Northeastern Illinois University's ( NEIU's ) Ronald Williams Library has added newly digitized video footage of the Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians ( CWRIC ) hearings to its Japanese American Redress Collection.
This footage is now available to the public, and some of the footage is scheduled to be part of the new PBS five-part documentary series Asian Americans, which premieres nationally May 11-12.
The CWRIC hearings took place on Northeastern's Main Campus on Sept. 22-23, 1981. They investigated the legality of Executive Order 9066a mandate issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II that led to the detainment of more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens.
Considered a threat to national security because of their ethnic background, the uprooted Japanese and Japanese-Americans were placed into internment camps and held for an average of three years. No internee was ever formally charged with or convicted of espionage or sabotage.