Evicted by Executive Order
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced removal and incarceration of over 125,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast due to “military necessity.” No charges were filed. No trials were held. Nearly 2/3 were U.S.-born citizens. Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, who was in charge of enforcing this order, considered it impossible to determine their loyalty. “A Jap is a Jap,” he famously said.
The Census Bureau illegally provided confidential demographic information about where Japanese Americans lived in California and in parts of Washington, Oregon, and Arizona. The authorities gave Japanese Americans less than a week to register and to pack only what they could carry. Japanese Americans had to figure out what to do with their businesses and possessions in this short time. Should they sell them, often for much less than they were worth, try to find trustworthy caretakers to watch over them, destroy them, or simply leave them behind for others to take? What about crops and properties that couldn’t be moved?
The eviction process began on March 30, 1942. Less than 5 months later, the forced removal was complete. Only a few Americans of Japanese ancestry challenged Executive Order 9066. Faced with limited options, almost all Japanese Americans complied to prove their loyalty and make sacrifices for the war effort.
It is difficult to describe the feeling of despair and humiliation experienced by all of us as we watched the Caucasians coming to look over our possessions and offering such nominal amounts, knowing we had no recourse but to accept whatever they were offering because we did not know what the future held for us.” – Yasuko Ito
In 1942, Lieutenant James Glatt (left) and Lieutenant Cal Ferris (right) reviewed evacuation details as the last 300 residents of Japanese ancestry were forced out of their Redondo Beach homes and sent to a temporary detention center in Arcadia, CA. While major decisions were made at the top levels of the U.S. government, it took a large number of everyday people to enact and enforce these policies.
Forty-eight hours after these clothes were hung to dry, their owners were forced off their family farm. Japanese Americans lost their jobs, and many lost their farms. For most, there was nothing to return to at the end of the war. Dorothea Lange, San Lorenzo, CA, May 5, 1942.
Twenty-five-year-old Shizuko Ina looks ahead in line to register. It was the start of a four-year ordeal for Shizuko and her husband, Itaru. She was four months pregnant when they were sent to the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, California, where the couple was forced to live in a former horse stall. Dorothea Lange, San Francisco, California, April 25, 1942.
