The Office of Naval Intelligence had also informed President Roosevelt that the wholesale incarceration of Japanese Americans was unnecessary. pointing to the lack of evidence of any acts of espionage or sabotage by Americans of Japanese ancestry or their parents. before. during or after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Of the 120.000 individuals who were ordered. on 72 hours notice. to pack. leave their homes. and report to assembly centers on the west coast prior to being moved to camps in the interior United States. about 80 percent were native born American citizens. many of them little children and teenagers. The remainder. including many elderly people. were legal alien residents of the United States who were prohibited by U.S. law. the Oriental Exclusion Act of 1924. from becoming naturalized American citizens. All of them. native born Americans and legal alien residents alike. were entitled to the full protection of the United States and the laws of our land. but their constitutional rights were summarily denied. Without being charged or indicted. without trial or hearing. without being convicted of any single crime. they were en masse ordered into what can only be described as Americanstyle concentration camps. surrounded by barbed wire fences. with searchlights. watch towers. and armed guards.
Keywords matched
Exclusion Act naturalized