Kermit Roosevelt III Discusses Japanese Internment Camps of WWII
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.
