On Feb. 19, 1942, the Japanese American community in Southern California — the nation’s largest — was horrified by President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. It declared the government’s intent to treat some part of the West Coast as a war zone, complete with powers that suspended some constitutional guarantees.
Soon, Japanese Americans up and down the West Coast were told to pack their things, sell or give away what they could, and prepare for the unknown. What had happend a century earlier to Native Americans, and what was happening again to Jews in much of Europe, was about to happen to Japanese Americans — forced relocation.
(Video by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)