Fear after the bombing of Pearl Harbor lead the U.S. government to round up and incarcerate over 100,000 Japanese Americans living in the West Coast.
Many of them were American citizens. They were forced to give up the lives and businesses they had built and forced into internment camps.
President Roosevelt signed the order in February, 1942. Even though the Justice Department had opposed the relocation, the move was backed by an array of popular and respected people, including then California governor Earl Warren, news broadcaster Edward Murrow, and an artist by the name of Theodor Seuss Geisel, who’s better known today as Dr. Seuss.
In “Infamy,” historian Richard Reeves delves into one of the darkest episodes of American history.
Author Richard Reeves and 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge A. Wallace Tashima will hold a conversation on the Japanese American internment tonight, at 7 p.m. at Chevalier’s Books in Hancock Park. For more information, click here.
Guest:
Richard Reeves, author of multiple books, including his latest, “Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II” (Henry Holt, 2015). He is also a senior lecturer at USC.