February 19, 2021 • 13 mins
Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. / On this day in 1963, "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan was published.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, history enthusiasts, you get not one, but two events
in history today on with the show What's Up? Everyone.
Welcome to this day in History class, where we bring
you a new tidbit from history every day. The day
(00:24):
was February nineteenth, nineteen two. After the Japanese bombed Pearl
Harbor a couple of months earlier, the citizens and government
of the United States became frantic. They were increasingly distrustful
of the many Japanese immigrants in Japanese citizens in the country,
believing they couldn't be trusted to remain loyal to the
(00:46):
US over Japan. In many people's minds, people of Japanese
descent were a threat to national safety and security. As
a result, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order nineties
sixty six, which authorized the Secretary of War and military
commanders to set up military zones that anybody could be
(01:08):
evacuated from. The executive order was framed as a measure
necessary to protect national security during wartime since the country
was now vulnerable to attack, but what the order actually
did was take advantage of the public's escalating fears of
Japanese Americans involvement in the war and use it to
(01:30):
put them in concentration camps. The passing of Executive Order
nine sixty six was largely precipitated by the bombing of
Pearl Harbor, but resentment of foreign nationals in Japanese immigrants
in particular had already been growing steadily by the time
FDR signed the Executive Order. Before the nineteenth century, Japan
(01:52):
didn't want much to do with Europe or its colonies.
But by the eighteen hundreds, Japan had begun trading with
the United States, and Japanese people were immigrating to the
US and other places as temporary laborers. At the same time,
the US was barring other Asian nationals from entering the country.
(02:14):
The Chinese Exclusion Act, passed in eighteen eighty two, banned
immigration from China to the US and prohibited all Chinese
people in the US from becoming citizens. The law partly
had to do with the high unemployment and low wages
in the US, which were blamed on Chinese laborers, but
it also had to do with prejudices white Americans had
(02:37):
against Chinese people. All of this is to say that
there was a precedent for restricting immigration from Asia by
the time, the US government began placing limits on the
number of Japanese people that could come to the US,
and in nineteen twenty four, the government passed the Johnson
read Act, which set immigration quota and effectively cut off
(03:01):
the stream of Japanese people immigrating to the States. People
who moved to the US from Japan couldn't become citizens,
although children born to Japanese people in US received birthright citizenship.
Even so, most of the Japanese people who moved to
the US settled on the West Coast or in Hawaii,
(03:23):
building up their own communities with their own schools and businesses,
and a lot of these communities were doing well. But
when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in nineteen forty one
in the hopes of destroying US military forces in the Pacific,
the US was compelled to enter World War Two. After
years of trying to avoid being hands on in the conflict.
(03:47):
At first, there were appeals for people to remain calm,
but soon enough, the government began targeting thousands of foreign
nationals who it believed to be a threat. Many of
the people who the government considered enemy aliens had done
nothing that would legitimately earn them the label of enemy. Regardless,
(04:09):
they were still sent to camps, jails, and prisons under
suspicions of espionage, sabotage, and any other activities that could
aid Japan and the war. And as more people were
locked up, as the media amplified false reports of Japanese threats,
and as actual Japanese military threats proposed, the public grew
(04:30):
more fearful of Japanese people. The public and the government
began supporting the idea of the mass incarceration of people
of Japanese descent. In the beginning, the Justice Department was
against mass removal and incarceration since it was unconstitutional. Many
(04:50):
government officials opposed the measure, but the government went forward
with the plan anyway. Strategist Carl Bndetson proposed skirting that
tiny problem of unconstitutionality by giving the Secretary of War
the authority to set up military zones and remove people
from those zones at will, and Executive Order ninety six
(05:14):
authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe military areas was
passed on February nineteenth, nineteen forty two. The order also
said that the government would provide for residents of any
such area who are excluded. Therefrom such transportation, food, shelter,
and other accommodations as maybe necessary. Since the Act didn't
(05:39):
have enforcement provisions, the government also passed Public Law five
oh three, which penalized people for entering, leaving, or committing
any act in an exclusion zone. And on top of that,
FDR also signed Executive Order two which created the War
Relocation Authority, the body in charge of creating and overseeing
(06:03):
the interment camps. The whole West Coast was an exclusion zone,
which meant that a bunch of Japanese people were required
to leave their homes, but many couldn't afford to leave
or faced resistance when they did so, they ended up
being forced to leave. They were sent to temporary locations
(06:25):
like horse stables and race tracks, then to concentration camps
and remote areas where they had to work. Everyone of
Japanese ancestry in the zones had to go, including people
who were sick in hospitals and children and orphanages who
just looked Japanese. The people who were incarcerated in concentration
(06:47):
camps regarded and not allowed to leave. But even though
a lot of people didn't like having the camps in
their area. Most people still supported removal, and all this
was being done under the guise of safety and the
best interest of the country. Japanese people needed to be
(07:08):
evacuated and moved to more secure locations for their own
sake and the nation's sake. After the war ended, the
concentration camp started closing, with the last one shutting down
in nineteen forty six. In nineteen forty eight, people who
had been incarcerated were granted thirty eight million dollars in restitution,
(07:30):
and in nineteen fifty two Japanese immigrants were able to
become US citizens. The US government did admit to its
mistakes and apologize in the nineteen eighties, but Japanese people's
lives had already been hugely affected. I'm Eve Jeff Coote,
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
(07:51):
than you did yesterday. If you'd like to learn more
about Executive Order nineties sixty six in Japanese American interment,
listen to the two part episode of Stuff you missed
in History class called Executive Order nineties six and Japanese Interments.
You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. At
(08:14):
t d I h C Podcast. Thank you so much
for listening, and I hope to see you again tomorrow
for more tidbits of history. Hello. Hello again. I'm Eves
and you're listening to this day in History class, where
(08:35):
we examine the past from the present. The day was
February nineteen sixty three Betty for Dan's book The Feminine
Mystique was first published. The book is credited with sparking
the rise of second wave feminism and the United States.
(08:59):
Betty for Dan as a writer and an activist. She
worked as a journalist for leftist and labor publications for
a while, and she worked as a freelance writer for
different magazines. For Dan got married in nineteen forty seven
and had three children. After her first child was born,
she went back to her job, but after she got
(09:19):
pregnant with her second child, she lost her job. At
that point, she stayed at home to take care of
her family, but she was not completely satisfied with her
life at home. She wanted to know if other women
felt the same way. For Dan was a graduate of
Smith College. When she attended her fifteen year reunion at
Smith in nineteen fifty seven, she surveyed her fellow college graduates.
(09:44):
She asked them about their education and how satisfied they
were with their lives. When she found that other women
also felt unfulfilled in their lifestyles, she decided that she
wanted to publish her findings. She interviewed more housewives and
did research on psychology and other relevant fields. Her work
culminated as the book The Feminine Mystique, published on February nineteenth,
(10:07):
nineteen sixty three. The term feminine mystique describes the assumption
that women would be satisfied with housework, marriage, children, and
their sexual lives alone. The idea was that women should
be content with the work they did in the domestic
sphere and did not need fulfillment through education, careers, or politics.
(10:28):
The book argued that many housewives were unhappy despite having
lives that seemed fulfilling from the outside, and the introduction
of the book for Dan calls that unhappiness the problem
that has no name. For Dan used statistics, research and
anecdotes throughout the book to argue her point. She said
that women wanted more than just a home and a family.
(10:51):
She pointed out how the media promoted the idea that
women were happy in the home and unhappy in their careers.
She noted how the idea that men were naturally mothers
and caregivers was perpetuated. The book also linked the idea
of the feminine mystique to post World War two expectations
and to the promotion of the idealized nuclear family in
(11:12):
America during the Cold War in the nineteen fifties. For
Dan turned to interviews to show that women were often
unsatisfied with performing traditionally feminine roles and used coping mechanisms
to get through their feelings of unhappiness. The book aimed
to dispel the myth that women were fine with their
domestic roles. For Dan claimed that the feminine mystique limited
(11:36):
women's quote basic human need to grow. She encouraged women
to seek new lives that incorporated education, careers, and social roles,
and to rid themselves at the idea that housework was
a career. The book was popular and inspired many white
middle class women to take up the feminist cause. It
was an influential text in second way feminism, which had
(11:59):
broader goal and was less essentialist than first wave feminism,
but the book's legacy is complicated. It received pushback when
it was published, and criticism of its messages and impact
continues today. Some of the criticism levied relates to its
limited white, upper and middle class perspective, to for Dan's
(12:19):
own involvement in leftist politics, and to the inaccuracy of
some of the research used. I'm each Chef Coote and
hopefully you know a little more about history today than
you did yesterday. I want to impress your Internet crush,
show them your history smarts by sharing something you learned
on the show. Don't forget to tag us at t
(12:39):
D I HC podcast, or you can go the old
fashioned route and send us an email at this day
at I heart media dot com. Thanks again for listening.
We'll see you same place tomorrow. Yeah. For more podcasts
(13:03):
from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, history enthusiasts, you get not one, but two events
in history today on with the show What's Up? Everyone.
Welcome to this day in History class, where we bring
you a new tidbit from history every day. The day
(00:24):
was February nineteenth, nineteen two. After the Japanese bombed Pearl
Harbor a couple of months earlier, the citizens and government
of the United States became frantic. They were increasingly distrustful
of the many Japanese immigrants in Japanese citizens in the country,
believing they couldn't be trusted to remain loyal to the
(00:46):
US over Japan. In many people's minds, people of Japanese
descent were a threat to national safety and security. As
a result, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order nineties
sixty six, which authorized the Secretary of War and military
commanders to set up military zones that anybody could be
(01:08):
evacuated from. The executive order was framed as a measure
necessary to protect national security during wartime since the country
was now vulnerable to attack, but what the order actually
did was take advantage of the public's escalating fears of
Japanese Americans involvement in the war and use it to
(01:30):
put them in concentration camps. The passing of Executive Order
nine sixty six was largely precipitated by the bombing of
Pearl Harbor, but resentment of foreign nationals in Japanese immigrants
in particular had already been growing steadily by the time
FDR signed the Executive Order. Before the nineteenth century, Japan
(01:52):
didn't want much to do with Europe or its colonies.
But by the eighteen hundreds, Japan had begun trading with
the United States, and Japanese people were immigrating to the
US and other places as temporary laborers. At the same time,
the US was barring other Asian nationals from entering the country.
(02:14):
The Chinese Exclusion Act, passed in eighteen eighty two, banned
immigration from China to the US and prohibited all Chinese
people in the US from becoming citizens. The law partly
had to do with the high unemployment and low wages
in the US, which were blamed on Chinese laborers, but
it also had to do with prejudices white Americans had
(02:37):
against Chinese people. All of this is to say that
there was a precedent for restricting immigration from Asia by
the time, the US government began placing limits on the
number of Japanese people that could come to the US,
and in nineteen twenty four, the government passed the Johnson
read Act, which set immigration quota and effectively cut off
(03:01):
the stream of Japanese people immigrating to the States. People
who moved to the US from Japan couldn't become citizens,
although children born to Japanese people in US received birthright citizenship.
Even so, most of the Japanese people who moved to
the US settled on the West Coast or in Hawaii,
(03:23):
building up their own communities with their own schools and businesses,
and a lot of these communities were doing well. But
when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in nineteen forty one
in the hopes of destroying US military forces in the Pacific,
the US was compelled to enter World War Two. After
years of trying to avoid being hands on in the conflict.
(03:47):
At first, there were appeals for people to remain calm,
but soon enough, the government began targeting thousands of foreign
nationals who it believed to be a threat. Many of
the people who the government considered enemy aliens had done
nothing that would legitimately earn them the label of enemy. Regardless,
(04:09):
they were still sent to camps, jails, and prisons under
suspicions of espionage, sabotage, and any other activities that could
aid Japan and the war. And as more people were
locked up, as the media amplified false reports of Japanese threats,
and as actual Japanese military threats proposed, the public grew
(04:30):
more fearful of Japanese people. The public and the government
began supporting the idea of the mass incarceration of people
of Japanese descent. In the beginning, the Justice Department was
against mass removal and incarceration since it was unconstitutional. Many
(04:50):
government officials opposed the measure, but the government went forward
with the plan anyway. Strategist Carl Bndetson proposed skirting that
tiny problem of unconstitutionality by giving the Secretary of War
the authority to set up military zones and remove people
from those zones at will, and Executive Order ninety six
(05:14):
authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe military areas was
passed on February nineteenth, nineteen forty two. The order also
said that the government would provide for residents of any
such area who are excluded. Therefrom such transportation, food, shelter,
and other accommodations as maybe necessary. Since the Act didn't
(05:39):
have enforcement provisions, the government also passed Public Law five
oh three, which penalized people for entering, leaving, or committing
any act in an exclusion zone. And on top of that,
FDR also signed Executive Order two which created the War
Relocation Authority, the body in charge of creating and overseeing
(06:03):
the interment camps. The whole West Coast was an exclusion zone,
which meant that a bunch of Japanese people were required
to leave their homes, but many couldn't afford to leave
or faced resistance when they did so, they ended up
being forced to leave. They were sent to temporary locations
(06:25):
like horse stables and race tracks, then to concentration camps
and remote areas where they had to work. Everyone of
Japanese ancestry in the zones had to go, including people
who were sick in hospitals and children and orphanages who
just looked Japanese. The people who were incarcerated in concentration
(06:47):
camps regarded and not allowed to leave. But even though
a lot of people didn't like having the camps in
their area. Most people still supported removal, and all this
was being done under the guise of safety and the
best interest of the country. Japanese people needed to be
(07:08):
evacuated and moved to more secure locations for their own
sake and the nation's sake. After the war ended, the
concentration camp started closing, with the last one shutting down
in nineteen forty six. In nineteen forty eight, people who
had been incarcerated were granted thirty eight million dollars in restitution,
(07:30):
and in nineteen fifty two Japanese immigrants were able to
become US citizens. The US government did admit to its
mistakes and apologize in the nineteen eighties, but Japanese people's
lives had already been hugely affected. I'm Eve Jeff Coote,
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
(07:51):
than you did yesterday. If you'd like to learn more
about Executive Order nineties sixty six in Japanese American interment,
listen to the two part episode of Stuff you missed
in History class called Executive Order nineties six and Japanese Interments.
You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. At
(08:14):
t d I h C Podcast. Thank you so much
for listening, and I hope to see you again tomorrow
for more tidbits of history. Hello. Hello again. I'm Eves
and you're listening to this day in History class, where
(08:35):
we examine the past from the present. The day was
February nineteen sixty three Betty for Dan's book The Feminine
Mystique was first published. The book is credited with sparking
the rise of second wave feminism and the United States.
(08:59):
Betty for Dan as a writer and an activist. She
worked as a journalist for leftist and labor publications for
a while, and she worked as a freelance writer for
different magazines. For Dan got married in nineteen forty seven
and had three children. After her first child was born,
she went back to her job, but after she got
(09:19):
pregnant with her second child, she lost her job. At
that point, she stayed at home to take care of
her family, but she was not completely satisfied with her
life at home. She wanted to know if other women
felt the same way. For Dan was a graduate of
Smith College. When she attended her fifteen year reunion at
Smith in nineteen fifty seven, she surveyed her fellow college graduates.
(09:44):
She asked them about their education and how satisfied they
were with their lives. When she found that other women
also felt unfulfilled in their lifestyles, she decided that she
wanted to publish her findings. She interviewed more housewives and
did research on psychology and other relevant fields. Her work
culminated as the book The Feminine Mystique, published on February nineteenth,
(10:07):
nineteen sixty three. The term feminine mystique describes the assumption
that women would be satisfied with housework, marriage, children, and
their sexual lives alone. The idea was that women should
be content with the work they did in the domestic
sphere and did not need fulfillment through education, careers, or politics.
(10:28):
The book argued that many housewives were unhappy despite having
lives that seemed fulfilling from the outside, and the introduction
of the book for Dan calls that unhappiness the problem
that has no name. For Dan used statistics, research and
anecdotes throughout the book to argue her point. She said
that women wanted more than just a home and a family.
(10:51):
She pointed out how the media promoted the idea that
women were happy in the home and unhappy in their careers.
She noted how the idea that men were naturally mothers
and caregivers was perpetuated. The book also linked the idea
of the feminine mystique to post World War two expectations
and to the promotion of the idealized nuclear family in
(11:12):
America during the Cold War in the nineteen fifties. For
Dan turned to interviews to show that women were often
unsatisfied with performing traditionally feminine roles and used coping mechanisms
to get through their feelings of unhappiness. The book aimed
to dispel the myth that women were fine with their
domestic roles. For Dan claimed that the feminine mystique limited
(11:36):
women's quote basic human need to grow. She encouraged women
to seek new lives that incorporated education, careers, and social roles,
and to rid themselves at the idea that housework was
a career. The book was popular and inspired many white
middle class women to take up the feminist cause. It
was an influential text in second way feminism, which had
(11:59):
broader goal and was less essentialist than first wave feminism,
but the book's legacy is complicated. It received pushback when
it was published, and criticism of its messages and impact
continues today. Some of the criticism levied relates to its
limited white, upper and middle class perspective, to for Dan's
(12:19):
own involvement in leftist politics, and to the inaccuracy of
some of the research used. I'm each Chef Coote and
hopefully you know a little more about history today than
you did yesterday. I want to impress your Internet crush,
show them your history smarts by sharing something you learned
on the show. Don't forget to tag us at t
(12:39):
D I HC podcast, or you can go the old
fashioned route and send us an email at this day
at I heart media dot com. Thanks again for listening.
We'll see you same place tomorrow. Yeah. For more podcasts
(13:03):
from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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