CHAPTER 13 - AMERICA APOLOGIZES TO HER CITIZENS
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At the time Japanese-Americans were "relocated" to various camps in the west, even senior government officials were concerned about what the United States was doing. Milton Eisenhower, Dwight's younger brother, was head of the War Relocation Authority until distress over the whole process caused him to resign. He could no longer sleep at night. After the war was over, Americans who had been dislodged from their homes and businesses were allowed to make claims for compensation. But Executive Order 9066 remained on the books for another 31 years. On February 19, 1976 President Gerald Ford issued Proclamation 4417 which terminated Executive Order 9066. It was 34 years to the day that the infamous Order had been issued. Calling February 19, 1942 "a sad day in American history" and the action uprooting over 100,000 American citizens a "setback to fundamental American principles," the President said: We now know what we should have known then--not only was that evacuation wrong, but Japanese-Americans were and are loyal Americans. ...I...do hereby proclaim that all authority conferred by Executive Order 9066 terminated upon the issuance of Proclamation 2714, which formally proclaimed the cessation of hostilities of World War II on December 31, 1946. Years later, in October of 1990, President George Bush sent letters to citizens whose lives had been uprooted by the relocation camps:
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