Final answer:
Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, led to the internment of about 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. It was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and has since been recognized as a violation of civil rights.
Step-by-step explanation:
Japanese American Internment During WWII
The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was authorized by Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. This executive order gave the military the authority to exclude anyone deemed a threat to national security from certain military areas, which led to the removal and eventual internment of around 120,000 people of Japanese descent, many of whom were U.S. citizens, into internment camps throughout the United States.
This action was a result of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which unleashed a cascade of racist assumptions and fears that these citizens might engage in espionage or sabotage. Despite the lack of evidence of disloyalty, this group, many of whom were children and two-thirds of whom were natural-born U.S. citizens, were held in internment camps for up to four years. It wasn't until the 1990s that the U.S. government issued a formal apology, with reparation efforts continuing beyond that.
Executive Order 9066 was widely recognized as a violation of civil rights and was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Korematsu v. United States. Historians and legal scholars have continued to debate the constitutionality and ethical implications of the internment.