The Rachel Maddow Show Preview of “Rachel Maddow Presents: Burn Order”
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Dec 1, 2025 An unveiling of a shocking chapter in American history takes center stage. Discover the executive order that led to the wrongful internment of Japanese Americans, driven by key historical figures. Hear about Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga's relentless quest in the National Archives, where she uncovers a document once deemed destroyed. This revelation holds the potential to reshape our understanding of governmental actions. Prepare for an enlightening journey into a hidden past that demands to be remembered.
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Series Exposes Racially Driven Executive Order
- Burn Order explores how an executive order authorized mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII without charges or trials.
- Rachel Maddow frames the series as revealing who engineered the idea and how the administration executed it.
Relentless Archive Researcher
- Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, a retired housewife, spent years researching daily at the National Archives and developed a meticulous personal filing system.
- Her persistence and homemade copy machine let her build an encyclopedic index of documents that consumed much of her home life.
Found A 'Destroyed' Government Report
- One afternoon in 1982 Aiko found a government report that was officially recorded as destroyed and yet sat intact on an archives desk.
- That unexpected discovery revealed a document the U.S. government had tried to erase about the wartime racial roundup.