Review Of By Order Of The President, By Greg Robinson

In By Order of the President, author Greg Robinson examines the controversial topic of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to relocate more than 100,000 Japanese-American citizens into internment camps for the duration of World War Two using Executive Order 9066. Preceding studies have sought to explain Roosevelt’s decision as a sensible reaction to bureaucratic pressure from military and political leaders on the West Coast, who feared the control Japanese-Americans and pro-Japanese held. Despite the vast examination of the Japanese Internment dilemma, Robinson argues that scholars have not sufficiently examined Roosevelt’s role in creating and implementing the internment policy. Robinson argues that typical narratives tend to diminish

The narrative begins with the first two chapters focusing on assessing Roosevelt’s evolving attitude toward Japan and Japanese-Americans, during his pre-presidential years and his first two terms in office. Continuing, Robinson changes directions and focuses on the origin and implementation of the internment policy, beginning with Roosevelt’s decision to issue Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, the authorization of relocating Japanese-Americans from the West Coast into internment camps, the subsequent controversy over with Japanese-Americans deemed “loyal” to the United States, and the decision to finally close the camps in 1946. The final chapter concludes with Robinson attempting to understand how Roosevelt, whom historians have celebrated for his strong commitment to individual rights, could have supported such an unjust policy. Robinson argues Roosevelt’s “past feelings toward the Japanese-Americans must be considered to have significantly shaped his momentous decision to evacuate Japanese-Americans from their homes … whether citizens or longtime resident aliens, [Japanese-Americans] were still Japanese at the core and should be regarded as presumptuously disloyal and dangerous on racial grounds” (p. 118 -