By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans (Unabridged)
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
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.
Customer Reviews
He knows it was wrong and still defends it
Some people love FDR so much, he can do no wrong; that, regardless of how much wrong he did.
The author isn't ignorant of history, he lists all the crimes of FDR in the case of internment, but then he goes onto rationalize, apologize, or minimize each crime. When those don't work, he looks for someone else to blame for FDR's decisions.
Here are some brief examples:
"…It was a different time…" Then why wasn't it a different time for German-Americans or Italian-Americans on the West Coast. They got carte blanche.
"…The statement was a misrepresentation of the truth, but succeeded in getting the president's policy approved…" Do you see how this statement is a misrepresentation? Let me translate: FDR lied to get what he wanted, so it was okay.
"No one knew how bad the camps were…" Oh, yes. They did. The sites were picked for their lack of facilities and brutal environment.
"FDR didn't act alone…" Sorry, the buck stops with the president. Nixon didn't jimmy a single lock at the Watergate complex, still, he had to take the heat.
Again and again, the author revealed FDR's racism and prejudice in great detail, and then-- fearing the scornful eyes of his writing colleagues, I guess-- he would hedge and look around for a Republican to blame, like John J. McCloy or Henry Stimson. But they served at the behest of the president and certainly couldn't overrule him. McCloy couldn't force FDR to do his bidding. McCloy was an assistant secretary to a non-Cabinet-level secretary. That made him an underling to and underling. So, no, he didn't play FDR like a sock puppet. On the other hand, Henry Morgenthau and Harry Hopkins were the Sid and Marty Krofft to FDR's Sigmund the Sea Monster. And both were in full agreement with the internment plan. In fact, the author fails to mention that Morgenthau inquired with J. Edgar Hoover about arresting all Japanese Americans on 12/10/41. Both were happy to see American citizens carted away from their homes and property with no compensation. No doubt, selling the abandoned booty paid for a lot of Blue Eagle stickers!
Interning the Japanese was a crime. Making them give up their property was also a crime. Throwing them out of the camps four years later with no homes, no property, no money, and no way to get back to the West Coast, was a third crime; perhaps the cruelest of the group. And I won't even mention all those who died in the camps.
All are apologized for herein (well, not the deaths. The author doesn't delve into those).
Well, I do not accept the crimes. Anyone who reveres FDR or apologizes for him after reading this book shares in the guilt for those crimes.
Can I say anything nice about the book? The dates were correct and FDR was the problem. The author nailed both of those.