We have a hateful national story we should never allow to be forgotten. That is the wartime action for which President Franklin Roosevelt is most commonly criticized, his 1942 issuance of Executive Order 9066. The result was incarceration in our western desert of 122,000 Japanese Americans, 70,000 of whom were U.S. citizens by naturalization or birthright.

Closely examined, in that Roosevelt allowed it to happen, this proved to be an error of omission rather than commission. He failed to object to the manner in which his reasonable and appropriate order of “protection against espionage and against sabotage to national‐defense material, national‐defense premises, and national‐defense utilities” was carried out. The full truth of this happening is rarely told.

In contrast with the abuse experienced by German Americans during World War 1, wrote historian James MacGegor Burns, “Americans were treating … aliens in their midst with admirable restraint. There were only a few incidents, such as the sawing down by some fool or fanatic of four Japanese cherry trees in Washington’s Tidal Basin.”

The order authorized Secretary of War Henry Stimson to recommend the designation of military areas. “I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated Commander deems such action necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion. The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to provide for residents of any such area who are excluded there from, such transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations as may be necessary, in the judgment of the Secretary of War or the said Military Commander, and until other arrangements are made, to accomplish the purpose of this order … I hereby further authorize and direct the Secretary of War and the said Military Commanders to take such other steps as he or the appropriate Military Commander may deem advisable to enforce compliance with the restrictions applicable to each Military area herein above authorized to be designated, including the use of Federal troops and other Federal Agencies, with authority to accept assistance of state and local agencies … I hereby further authorize and direct all Executive Departments, independent establishments and other Federal Agencies, to assist the Secretary of War or the said Military Commanders in carrying out this Executive Order, including the furnishing of medical aid, hospitalization, food, clothing, transportation, use of land, shelter, and other supplies, equipment, utilities, facilities, and services.”

The president’s order is humane, and makes no reference to persons of Japanese descent, or the creation of containment camps!

Authorized by Stimson to respond to the executive order, Lt . General John DeWitt reported to Roosevelt “no sabotage by Japanese Americans had yet been confirmed,” but he added, illogically and with obvious racial bias, that only proved “a disturbing and confirming indication such action will be taken.” The lack of a sabotage event, DeWitt said, meant that something big was being planned.

DeWitt targeted Italian, German, and Japanese Americans. Lobbyists with economic interests in which Japanese Americans were competitors moved congressional legislation supporting DeWitt’s incarceration of only the Japanese.

In the long tradition of U.S. selective control of immigration, Asians were the most limited. Chinese were admitted for the grueling and dangerous labor of building the western railroads, then brutalized as people of color. In the 1920s, Republicans designed quotas limiting immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. From Asia it was stopped.

Japanese, earlier settled on the West Coast, were enterprising farmers and small business persons. They were resented for success by their neighbors. When they were suddenly ordered to leave, they had to quickly sell assets at a loss. Some property was seized by neighbors. Camp inmates were held in deplorable conditions until the end of the war. Property losses were estimated at $ 1.3 billion, lost income $2.7 billion. Forty-three years later, surviving camp inmates were offered $20,000 in compensation.

DeWitt made no distinction between the Pacific enemy and Americans of Japanese descent. For the record, the detention of Japanese during World War II was the work not of Roosevelt but of General John DeWitt. Any effort by the president to block DeWitt’s order during the war would have proven a political nightmare.

Charlemont resident Carl Doerner is an author and historian, currently editing his new work, “Breaking the Silence: Revisioning the American Narrative.”

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