On December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor marked the start of the United States’ involvement in World War II. It also started a wave of fear and unrest throughout the country, leading to an overwhelming prejudice against Japanese Americans. “Most of us had no ties to Japan,” Lilly Kodama, a survivor, explained. “We had never been there. We had never even seen it.” Similar to the reactionary racism and prejudice against Arab Americans following 9/11, the discrimination against Japanese Americans had no true basis in fact, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order only created more harm and prejudice against an already vulnerable community.
