Governor-General issues statement on US Internment of Citizens of Japanese Descent in 1942

-- Virtual Pensacola, Governor-General's Press Release:

Today marks the Sixty-Fifth anniversary of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt's executive order 9066.

The president of the United States, with the support of the Congress ordered the forced internment of US Citizens of Japanese descent for no other crime than having been born of Japanese Descent. This action was upheld by the US Supreme Court in Korematsu v. United States.

It is appropriate that this action be remembered at this time. The free world currently faces an enemy as determined as Imperial Japan, and some are again calling for restrictions of the freedoms of Citizens.

The Dominion of British West Florida holds such actions, even in a time of War, to be counter to the ideals of Liberty and Equality before the Law enshrined in our Constitution and the Constitution of other free countries, including the United States.

With the treat of terrorism, and mutual mistrust rising in the world we are compelled to examine the past, and to extract from it the lessons available to us. In hindsight all parties involved acknowledge the internment was a mistake. At the time, it was held to be a reasonable reaction to the perceived threat. We are again in a time of war against imperialism. Calls are sounding to again restrict the Freedoms of the People to “Protect the Homeland”.

We can never again let fear cloud our thinking, nor prejudice guide our actions. The Free World must not repeat the mistakes of the 1940s. In this War of Cultures, we in the West must uphold our ideals, and maintain a culture of Freedom. We must fight according to the Rules we have established for ourselves, and not allow the enemy to set the parameters of this battle.

May God grant us the wisdom to fight the good fight and the strength to win it.

Robert, Duke of Florida, Lord of St. George, GSB
Her Majesty's Governor-General in and for the
Dominion of British West Florida.