Internment of Japanese Americans

Internment of Japanese Americans
Dorothea Lange · Public domain · source
Name	Internment of Japanese Americans
Caption	Entrance sign at Manzanar National Historic Site
Location	California, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas
Period	1942–1945
Participants	Japanese American civilians, Franklin D. Roosevelt, United States Army, War Relocation Authority
Outcome	Removal and detention of persons of Japanese ancestry; later redress by Civil Liberties Act of 1988

Internment of Japanese Americans was the forced removal, detention, and relocation of persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast of the United States during World War II following the Attack on Pearl Harbor. The policy involved mass exclusion, assembly, and incarceration in a network of camps administered by the War Relocation Authority and military authorities, and generated landmark legal cases including Korematsu v. United States and later legislative redress culminating in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The episode reshaped Japanese American communities such as those in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Honolulu and influenced debates about civil liberties, national security, and reparations.

Background and Causes

Anti-Asian immigration policies and state actions preceded wartime measures, including the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Immigration Act of 1924, and state-level alien land laws affecting Issei land ownership and Nisei status. Racialized local politics in California, economic competition in agricultural centers like Central Valley and urban enclaves such as Little Tokyo, Los Angeles intensified nativist sentiments exploited by figures in California State Legislature, municipal authorities in San Francisco Police Department, and press outlets like the Los Angeles Times. Internationally, tensions between the Empire of Japan and the United States escalated through incidents such as the Attack on Pearl Harbor and earlier conflicts in Manchuria and the Second Sino-Japanese War, which fostered military and intelligence concerns among Pacific Coast commanders including leaders in the War Department and commanders assigned to the Western Defense Command.

Executive Order 9066 and Legal Framework

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing military commanders to designate military areas and exclude persons. The Western Defense Command under General John L. DeWitt issued exclusion orders implemented via Civilian Exclusion Orders and Public Proclamations enforced by the United States Army and the FBI. Legal challenges arose shortly afterward in cases such as Korematsu v. United States, Hirabayashi v. United States, and Ex parte Endo which reached the Supreme Court of the United States and dealt with curfew, exclusion, and detention doctrines. Legislative instruments including congressional appropriations for the War Relocation Authority and military proclamations shaped the administrative architecture for mass removal and detention.

Wartime Incarceration and Camp System

Between 1942 and 1945, roughly 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry—two-thirds of whom were American citizens—were removed from designated military zones and relocated to assembly centers such as the Tanforan Assembly Center and Santa Anita Assembly Center before transfer to inland camps including Manzanar, Tule Lake Segregation Center, Heart Mountain, Gila River, Topaz, Minidoka, and Poston. The War Relocation Authority operated ten major relocation centers while the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice administered other facilities and internment of community leaders took place at camps like Fort Lincoln and Fort Missoula. The camp system segregated individuals by loyalty questionnaires and discipline regimes; high-profile incidents such as the Manzanar Riot and the Tule Lake segregation related to resistance, loyalty hearings, and appeals to military and civilian authorities.

Conditions, Daily Life, and Administration

Camp administration combined bureaucratic oversight by WRA officials, military police, and locally elected camp councils, often led by community figures such as Fred Korematsu (plaintiff) and activists in organizations like the Japanese American Citizens League. Housing used hastily constructed barracks with minimal insulation at sites such as Manzanar National Historic Site, with shared latrines and communal mess halls; residents engaged in agricultural labor, school instruction, and cultural activities overseen by camp schools, religious institutions including Buddhist temples and Christian churches, and clubs modeled after cultural organizations like the Japanese American Citizens League. Health care was provided at camp hospitals and clinics with staff recruited from internees and agencies including the United States Public Health Service. The controversial "loyalty questionnaire" administered by the War Relocation Authority and the Army—notably Questions 27 and 28—produced divisions, led to renunciations at Tule Lake, and prompted legal challenges handled by advocates such as Aoki Judo proponents and attorneys who later worked with the Japanese American Citizens League.

Legal Challenges, Redress, and Reparations

Key legal rulings included Hirabayashi v. United States (curfew upheld), Korematsu v. United States (exclusion upheld), and Ex parte Endo (indefinite detention without cause ruled unlawful). Postwar advocacy by organizations like the Japanese American Citizens League and scholars including Michi Nishiura Weglyn and Lawrence Kunihiro spurred investigations by the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC), which produced the 1983 report "Personal Justice Denied." Findings led to the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 signed by President Ronald Reagan, offering formal apologies and individual reparations, and to precedents in cases handled by civil rights attorneys including Tadatoshi "Tad" Matsuda and activists in Evacuation Redress movements. Subsequent litigation and advocacy led to preservation efforts at sites such as Manzanar National Historic Site and education initiatives by museums like the Japanese American National Museum.

Impact on Communities and Legacy

The incarceration disrupted agricultural enterprises in regions like the Salinas Valley and displaced small-business districts such as Pioneer Square and Japantown, San Francisco, catalyzing demographic shifts toward cities including Chicago and New York City where resettlement networks formed. Social consequences included loss of property, fragmentation of Issei family structures, and challenges to Nisei political incorporation; cultural responses emerged in literature and art by figures such as Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston (author), John Okada (author of "No-No Boy"), and photographers like Ansel Adams (who documented Manzanar). The legacy informed later civil liberties debates during events involving policies by administrations of Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, and influenced jurisprudence on national security, racial profiling, and immigration law. Commemoration occurs through monuments at sites such as Manzanar National Historic Site, advocacy by organizations like the Japanese American Citizens League, and curricular work in institutions including the Smithsonian Institution and the Densho archive.

Category:Japanese American history