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Adam Sommers
Dr. Neal Palmer
HIST 498
October 26, 2016
Draft Two
On February 19, 1942, only weeks after the violent Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor in December of the previous year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed
Executive Order 9066. This Order, following weeks of growing tensions and suspicions
toward Japanese-Americans, effectively allowed the government of the United States to
uproot and relocate American citizens and residents of Japanese descent into
internment camps in attempts to contain “yellow peril”. With the enactment of Executive
Order 9066, over 100,000 Japanese-Americans were rounded up, shipped across the
country, and detained against their will(s?). Although overwhelming public opinion in
the United States tended to support anti-Japanese legislation after the bombing of Pearl
Harbor, a relatively small group of organizations and individuals campaigned tirelessly
against the Executive Order on the basis of human rights and constitutional violations.
The individuals, however ineffective in their efforts to immediately appeal President
Roosevelt’s Executive Order, were successful in raising public awareness for the
humanitarian and constitutional atrocities against human rights committed by the United
States government in the enforcement of Executive Order 9066.
The injustices committed by the United States government in the enforcement of
Executive Order 9066 can undoubtedly be observed as violations of not only
constitutional and civil rights, but of basic human rights, as well. The conscious
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development of universal human rights over the course of human history became an
arduous task for defenders of fundamental freedoms and liberties shared by all. The
modern case for the establishment of human rights can be traced to the French
Revolution. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the people of France
effectively transferred political and social power from the hands of the monarchy to the
hands of the people. The revolutionaries responsible for the radical social and political
change were fueled and inspired by the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
the Citizen that radically claimed that men are born equal in nature and in the eyes of
the law. Perhaps the most profound product of the European Age of Enlightenment, the
Declaration became the earliest formal document devoted solely to the establishment of
universal human rights. Later developments in the cataloguing of the concept of
universal human rights, as in the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, go
on to list specific examples and qualities of irrevocable and inalienable human rights.
Due to the fact that the federal government of the United States made little effort
to conceal the unconstitutionality of Executive Order 9066, many opponents to
Japanese internment rooted their arguments in debates for the preservation of human
rights. Perhaps the most vocal adversary to Japanese interment, former Republican
Governor of Colorado Ralph L. Carr, publicly denounced the forced deportations of
Japanese-Americans during his time as governor. Carr grounded his disdain for anti-
Japanese prejudice by drawing examples of conflict between the actions proposed and
committed by the government of the United States and traditional American civic values.
Born to a family of miners in rural Colorado, Carr moved frequently around the
state of Colorado before settling in a small town, Antonito, located in the southern
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portion of the state to practice law. After more than a decade of residence in Antonito,
Carr and his family relocated to Denver, where the young lawyer was appointed
Assistant Attorney General, and later U.S. Attorney for Colorado. Following an
additional decade of experience in both law and politics, in 1938, Carr won his race for
the governorship of Colorado. Carr was, unfortunately, allowed just three short years of
service as governor before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 forced many
politicians across the country to make a public stance supporting or opposing the
internment and deportation of Japanese-Americans.
Due to widespread hysteria and distrust of Japanese-Americans, the large
majority of politicians in the United States adopted a stance in favor of the forced
deportation of over 100,000 Japanese-American citizens living in Washington, Oregon,
