Following President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s issuance of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans living along the West Coast of the United States were evacuated and then incarcerated in relocation camps. The process affected both the Issei, immigrants who were denied citizenship by federal law, and their American-born children, the Nisei, who were citizens.
Historically, Japanese immigrants to the United States had faced prejudiced treatment from non-Japanese Americans and from national and local government, which limited immigration, citizenship, and property ownership and other rights. Relatively few in number and mostly isolated from mainstream America, Japanese Americans were politically powerless. The bombing of Pearl Harbor fueled the existing anti-Japanese sentiment, and led to unsubstantiated reports of sabotage against the United States.
The decision to intern Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were citizens, came only after a debate within the administration about its legality and necessity. In the period immediately following Pearl Harbor, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover assured the president that press and army accounts of West Coast sabotage were exaggerated, which encouraged Attorney General Francis Biddle to resist initial moves toward internment. These sentiments were echoed by the Office of Naval Intelligence, whose officials acknowledged the overwhelming loyalty of Japanese Americans. The impasse continued until early February 1942, when War Department Assistant Secretary John J. McCloy instructed General John L. De Witt, the army’s commanding officer on the West Coast, to submit a final recommendation on the issue for the secretary of war. De Witt recommended wholesale internment, saying among other things that Japanese Americans belonged to an “enemy race” whose loyalty remained questionable. It was not until a final confrontation between McCoy and two Justice Department lawyers on February 17, 1942, who were gravely concerned about constitutional issues, that administration legal authorities capitulated to arguments of military necessity and Executive Order 9066 was issued two days later.
The Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) was established on March 11, 1942, and began to prepare for the evacuation of Japanese Americans from preestablished military zones. (Approximately 15,000 Japanese Americans had already moved voluntarily from the West Coast.) Sixteen temporary assembly centers in California, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona were quickly manufactured from existing facilities, usually racetracks or fair grounds. Given a week or less to prepare for an unknown destination, ill-equipped families hastily sold off their property and traveled by train to arbitrarily assigned assembly centers. There, they were subjected to roll calls, curfews, inspections, and armed guards for approximately three months.
This 1942 photograph shows the Mochida family awaiting the evacuation bus to an internment camp. (National Archives)
Beginning in May 1942, the evacuees were moved to 10 relocation centers in California, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and Arkansas. Families were housed in barracks-style facilities divided into rooms averaging 20 X 16 feet per family and containing cots, a coal-burning stove, and a light bulb. Facilities within the camps included a mess hall, toilet and bathing areas, a laundry, and a recreation hall. Responsibility for the confined Japanese Americans was transferred to the War Relocation Authority (WRA), under the direction of Milton Eisenhower.
While in the camps, Japanese Americans attempted to create a sense of normalcy. Adults worked in agriculture, education, food preparation, and the creation of camouflage nets, although an individual’s earnings were capped at $19 a month. Religious services conducted in English were allowed. Children attended schools with varying curricu-lums and materials. Much like the government education of Native Americans, these schools worked toward the assimilation of the young into American culture. Japanese Americans engaged in recreation such as baseball and organized dances, as well as in Boy Scouts activities.
Beginning in 1943, the adults were subjected to loyalty questions. This process was used to register the Nisei for the draft, which was reinstituted for Japanese Americans in January 1944. Although many resisted the draft and some Nisei renounced their citizenship, an estimated 25,000 or more served in the military, often with distinction. Nisei who passed the loyalty questions received clearance to leave the camps on the condition that they stay outside the military zones. Many took the one-way ticket and $25 and settled in cities such as Chicago, Denver, and New York, while others were recruited to work on farms. Distrust by non-Japanese Americans and bureaucratic paperwork slowed the process, but by June 1946 all of the camps except Tule Lake in northern California had been closed. Eventually two-thirds of the incarcerated would return to their original area of residence.
Despite being wronged, the Japanese community did not attempt widespread resistance to the evacuation process. Members of the Japanese American Citizens League and the Issei wished to demonstrate their loyalty to their adopted country by following the orders. Within the camp, traditional patterns of leadership were reversed. Typically, the head of the household had been detained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for questioning prior to evacuation and was reunited with the family only after a mother or an older son had taken charge. Also, the WRA disqualified Issei from holding offices such as block monitor within the camps, thereby shifting responsibility to the younger generation. A few individuals did take legal action against internment; however, as in Korematsu v. United States, most judgments sided with the government and upheld the relocation policy.
One of the cruel ironies of this entire affair is that while the majority of Japanese Americans languished in detention camps, some 1,000 Nisei were allowed to enlist in the U. S. Army as soldiers. The majority saw active duty in Europe with the segregated 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, where they emerged with a sterling reputation for heroism and won more combat medals than any other unit. A handful of others performed equally useful service in the World War II Pacieic theater as part of the Military Intelligence Service, where their language skills proved an invaluable asset. Nisei battlefield prowess was aptly captured in the 1951 war film Go for Broke, which was also their unit motto.
Readjustment to the outside life proved difficult. The Issei lost the authority afforded them by Japanese culture; as a result, many became even more isolated from the American culture. Nisei were shocked that they had not been treated as citizens. In addition, there was a large loss of property. Japanese Americans sometimes had burned their artifacts and heirlooms prior to evacuation for fear of being suspected of disloyalty. In the haste of evacuation, homes and businesses had been sold off at extraordinarily low prices, and many more were repossessed due to nonpayment of taxes. The Japanese Evacuation Claims Act of 1948 attempted to compensate for the loss of property incurred during confinement; eventually $37 million was distributed to settle $148 million worth of claims. In 1988, Congress provided $20,000 in restitution for surviving evacuees and acknowledged the injustice committed against them.
See also Asian Americans; enemy aliens.
Further reading: Roger Daniels, Prisoners without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II (New York: Hill & Wang, 1993); Karen L. Ishizuka, Lost and Found: Reclaiming the Japanese American Incarceration (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006); Eric L. Muller, American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007).
—John C. Fredriksen and Traci L. Siegler
World History
