Effects of war

Asian participants in the American Civil War were not given citizenship, voting rights, or access to public schools because they were legally declared "neither black nor white." During World War II, the United States government declared Japanese Americans a risk to national security and undertook the Japanese American Internment, authorized by President Franklin Roosevelt with United States Executive Order 9066. This controversial action forced the relocation of approximately 112,000 to 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans, taking them from the west coast of the United States to hastily constructed War Relocation Centers in remote portions of the nation's interior. 62% of those forced to relocate were United States citizens. Starting in 1990, the government paid some reparations to the surviving internees.

Despite the internment, many Japanese American men served in World War II in the American forces. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team/100th Infantry Battalion, composed of Japanese Americans, is the most highly decorated unit in U.S. military history. The 442nd/100th fought valiantly in the European Theater even as many of their families remained in the detention camps stateside. The 100th was one of the first units to liberate the Nazi extermination camp at Dachau.