You are being asked to compare and contrast Executive Order 9066 which was signed by President Franklin Roosevelt during WWII (see Chapter 23: WWII–Fighting the Good War) to Executive Order 13769 signed by President Donald J Trump in January 2017. The last order has been amended recently, but we are going to examine the first one as there is more literature looking back on it already (one of the issues we find in history). Executive Order 9066: This is how your textbook describes it: West Coast politicians pressed the Roosevelt administration to evacuate the Japanese from their communities. It did not seem to matter that about 80,000 Nisei (American born children) were American citizens and that not one was ever convicted of espionage. ‘A Jap’s a Jap,’ commented General John DeWitt, commander of West Coast defenses…In response, the War Department in February 1942 drew up Executive Order 9066, which allowed the exclusion of any person from designated military areas. Under DeWitt’s authority, the order was applied only on the West Coast against Japanese Americans. By late February Roosevelt had agreed that both Issei (Japanese immigrants) and Nisei would be evacuated.” (Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff, pg. 555) Executive Order 13769 (Links to an external site.) – (this link on the left is to the exact text from the White House) https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states/ As most of you know unless you’ve been living under a rock or somewhere else less pleasant, President Trump has issued two executive orders since becoming president restricting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries. To be a ban? Or not be a ban? That is the question… 🙂 Either way, it has caused lots of controversy and I am taking a wild guess it will be which will be discussed in history texts from here on out. Now, I am not asking you to read the original text of the order (which I have made available above) but I have provided two articles from sources which I consider to be credible and reliable: The Atlantic: What’s Trump’s Executive Order Does–and Doesn’t Do (Links to an external site.) https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/01/trump-immigration-order-muslims/514844/ NPR: Full Text: Trump’s New Executive Order On Travel, Annotated (Links to an external site.) https://www.npr.org/2017/03/06/518785814/full-text-trumps-new-executive-order-on-travel-annotated The first article is from January 2017 and the NPR article was written in January but now revised to reflect the changes made in March to the order. What I am asking you to do is this: Demonstrate your understanding of the executive order issued during WWII by providing examples from the text (not outside sources!) and compare and contrast it to the executive order issued by President Trump in January. The two articles I have provided should give you enough information to make basic comparisons. What variables are similar and different? Can you detect a point of view in our textbook (Keene) in how they portray the Japanese executive order? What is that tone and why do you think it is (textual support here will help). (It is okay to say you think it’s neutral, just say why and offer evidence.) Does there appear to be a point of view in the articles you are reading about Trump’s order? Or does it seem straightforward and factually based? Again, why or why not? How do you think American historians will judge this ban/not ban? 🙂