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By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780674011182
ISBN: 067401118X
Label: Harvard University Press
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: May 30, 2003
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Studio: Harvard University Press
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Editorial Review:
On February 19, 1942, following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and Japanese Army successes in the Pacific, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed a fateful order. In the name of security, Executive Order 9066 allowed for the summary removal of Japanese aliens and American citizens of Japanese descent from their West Coast homes and their incarceration under guard in camps. Amid the numerous histories and memoirs devoted to this shameful event, FDR's contributions have been seen as negligible. Now, using Roosevelt's own writings, his advisors' letters and diaries, and internal government documents, Greg Robinson reveals the president's central role in making and implementing the internment and examines not only what the president did but why. Robinson traces FDR's outlook back to his formative years, and to the early twentieth century's racialist view of ethnic Japanese in America as immutably "foreign" and threatening. These prejudicial sentiments, along with his constitutional philosophy and leadership style, contributed to Roosevelt's approval of the unprecedented mistreatment of American citizens. His hands-on participation and interventions were critical in determining the nature, duration, and consequences of the administration's internment policy. By Order of the President attempts to explain how a great humanitarian leader and his advisors, who were fighting a war to preserve democracy, could have implemented such a profoundly unjust and undemocratic policy toward their own people. It reminds us of the power of a president's beliefs to influence and determine public policy and of the need for citizen vigilance to protect the rights of all against potential abuses. (20010922)
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Interesting read but theory does not hold water
In "By Order of the President," Robinson dogmatically attempts to prove his theory that Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of the worst biased and prejudiced presidents we have ever had, giving as proof, FDR's "undemocratic" methods of forcing Japanese Americans into incarceration, based upon his racist and prejudiced views of all Japanese. We shall see now just who is prejudiced.
The first impression one receives from any book, quite naturally, is from the cover. Judging then from the title, ... Read More
Rating:  - Well-done critique and rethinking of the WWII internment
In this book, Greg Robinson reexamines one of the most controversial incidents in American history: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's decision to relocate more than 100,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, to internment camps for the duration of World War II. In this book, Mr. Robinson argues that scholars have not sufficiently examined Roosevelt's role in formulating and implementing the internment policy. Previous studies sought to explain FDR's decision primarily as ... Read More
Rating: - A Well-Rounded, Enjoyable Read
`By Order of the President' is a book that attempts to show how involved Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the internment of a group of Americans during World War II (more specifically, the Americans whom ancestrally came from Japan). The book starts out by detailing FDR's youth and pre-presidential opinions of the Japanese portion of the American population, as well as his position on the Japanese of Japan's population. It then proceeds to present the events that led to the internment and how the president ... Read More
Rating:  - please!!
to whoever wrote the review about "sickening anti-americanism"- that is completely ridiculous. the conditions in the internment camps are not the issues i am speaking of; it was the concept of forcefully interning american citizens that i find disgusting. that you defend this action is even more disgusting. perhaps you should rate the book- which i found extremely interesting- more on the basis of the information it gave rather than your view of American presidents being unable to do any wrong.
Rating: - Important history lesson
While United States pop culture has tradditionally portrayed the 40's as a binary of freedom vs. facism, this book exposes the truth that had long been supressed behind ideological walls.
The United States was in fact guilty of it's own internment of an entire group of people based on their involuntary membership in a subordinated group. Although taken to a lesser extent than that of the Nazi's, the actual reality of the country's actions severely clashes with the images of freedom and justice used ... Read More
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