Executive Order 9066: The President Authorizes Japanese Relocation: What's Up With the Closing Lines?

    Executive Order 9066: The President Authorizes Japanese Relocation: What's Up With the Closing Lines?

      This order shall not be construed as modifying or limiting in any way the authority heretofore granted under Executive Order No. 8972, dated December 12, 1941, nor shall it be construed as limiting or modifying the duty and responsibility of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with respect to the investigation of alleged acts of sabotage or the duty and responsibility of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice under the Proclamations of December 7 and 8, 1941, prescribing regulations for the conduct and control of alien enemies, except as such duty and responsibility is superseded by the designation of military areas hereunder. (11)

      The closing line, all 103 words of it, doesn't function like traditional conclusions normally do.

      There's no final moment of reverie or a satisfying sense of resolution. Like the rest of the text that comes before it, the last section of E.O. 9066 is dry as a bone. And blunt. So, so blunt.

      Still official in tone and procedure, the conclusion is sort of a sink drain food trap for last-minute details. It's like FDR is saying, "Oh, and by the way…"

      Items addressed in this final, breathtaking run-on sentence include:

      • upholding and maintaining the powers of E.O. 8972.
      • upholding and maintaining the authority of the FBI.
      • reminding the attorney general and the Department of Justice that they should still do their jobs…just not in the military exclusion areas.

      It's not exactly "boats against the current"…but it does the job.