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Japanese Internment

When the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States entered World War II. The sudden and deliberate attack not only mobilized the U.S. military into action, but federal, state, and local authorities began the process of moving Americans of Japanese ancestry away from the West Coast and Hawai'i. This entry describes the process of Japanese internment, from the first wave of roundups to the return of Japanese Americans to their homes after the war. In addition, it briefly traces the legacy of the internment and discusses redress and reparations that occurred in the latter part of the 20th century.

Pearl Harbor's Immediate Effects

While the U.S. military mobilized for action against the forces of the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan), local authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation began to round up Issei (first-generation Japanese immigrant) leaders in the Japanese American communities in Hawai'i and on the mainland. In the first two days following the Pearl Harbor attack, nearly 1,300 men of Japanese ancestry were rounded up and placed in custody. These men were not held under formal charges, but family members were forbidden to see them. Most spent the war years in enemy alien internment camps run by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Two months later, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed military authorities to exclude any group of people from any region for reasons of “military necessity.” Executive Order 9066 provided the legal authority behind the mass removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast.

To assist in the removal, the War Relocation Authority (WRA) was created in March 1942. Shortly thereafter, Congress criminalized the disobedience of military regulations. In other words, failure to abide by curfew orders and exclusion orders meant that criminal sanctions would be applied. The WRA issued exclusion orders for Japanese Americans up and down the West Coast to move out of their homes. Throughout the spring and summer of 1942, civilians of Japanese ancestry and Japanese American citizens (Nisei, or second generation) were forcibly removed from Seattle to San Diego. Most had to sell their property, vehicles, furniture, and businesses for much less than their value. Furthermore, they had few details about where they were headed and how long they would be away.

Assembly Centers and Relocation Camps

A majority of the civilians were taken to a local “assembly center” or temporary detention camp. The most famous assembly centers were racetracks in California—Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia and Tanforan Racetrack outside of San Francisco. Detainees cleaned out the horse stables and lived there until “relocation centers” or internment camps could be built in seven states.

A total of 10 major relocation centers housed Japanese and Japanese Americans during the war years. Throughout the summer of 1942, civilians were transferred by train or bus from the assembly centers to the desert and high country (Manzanar and Tule Lake, California; Amache, Colorado; Minidoka, Idaho; Topaz, Utah; Heart Mountain, Wyoming; Poston and Gila River, Arizona) or swampland in Rohwer and Jerome, Arkansas.

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