Kermit Roosevelt III of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, ALI member and Reporter for the Conflict of Laws Project, took part in a dialogue with George Takei at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. The discussion took place on the opening day of Library’s newest exhibit, “Images of Internment: The Incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.”
Executive Order 9066 led to the incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese descent -- including approximately 80,000 American citizens -- during World War II. Mr. Takei spoke on his family’s imprisonment in the Japanese internment camps as a result of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s executive order and how that experience is relevant today.
Professor Roosevelt called the executive order a failure of political leadership as well as a failure of the people to fight President Roosevelt’s decree. In his novel Allegiance: A Novel, Professor Roosevelt analyzes the imprisonment of thousands of Japanese Americans and presents the debate within the U.S. government surrounding the Japanese internment camps.
Watch a video of the discussion.