Japanese Americans, Internment of

The Japanese naval air strike at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, shocked the American people and immediately threw great suspicion on Japanese Americans. A series of factors contributed to this: fear of a Japanese attack on the mainland and of sabotage by Japanese Americans; continuing anti-Asian and specifically anti-Japanese racism; envy at the success of Japanese American farmers; and some legitimate security concerns. It all coalesced to prompt the U.S. government to deny the civil rights of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans living in West Coast states and relocate them for the duration of the conflict.

On February 19, 1942, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced evacuation of all individuals of Japanese descent living in the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Arizona. It did not matter whether these individuals held Japanese or American citizenship, or whether they were born in Japan or in the United States. The federal government moved similarly against individuals of German and Italian descent, although the measures taken were not of comparable scale, intensity, or duration. Most German Americans and [Page 388]Italian Americans were more integrated into general American society than first and second generation Japanese.

The debate continues whether Japanese Americans posed a threat to national security. Several studies conducted by the Navy intelligence and the State Department agreed that the overwhelming majority of Japanese, be they first or second generation, were loyal to the United States and did not pose a security threat. However, there were a few intercepted Japanese messages claiming a spy network in the United States and, whether accurate or overblown, these messages helped to feed the hysteria.

The military commander of the Pacific states region, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. John DeWitt, issued Proclamation No. 1 on March 2, 1942, two weeks after the issue of Executive Order 9066. This proclamation created military areas in West Coast states and asserted the right to remove anyone of enemy ancestry. By May 9, most Japanese Americans were forced to move. In most cases, the evacuees had little more than a week or 10 days to appear at a series of relocation centers with whatever belongings they wished to take with them. It was a brutal process. Families had scant time to pack, much less to arrange for the orderly sale of farms and small businesses. For example, one order of May 3, 1942, to persons of Japanese ancestry living in Los Angeles gave them only six days to comply with the evacuation order. Some area residents took advantage of the plight of their neighbors by purchasing the evacuees’ homes and businesses at well below market value, which added to this regrettable chapter in American history.

Japanese Americans interned at an assembly center in Santa Anita, California. (From the collections of the Library of Congress)

Some Japanese Americans challenged the legality of these evacuation orders, but the U.S. Supreme Court found for the U.S. government. In such cases as Yasui v. United States (1943), Hirabayashi v. United States (1943), ex parte Endo (1944), and Korematsu v. United States (1944), the [Page 389]court upheld the initial curfews aimed at individuals of Japanese ancestry and the constitutionality of the exclusion order. It would be many years, nearly four decades, before federal district and appeals courts overturned these decisions, ruling that the government had withheld key evidence that had taken away the habeas corpus rights of American citizens.

...