The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C. has been hosting a special exhibition since November of last year that focuses on the works of three Japanese American female painters. Titled “Pictures of Belonging,” the exhibition highlights the contributions of Miki Hayakana (1899–1953), Hisako Hibi (1907–1991), and Mine Okubo (1912–2001). The exhibition aims to restore the artistic legacy of these individuals, who were undervalued during a time of racial exclusion. These three painters share the harrowing experience of being incarcerated in internment camps or being forcibly relocated under Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in February 1942, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Executive Order 9066 allowed the U.S. government to relocate civilians from military areas, but it was specifically applied to Japanese Americans. Beginning in March 1942, Japanese Americans in military areas like California were detained in “assembly centres” under the guise of a forced evacuation. This affected artists such as Hibi and Okubo. Hayakana, on the other hand, avoided internment by relocating to New Mexico, a place where she had no prior connections. According to the National Archives, around 125,000 people, including 70,000 U.S. citizens, were detained in camps under this order.
The executive order came during the heightened fears of Japanese American collusion with the enemy in the Pacific War. Strangely, no forced internment occurred in Hawaii, which was geographically closer to Japan and where Japanese Americans made up 40% of the population. The National Archives notes that before the executive order, Japanese Americans in the western U.S. were economically competitive, and anti-immigrant groups were lobbying Congress for stricter measures. This came at a time when the U.S. was also engaged in a fierce war against Nazi Germany, with about 11,000 German residents in the U.S. also interned, though under individual investigations based on the Alien Enemies Act. This raise concerns that Executive Order 9066 was driven not by military necessity, but by racial prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.
The discriminatory nature of the order has been criticized, especially since it disproportionately targeted Asian Americans. In 1982, the U.S. federal government concluded that the internment measures were not a result of military necessity but were instead based on racial prejudice and wartime paranoia. Executive Order 9066 remains one of the most infamous executive orders in U.S. history.
Executive orders have been a tool used by U.S. presidents since the nation’s founding, with each president wielding executive power granted by Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution. While some executive orders serve symbolic purposes, others bypass legislative processes and circumvent Congress. Former President Franklin Roosevelt, who served from 1933 to 1945, holds the record for the most executive orders, signing 3,721 during his presidency. President Donald Trump, in contrast, issued 220 executive orders during his four years in office, with 58 of those signed in the first two weeks of his second term, surpassing the average number of annual executive orders.
Trump’s executive orders spanned a wide array of topics, including immigration, energy, diplomacy, and national defence. Some of these orders, such as those attempting to end birthright citizenship, were viewed as unconstitutional or contrary to Supreme Court precedents. However, these orders are being challenged in courts, reflecting concerns about their potential impact on the system of checks and balances that is central to U.S. democracy. As a result, there is growing anxiety over the long-term consequences of President Trump’s “executive order rule” and the potential erosion of democratic principles.