Venice Japanese American Memorial Monument

Venice Japanese American Memorial Monument. . , In April 1942, during World War II, more than a thousand American men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry in Venice, Santa Monica, and Malibu reported to this corner at Venice and Lincoln Boulevards. They were allowed to bring with them only what they could carry. The Western Defense Command and Fourth Army issued Civilian Exclusion Order No. 7 which gave families only days to dispose of their property and possessions. Buses transported them directly to the American concentration camp at Manzanar in Inyo County where many internees were incarcerated for more than three years. , Japan's December 7 attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii plunged the United States into World War II within days. The Department of Justice put Japanese American community leaders into detention centers for the unsubstantiated fear of collusion with the enemy nation of Japan. On February 18, 1942, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which empowered the U.S. Army to declare areas of Washington, Oregon, and California militarily sensitive. EO 9066 forced the removal of 120,000 Japanese and American citizens of Japanese ancestry from the west coast to be imprisoned in temporary assembly centers at fairgrounds and race tracks. Months later, they were taken to ten American concentration camps under the War Relocation Authority. This forced removal and imprisonment, without any regard to due process or the writ of habeas corpus, violated their rights under the U.S. Constitution. , May this Venice Japanese American Memorial Monument remind us to be forever vigilant about defending our constitutional rights. The powers of government must never again perpetrate an injustice against any group based solely on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, race, or religion. , Manzanar War Relocation Authority Camp incarcerated more than 10,000 persons of Japanese ancestry. , First of ten War Relocation Authority camps completed.