicly silent by herexecutive order position as first lady, she nonetheless privately attempted to persuade the president not to authorize mass removal. Once the camps were established she sought to speed the process , of letting the inmates out. She joined forces with allies in the government. The vivid contrast between the roosevelts and their words and action helps illuminate the larger question of how such events could take place and what lessons we can take from it. Follow me . Good. Because you will be quizzed on this later. [laughter] first, in order to understand fdrs actions, levy place it in the larger narrative. Let me place it in the larger narrative. The story starts during the late 1930s as the struggle for power in the pacific rose between japan and the United States. As japan begins largescale naval building in 1935 and 1936, it invades china in 1937, then eventually signed an alliance with nazi germany and fascist italy in 1940. The president and his advisers were forced to plan for the possibility of war and quite logically took steps to assure the offense defense. In the process, they became worried about the inversion of the ethnic japanese communities in hawaii and the west coast. There were about 150,000 people of japanese ancestry in each of these regions. They were made up in part of the immigrants themselves, the socalled issei, who had been in america for several generations, since the beginning of the 20th century. They had spent basically their adult lives in the United States. Then, the majority of the community was there a moral corn americanborn children, the socalled nisei. Americanborn citizens of japanese ancestry. There had long been prejudiced against japaneseamericans on the west coast. Hawaii is a somewhat different matter. On the west coast, there were not allowed to own property, mary whites, and they faced job discrimination. The is before world war ii antijapanese journalists, publicists, and speakers, including congressman spread , wild rumors about them such as absurd stories about how japanese american fishing boats on the pacific were actually Japanese Naval vessels in disguise that could be taken out at a moment and transformed into patrol torpedo boats. It is not clear how much the president and his advisors were directly influenced by such talk. But certainly, they were led to suspect the loyalty of west coast japanese. Part of it, you can understand it. Because the japaneseamerican press had supported japan and its work war in china and had spoken up in favor of tokyos foreign policy. On the other hand, the japaneseamericans did not surrender their americanness any less than any other groups that oppose american involvement in world affairs. But the president was very suspicious of japaneseamericans. When he learned, in mid1936, that japanese communities in hawaii were being visited by sailors on japanese ships, he ordered his agents to make lists of all people who had contact with the ship so that they could be put into internment camps in case of trouble. The office of Naval Intelligence began sending spies to the west coast as early as 1936 to spite spy on japanese citizens. Later, the fbi sent its own agents. In mid1941, the president mobilized his own team of spies. You can see a letter from John Franklin carter, who was the leader of this group. Carters agent went to the west coast of the president s request in the middle of 1941. He reported that japanese communities, especially the young nisei, were overwhelmingly loyal and very anxious to prove their american citizenship. But still, the president and his advisors were taking no chances and were ready to believe any kind of rumor. The Justice Department compiled the socalled abc list, with names of people for roundup in case of war. These people were selected not because of any evidence about their personal activities there wasnt any. But simply because the nature of their position. Community leaders, buddhist priests, businessmen, led the government to suspect them of disloyalty in case of war. Then in november of 1941, several weeks before pearl harbor, the attorney general announced that the government had finished building what he called concentration camps and was prepared to undertake wholesale roundups of japanese aliens and segregate them for what he called a temporary period. If relationships if relations between the United States and japan broke off. Let me be clear i dont think there was any fixed and settled plan by the American Government for mass action against all japaneseamericans on the west coast that existed before the war. But what we can say is that the suspicion against japaneseamericans, what we can call today, the fake news, the wild reports, the false accusations, and the Government Action created a climate of opinion in which the president and his advisers were prepared even over prepared to think the worst of japaneseamericans while the white house was planning for concentration camps made for a bureaucratic momentum which made later action seem like not just unthinkable but followthrough. A few if you build it, you spend the money, you are going to want to use it. You create facts on the ground. In any case the japanese raid on , pearl harbor on december 7 of 1941, which brought the United States into the war, devastated japaneseamericans. Within hours and days after the attack, over 1000 japanese immigrants, the issei on the would west coast, who had been marked on the lists, were sent to camps in bismarck, north dakota and in montana. Which are already built and maintained and ready to hold any aliens in case of war. Still in the weeks that , followed, military officials on the west coast became nervous over the possibility of a Japanese Invasion of the mainland. They singled out the regions ethnic residents, both the issei and the nisei, as a potential is calling for tokyo because the command to what the commanding general called the enemy race. At the same time the secretary , of the navy, frank knox, who visited hawaii about a week after pearl harbor and was anxious to shift the blame for the disaster from the navy, claimed without evidence that the attack was a product of a japanese is calling over hawaii. There was no one to rebut them publicly. Meanwhile west coast nativists , and commercial groups that hated japaneseamericans who were competitors, nativists who didnt like nonwhite people on the west coast, started campaigning against japanese americans. The fact that there was not a single act of disloyalty or documented case for sabotage by any west coast japaneseamerican did not call the fears of their panicked neighbors. Instead, general john dewitt commented that, in fact, the absence of any signs of sabotage only proved that japaneseamericans really were guilty. Because they were waiting for the signal. Of course, how are you going to respond to that one . By late january of 1942, Army Commanders and west coast political leaders began to press the government to evacuate, as they called it, all people of japanese ancestry, regardless of citizenship, from the west coast. These pressures brought the issue of removal to the white house. The War Department leaders, led by secretary of war henry simpson, seconded their local commanders. They figure the people on the ground near what they were asking for. But he had no evidence of any danger. The attorney general, supported reports from the fbi and Naval Intelligence that the Japanese Community was overwhelmingly loyal opposed the idea. , on february 11, 1942, the president received a message from stinson who supported mass removal but thought he needed president ial authorization for such a policy. He asked fdr for authorization. Roosevelt told him over the phone that he was too busy to meet with him but that he trusted him and his deputy to do whatever they thought necessary, provided they were as reasonable and humane as possible. The army then arranged for the Justice Department to draft the executive order. Executive order 9066, which provided the authority for the army to remove japaneseamericans from their homes, which later led to the imprisonment in government camps was then signed on february 19. Now why was fdr so amenable to such drastic and hasty action . Of course, as bill told you, i wrote a book about this very question and i will not give you , the whole book in two seconds. [laughter] but as i can say, general eisenhowers brother, the first leader of the War Relocation Authority, a civilian agency roosevelt set up to direct the camps, he later stated the president s final decision was imposed by a variety of factors. By events over which he had little control, by inaccurate or incomplete information, buyback council, by Strong Political pressures, and by his own training, background, and personality. I think that is a reasonably accurate summary of what inspired fdr to this decision. Certainly, the play of events was a necessary, if not sufficient factor. ,roosevelt, we can agree in the question of west coast japaneseamericans, was a passive figure who responded to widespread calls for action and would have left japaneseamericans alone if there was not that kind of political pressure and fear of Japanese Invasion after japans success in the pacific. Ironically, hawaii, which had been attacked, roosevelt ordered mass confinement of japanese communities which would be shipped wholesale to the United States mainland. However, opposition from the military commander in hawaii eventually scuttled the plan. So in hawaii, where is about actually pushed hard for mass confinement, it did not happen. Whereas on the west coast, where he was a rather passive versus event participant it did , happen. Back counsel and incomplete bad counsel and incomplete information were also important. Years before the war, this fake news, rumors, and sensational accounts regarding activities must have helped influence. At the same time, roosevelt was willingly misled. Even before the war with japan began, roosevelt was informed by his own agents that japaneseamericans were loyal. There was no evidence of sabotage. He chose not to accept such findings. Reports believed the without foundation on the basis of lack of information, it was because he was prepared to believe the worst about japaneseamericans. The political pressures on the president were indeed enormous. Must be assigned significant final decision. Stinson and mccoy were both prominent republicans who agreed to join the Roosevelt Administration on the grounds that they would be kept free from partisan politics. The entire west coast congressional delegation, minus one or two people, was solidly in aber of mass removal. And there were journalists and letter writers of all kinds who wrote in to the president. So there was a Strong Political consensus for removal and hardly any opposition. It did not take a genius, let alone someone with roosevelts sensitive political antenna, to see which way the political wind was blowing. It is hard to say what influence his background had, but we can certainly say that fdr had a past history of sharing popular prejudice against japaneseamericans. In the mid1920s, years before he was elected president , Franklin Roosevelt had written a set of articles about diplomatic relations between the United States and japan, which you wanted to improve. But he publicly insisted that ilatable were un assim into American Society. He justified laws on the west coast that prevented japanese from buying property or marrying thiss on the basis that protected citizens. I am quoting him i will give you my best fdr. So far as americans are concerned, it must be admitted that as a whole, they honestly believe that the mingling of white with oriental blood on an extensive scale is harmful to our citizens. Mr. Robinson while it is not clear how much he continued this through the period of the war, he was friends with the scientists studying japanese skulls. He believed that they were biologically aggressive and evil. He believed their skulls were less developed, evolutionarily. It is certainly true that if you justify mass action on the grounds that they are not really americans, you will be less inclined to care about their Citizenship Rights enough to intervene and protect them. As i say on november 19, 1942, roosevelt signed his order and as a result of the order, over 110,000 west coast japaneseamericans were ordered from their homes without trial and sent to camps under military guard. The average age was about 18 and the rest were long resident aliens who were predominately middleaged. They could take only what they could carry and the had to sell their homes, their cars and other personal property. Roosevelt specifically refused to assign a property custodian to watch after their property while they were being moved. He said he might care about the people and what happened to them once they were removed but not about their property. The future Supreme Court justice who was the man on the west coast offered to protect the property of japaneseamericans to make sure they would move. They said that he was crazy. When they were first moved into Assembly Centers that were fairgrounds and racetracks on the west coast, you can see these very striking photos. The inmates were housed in stables and animal pens, after several weeks or months under army guard, they were transported with army guards to a network of relocation centers. Camps operated by the War Relocation Authority and hastily built in the interior of the country. In wyoming, arizona, california, utah, idaho and arkansas. These were remote desert and swamp areas and to the inmates were surrounded by barb wire and swamps. Barbed wire and swamps. The health and sanitary