After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. This executive order authorized the Secretary of War to designate parts of the country as "military areas ” from which anyone could be excluded and travel restrictions could be imposed. A few weeks later, General John L. Dewitt, in charge of the Western Defense Command, considered the entire Pacific coast as a place susceptible to attack and designated it a military zone. Initially, the military established a curfew preventing Japanese Americans from leaving this military area. Then the military changed policy by moving Japanese Americans between the Pacific Ocean and the Mississippi River away from this area. Approximately 200,000 Japanese Americans were forced to comply with these conflicting commands and evacuate to relocation centers in other parts of the country. Now these Americans of Japanese descent were essentially imprisoned there by law. The American government has given four reasons for interning Japanese Americans: fear of sabotage by Japanese Americans or Japanese citizens posing as American citizens, the intent of special interests to acquire land and businesses owned by Japanese Americans, rationalization that Japanese Americans needed to intern Japanese Americans be sent to internment camps for their own protection and to motivate racial prejudice. However, none of these arguments were valid for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. There was fear of sabotage by Japanese Americans or Japanese citizens posing as American citizens. Eugene V. Rostow of Harper’s Magazine wrote, “These people were taken into custody as a military measure on the basis of espionage and sabot… middle of paper… rights of Japanese Americans. The Anglos wanted Japanese Americans interned so they could take possession of property left behind. This was a sign of greed, not an applicable explanation for their internment. There was no rationalization that Japanese Americans should also be sent to internment camps for their own protection. There were never any reports of Japanese Americans being attacked as a result of the war. Finally there was the rationale of racial prejudice, which was absolutely ridiculous. Just because they had Japanese ancestry, they couldn't be said to be spies and fifth columnists. In all human races there could be good and bad characteristics. A human could not control his own race, but he could make himself trustworthy. As has been indicated, there was no compelling reason for the government to interne Japanese Americans during World War II.