Whereas President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, which authorized the exclusion of 120,000 Japanese Americans and legal resident aliens from the west coast of the United States and the incarceration of United States citizens and legal permanent residents of Japanese ancestry in incarceration camps during World War II; Whereas the freedom of Italian Americans and German Americans was also restricted during World War II by measures that branded them enemy aliens and included required identification cards, travel restrictions, seizure of personal property, and incarceration; Whereas President Gerald Ford formally rescinded Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1976, in his speech, An American Promise ; Whereas Congress adopted legislation which was signed by President Jimmy Carter on July 31, 1980, establishing the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians to investigate the claim that the incarceration of Japanese Americans and legal resident aliens during World War II was justified by military necessity; Whereas the Commission held 20 days of hearings and heard from over 750 witnesses on this matter and published its findings in a report entitled Personal Justice Denied ; Whereas the conclusion of the commission was that the promulgation of Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity, and that the decision to issue the order was shaped by race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership ; Whereas Congress enacted the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, in which it apologized on behalf of the Nation for fundamental violations of the basic civil liberties and constitutional rights of these individuals of Japanese ancestry ; Whereas President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 into law on August 10, 1988, proclaiming that day to be a great day for America