] The days following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
] were dark days of the American spirit. Unable to strike
] back effectively against the Japanese Empire, Americans
] in the Western states lashed out at fellow citizens and
] resident aliens of Japanese ancestry.
]
] Executive Order 9066, signed by President Roosevelt on
] February 19, 1942, was the instrument that allowed
] military commanders to designate areas "from which any or
] all persons may be excluded." Under this order all
] Japanese and Americans of Japanese ancestry were removed
] from Western coastal regions to guarded camps in the
] interior. Former Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, who
] represented the Department of Justice in the
] "relocation," writes in the Epilogue to this book:
]
] The truth is -- as this deplorable experience proves --
] that constitutions and laws are not sufficient of
] themselves...Despite the uneqivocal language of the
] Constitution of the United States that the writ of habeas
] corpus shall not be suspended, and despite the Fifth
] Amendment's command that no person shall be deprived of
] life, liberty or property without due process of law,
] both of these constitutional safeguards were denied by
] military action under Executive Order 9066...

I plan on ordering this book - as I fear it could happen again here in the 21st century.