Sunday, February 19 marks 75 years since President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in 1942, which cleared the way for the internment of Japanese Americans from the West Coast during World War II. Rebecca Copeland laid the groundwork for the executive order that would change so many lives, saying that prior to World War II, Japanese Americans had been playing a more and more important role in the West Coast economy and that there had a been a history of immigration bans against the Japanese even before Executive Order 9066.