Japanese Internment

As early as September 1936, the federal government took the first direct step toward wartime internment. With the approval of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI began a five-year plan of [Page 351]clandestine surveillance of people it considered to be a risk to American security. In September 1939, Roosevelt authorized the creation of the Emergency Detention Program. He also instructed the Justice Department to be prepared to arrest and detain those who might prove dangerous in the event of war. This came only months after the passage of the Hobbs Bill in May, which allowed for the detainment of suspicious foreigners. Even though the FBI had been working on its lists for years, Hoover made the compilation of the list of dangerous aliens and citizens the top priority. For the next two years, the U.S. government compiled lists of dangerous enemy aliens and citizens in departments such as the FBI, the intelligence divisions of the Justice Department, and various military intelligence agencies into the Custodial Detention Index. The 1940 census also included information that was used to locate persons based on their ethnicity. Also in 1940, the Alien Registration Act was passed and required all aliens 14 years of age and older to register with the federal government. In all, the Justice Department registered 4,900,000 aliens, including 695,000 Italians, 315,000 Germans, and 91,000 Japanese; one of every 26 people in the country in 1940 was foreign born.

On the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, based on the intelligence gathered in the previous years, Roosevelt authorized Attorney General Biddle to issue a blanket warrant to have large numbers of predetermined “dangerous enemy aliens” arrested. Raids by the FBI netted 737 Japanese Americans and hundreds of German and Italian aliens by the end of the day. The next day, Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation 2527, branding Japanese nationals as enemy aliens. In the weeks following America's entrance into World War II, many additional restrictions fell upon the so-called enemy aliens. According to War Relocation Statistics, the FBI detained five thousand people of Japanese descent for questioning in the first few weeks of the war.

Life changed dramatically for all people of Japanese descent on the West Coast with the issuance of the blanket warrants. The federal government closed the borders to all Japanese, and those who were not citizens could no longer transfer ownership of, or register, their cars. Issei (Japanese who had emigrated to America from Japan) also had all of their assets frozen, their banks closed, and all business licenses revoked; they had only the cash they had on hand on the morning of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Because of a dramatic fall-off in the volume of produce available at the markets, on December 11 the government—specifically the Treasury secretary—issued General License 77 along with a press release. The General License “permitted” foreign nationals to engage in making and selling food products; the press release urged the Japanese nationals to bring their products to market as “evidence of their loyalty to the United States.” This arm twisting restored the availability of produce to 75 percent of prewar levels. Other general licenses allowed Issei to resume control of their produce houses and, by New Year's Day, to withdraw $100 a month from their frozen bank accounts. On December 27, 1941, the California Division of Fish and Game curtailed the issuance of hunting and fishing licenses to enemy aliens. A day later, it was announced that cameras, shortwave radios, guns, swords, and even record players were contraband items and that all enemy aliens must immediately turn these items in to the authorities, who usually consisted of the local police or sheriff's departments.

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