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[[Executive Order 9066]] authorized the military to exclude any person from any area of the country where national security was considered threatened. It gave the military broad authority over the civilian population without the imposition of [[martial law]]. Although the order did not mention any specific group or recommend detention, its language implied that any citizen might be removed. In practice, the order was applied almost exclusively to [[Japanese American]]s and Japanese nationals, with only few Italian and German Americans suffering similar fates. Ultimately, approximately 110,000 [[Japanese people|Japanese nationals]] and Japanese Americans were interned in housing facilities called "[[Japanese American internment|War Relocation Camps]]".<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/manz/ Manzanar National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)]</ref><ref name=howmany>Various primary and secondary sources list counts between 110,000 and 120,000 persons.</ref>
Edmund Russell writes that, whereas in Europe Americans perceived themselves to be struggling against "great individual monsters", such as [[Hitler]], [[Mussolini]], and [[Goebbels]], Americans often saw themselves fighting against a "nameless mass of vermin", in regards to Japan.<ref>[http://books.google.se/books?id=pDW4YNkmvZYC&pg=PA98&lpg=PA98&dq=%22nameless+mass+of+vermin%22&source=web&ots=z3fNAPTwNn&sig=arJYZRC2cysKsDBkorfWR5vgZXg&hl=sv#PPA98,M1]</ref> Russell attributes this to the outrage of Americans in regards to the [[bombing of Pearl Harbor]], the [[Bataan Death March]], American politicians decrying the killing of American POWs in the hands of Imperial Japanese forces, and the perceived "inhuman tenacity" demonstrated in the refusal of Imperial forces to surrender. [[Kamikaze]] suicide bombings, according to John Morton Blum, were instrumental in confirming this stereotype of the "insane martial spirit" of Imperial Japan, and the bigoted picture it would engender of the Japanese people as a whole.<ref>John Morton Blum. ''V was for victory: politics and American culture during World War II'' page 46</ref>
To understand where the word “Jap” comes from a comparison to the “[[Nazism|Nazis]]” as it left space for the recognition of the “good German,” but scant comparable place for “good Japanese.” Magazines like ''Time'' hammered this home even further by frequently referring to “the Jap” rather than “Japs,” thereby denying the enemy even the merest semblance of pluralism.<ref>Dower, W. John. War without Mercy. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993.</ref>
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