Japanese American Internment Camps 

After the Japanese Empire bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 into law on February 19, 1942, forcibly removing 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry from their homes and sending them to ten internment camps. Evacuees, as they were sometimes called, could take only as many possessions as they could carry and were forcibly placed in crude, cramped quarters. 

As a result of Executive Order 9066, thousands of families had their lives interrupted or destroyed and many lost businesses, farms, and loved ones. The records show that 1,862 people died in the internment camps, mostly due to health complications exacerbated by malnutrition and facilities that lacked proper protection from the elements.