Over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II. Their crime? Being of Japanese ancestry. Despite the lack of any concrete evidence, Japanese Americans were suspected of remaining loyal to their ancestral land. Anti-Japanese paranoia increased because of a large Japanese presence on the West Coast. In the event of a Japanese invasion of the American mainland, Japanese Americans were feared as a security risk. Succumbing to advice from his cabinet and popular opinion, President Roosevelt signed an executive order in February of 1942 ordering the relocation of all Americans of Japanese ancestry on the west coast to internment camps in the interior of the United States.