In December 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Navy Air Service catalyzed the United States’ formal entry into World War II, precipitating a rapid escalation of anti-Japanese xenophobia within American political and social spheres. This culminated on February 19, 1942, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. The directive mandated the forced removal and incarceration of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans–two-thirds of whom were citizens–into remote concentration camps administered by the War Relocation Authority (WRA).
