United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt once proclaimed that the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which took place on December 7, 1941 , were “a date which will remain infamy”. The events that unfolded that fateful morning not only resulted in a declaration of war by the United States against Japan the next day (which subsequently prompted Germany and Italy to declare war on the United States three days later), but also proved to be a landmark and traumatic event in Japanese history. Japanese Americans. The aftermath of the Pearl Harbor bombings prompted Franklin D. Roosevelt to authorize Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, paving the way for the internment of Japanese Americans. In Hawaii, where Japanese Americans made up a third of the population, only 1,200 to 1,800 people were interned. On the mainland (particularly on the West Coast), more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were interned. Despite widespread outcry in Japanese American communities, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of these exclusion orders in the landmark case Korematsu v. United States of 1944. The horrors of internment continued until January 2, 1945, when the exclusion order was rescinded, and in 1946 the last internment was closed. Despite their release, the hardships and material losses suffered by the Japanese American internees were far from over. Many internees who survived this traumatic ordeal not only suffered psychological problems, but also lost their property and income. Although the U.S. government has publicly apologized and compensated surviving former internees under the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, it remains unclear whether this adequately compensates former internees for long-term economic hardship. term which followed the internment. ...... middle of paper ...... one can bring back deceased family members or reverse the deep psychological scars that stay with some for the rest of their lives. The internment of Japanese Americans ultimately teaches us that “we are all human beings, regardless of color or race.” Bibliography1. “Life after the nightmare.” Oracle ThinkQuest, 2011. Web. .2. Chin, Aimee. “Long-Term Labor Market Effects of Japanese American Internment.” Houston: Department of Economics, University of Houston, 2004. 1-25. Print.3. Rawls, J.J. and Bean, W. (2008). California: An Interpretive History (9th ed., pp. 189-276). San Francisco, CA: McGraw Hill.4. Wright, Steven. “The Civil Liberties Act of 1988.” Dartmouth Education, nd Web. .