PowerPoint Show by Andrew

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The attack on Pearl Harbor launched a rash of fear about national security, especially on the West Coast. In February 1942, just two months after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt as commander-in-chief, issued Executive Order 9066, which had the effect of relocating all persons of Japanese ancestry, both citizens and aliens, inland, outside of the Pacific military zone. The objectives of the order were to prevent espionage and to protect persons of Japanese descent from harm at the hands of Americans who had strong anti-Japanese attitudes.

Roosevelt's order affected 117,000 people of Japanese descent, two-thirds of whom were native-born citizens of the United States. Within weeks, all persons of Japanese ancestry--whether citizens or enemy aliens, young or old, rich or poor--were ordered to assembly centers near their homes. Soon they were sent to permanent relocation centers outside the restricted military zones.

Tom C. Clark, coordinator of the Alien Enemy Control program of the Western Defense Command.

A military police officer posts Civilian Exclusion Order No. 1, requiring evacuation of Japanese living on Bainbridge Island, Washington. 

Japanese-Americans ride on a train to an assembly center. 

First graders at a public school in San Francisco pledge allegiance to the flag before evacuations are ordered.

A man in Pasadena packs his car with belongings before heading to the Manzanar War Relocation Camp.

Japanese-Americans assemble in San Francisco for transportation to an assembly center, and later to various relocation centers. 

The Mochida family of Hayward, California, await relocation.

Japanese-Americans in San Francisco line up to register for evacuation and housing. 

A boy sits on his belongings as he awaits relocation from San Francisco. 

Evacuees' baggage is piled up for transport at an assembly center in Salinas, California.

Evacuees assemble at a Los Angeles railroad station. 

"There were no crimes committed, no trials, and no convictions: the Japanese Americans were political Incarcerates."

Evacuees in Los Angeles watch as trains carry their friends and relatives to Owens Valley.

A mother and daughter assemble for relocation at a Los Angeles train station.

Evacuees wave goodbye to friends and relatives bound for Owens Valley.

A child looks at a soldier as he assembles for evacuation with his family. 

A family awaits a ferry to Seattle and on to a relocation camp.

The last Japanese-American residents of Redondo Beach depart for relocation by truck. 

Japanese-Americans escorted by soldiers cross a bridge as they are evacuated from Bainbridge Island to be taken to a relocation camp. 

A Japanese-American-owned business in Oakland, California. 

A technician bids farewell to his wife as he departs for Manzanar. 

The entrance to Manzanar.

Winters at the camp were harsh and cold.

"One of the hardest things to endure was the communal toilets, with no partitions; and showers with no stalls."

Girls walk to school in the camp.

Manzanar was finally closed and its inhabitants released in November 1945. One hundred and forty-six internees died while at the camp.

In the 1960s, a movement began among Japanese Americans petitioning the government for redress. In 1988, Congress passed legislation apologizing for the "race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership" which caused the internments, and called for the disbursement of reparations to the victims.

The survivors and heirs of survivors ultimately received $1.6 billion as redress for their unconstitutional internment.

A cemetery monument built by internee stonemason Ryozo Kado. The inscription reads "Monument for the Pacification of Spirits."