Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds

by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto

On Valentine’s Day, DeWitt—demonstrating a marked absence of affection for fellow Americans—wrote Secretary of War Henry Stimson, “The Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second and third generation Japanese born on United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship, have become ‘Americanized,’ the racial strains are undiluted.” He added, in a feat of paranoia and contorted logic: “The very fact that no sabotage has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken.” Five days later, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, according military commanders the authority to remove suspect populations—alien and citizen alike—from any area. The decree would ultimately be regarded as one of the most shameful moves of his presidency, but at the time, Attorney General Francis Biddle, who opposed it, noted of the president, “I do not think he was much concerned with the gravity or implications of this step.” Given carte blanche, in less than two weeks DeWitt would begin carving exclusion zones from Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington, the first step to a massive evacuation effort and long-term internment.