Executive Order 9066 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, authorized the relocation and incarceration of all Japanese American residents of US West Coast “military zones.” On Sept. 22-23, 1981, the Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) hearings were held on Northeastern Illinois University’s Main Campus (and several other locations around the U.S.). The hearings investigated the legality of Executive Order 9066, a mandate issued by Roosevelt during World War II that led to the detainment of more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were American 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.

These collections contain digitized audiovisual recordings and transcripts from the September 1981 hearings of the federal Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, held on the Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) campus.

The collections also include proceedings from two conferences: With Liberty and Justice for Some: The Case for Compensation to Japanese Americans Imprisoned During World War II, held September 19 and 21, 1981; and With Liberty and Justice for All: Racism, Redress and Reparations, held September 22–23, 2021, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Chicago redress hearings.

Also included are photographs from the Full Spectrum Education collaboration with NEIU Archives that resulted in a film and interactive education game, Reckoning with Redress.

Click here to access the Art in Incarceration and Diversity within a Microcosm art exhibits.