Internment Camps: 1942
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the then current President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, made a decision about what to do with the people of Japanese descent living in the country. On February 19th, 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The terms of Executive Order 9066 authorized the Secretary of War to designate Military areas and then allowed for the military to control within and around the area. Using that control, the Secretary of State had the power to determine who would be "excluded". Although most of the men, women and children that were forced to leave their homes had never shown any disloyalty to the country, in an attempt to protect the country against possible Japanese espionage and betrayal, tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese descent were excluded and sent to live in Internment camps which were camps made for prisoners of war. They were built in Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, California, Idaho, Arkansas and Utah. Each camp was fenced in, and contained barracks for living spaces, a mess hall, a recreational hall, a school, a hospital and a post office. While it seems that the internment camps had everything a person could want or need, the quality of life within the camps were harsh because the conditions within were not ideal and consequently, many people died due to bad health and poor care in the camps . The Internment camps were a direct result of the frenzy that the attack on Pearl Harbor created.