About two months after Pearl Harbor was attacked, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, setting in motion a process for the evacuation and internment of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans living along the West Coast of the United States. On Tuesday, March 20th, John Christie will discuss the history and legacy of this action in a talk titled “February 19, 1942: Another Day of Infamy for America?”
As the result of Order 9066, American citizens and legal resident aliens were placed in barren, isolated camps and kept under armed guard until 1945 . During that time, no charges were made and no opportunity was accorded to demonstrate their loyalty to the country. Why did it happen? How did it happen? Could it happen again? These and other issues will be discussed, together with the presentation of many illustrations of relevant personalities and scenes.
Mr. Christie, a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School, is a retired partner from the District of Columbia office of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr, specializing in antitrust litigation with occasional appearances before the Supreme Court. He says, “If I had not gone to law school, I would have gone on to graduate school in history and been a teacher which, I guess as much as anything, explains my interest in historical events such as the Japanese Internment.”
Mr. Christie teaches the popular course on important Supreme Court decisions as part of the WC-ALL educational program each fall.
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
7:15 PM
Wesley Hall
Heron Point
501 East Campus Avenue
Chestertown, MD 21620
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