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Arroyo Grande historian recounts WWII internment of local citizens of Japanese descent

Americans of Japanese descent await transport to internment camps following Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 in February, 1942.
Library of Congress
Americans of Japanese descent await transport to internment camps following Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 in February, 1942.

Eighty years ago, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevet signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the evacuation and relocation of all Americans of Japanese descent to internment camps far removed from the West Coast.

U.S. Army soldier tacks up evacuation orders for Americans of Japanese descent living on the West Coast.
Library of Congress
U.S. Army soldier tacks up evacuation orders for Americans of Japanese descent living on the West Coast.

Join correspondent Tom Wilmer for a conversation with Historian Jim Gregory, author of WWII Arroyo Grande.

Gregory shares the sorrows and triumphs of the dramatic period in Arroyo Grande history—a time when more than forty percent of the town’s high school student body was of Japanese ancestry.

Click here to view WWII U.S. Office of War Relocation Authority video about relocation of Japanese following Executive Order 9066

You are invited to subscribe to the Lowell Thomas Award-winning podcast travel show, Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer, featured on the NPR Podcast DirectoryiHeartRadioApple Podcast

Tom Wilmer produces on-air content for Issues & Ideas airing over KCBX and is producer and host of the six-time Lowell Thomas award-winning NPR podcast Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer. Recorded live on-location across America and around the world, the podcasts feature the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine & spirits, brewpubs, and the culinary arts--everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls to interviewing the real Santa Claus in the Arctic.