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Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war -

The attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan drew the United States into the Second World War.

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Executive Order 9066 -

On December 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the United States' declaration of war against Japan (pictured). Two months later on February 19, 1942, the president signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the evacuation of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast of the United States to relocation centers further inland.

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Bombardment of Ellwood -

Four days later on February 23, the Ellwood oil field in California was attacked by a Japanese submarine.

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Invasion scare -

The bombardment of Ellwood sparked what became known as the West Coast invasion scare. Subsequently, all Japanese Americans living in the continental United States fell under suspicion. Of these, 112,000 resided on the West Coast.

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Put on notice -

By early March 1942, military zones had been created in California, Washington, and Oregon—states with a large population of Japanese Americans.

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War Relocation Authority -

By the end of the month, the War Relocation Authority (WRA) had been established to oversee the relocation of Japanese-Americans and construction of detention centers. Pictured are US Army officials studying Japanese evacuation maps.

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One week -

Following the issuing by the US Army of the first Civilian Exclusion Order, families of Japanese ancestry were given just one week to prepare for removal from their homes.

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Lining up for relocation -

Persons of Japanese ancestry were moved to assembly centers to be processed before being relocated to detention camps.

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Assembly centers -

Pictured: Japanese Americans arriving at the Santa Anita assembly center in California to register their personal details. Evacuees lived at this center at the former Santa Anita race track at Arcadia in California before being moved inland. Assembly centers became notorious for their lack of space and unsanitary conditions.

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Tagged and bagged -

Once processed, evacuees were issued with family identification tags to be worn conspicuously at all times.

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Relocation begins -

Pictured: a soldier escorts several Japanese-American children and a man in the back of a truck during their evacuation from Bainbridge Island to a relocation center.

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Attacks on US soil continue -

Meanwhile, Japan continued to attack the US mainland. On September 9, 1942, Japanese naval aviator Nbuo Fujita (pictured) piloted the only plane to take part in an aerial bombing raid over US soil when he dropped incendiary explosives near Brookings in Oregon. His aircraft had taken off from a hanger built on a Japanese submarine. Incursions like this, though minor, only fueled the resolve of the US War Office, which had favored the detention of all Japanese Americans, in its fight against the Department of Justice, which opposed moving innocent civilians.

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Internment camp locations -

Between 1942 and 1945, a total of 10 internment camps were opened for varying times in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arkansas.

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Arrival at the camps -

Pictured: Japanese-American detainees walk among the accommodation cabins of the Manzanar relocation center in Owens Valley, California.

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Shoot on site -

Throughout 1942, the interment camps began to fill up, with many detainees arriving clutching as many belongings as they could carry. All the camps were surrounded by barbed-wire fences patrolled by armed guards who had instructions to shoot anyone who tried to leave. Pictured is Minidoka detention center in Magic Valley, Idaho.

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Life in the detention centers -

Conditions in the camps were sparse with quality of life heavily influenced by which government entity was responsible for them. Depending on the location, weather also played its part. The Manzanar facility, for example, was affected by unbearably hot summers and bitterly cold winters. Pictured is a dust storm whipping up the Manzanar camp.

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Cramped accommodation -

Internees lived in uninsulated barracks furnished with simple cots, chairs, and tables. Toilet facilities were shared. Hot water was a rare luxury.

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Education and learning -

Of the 112,000 or so Japanese Americans incarcerated in relocation camps by the US government during the Second World War, 30,000 were children, most of them school-age. Schoolhouses were built, but were often overcrowded. Materials such as books and desks were scarce, as were sufficient numbers of qualified tutors.

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Work and recreation -

Overcoming their predicament the best they could, internees did managed to achieve a sense of community by setting up churches, farms, and organizing other work-related activities.

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Assisting the war effort -

One of the more ironic tasks assigned Japanese-American detainee was making camouflage netting for American forces deployed in the European and Pacific theaters.

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Maintaining self-esteem -

Internees maintained a sense of worth and self-esteem by assigning each other tasks. For example, these two men pictured at Manzanar are cleaning up around the camp.

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Sports and pastimes -

Baseball proved a popular pastime for both men and women at the detention camps. Over 100 baseball teams were formed in the Manzanar camp alone so that Japanese Americans could enjoy downtime playing the national sport of the United States.

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Saluting the flag -

Pictured: Japanese Americans hold a Memorial Day service at the Manzanar camp. Most internees attempted to follow a modicum of normality in the most unusual and depressing circumstances.

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True patriots -

Pictured: Japanese-American girls demonstrate their patriotism as they parade with a Liberty Bell float while being held at one of the camps.

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Camp medical facilities -

Crowded and demoralizing living conditions created a space for disease to thrive in all the camps, although conditions were far better than in the assembly centers where detainees had been forced to gather before being relocated to a camp. Immunization against typhoid and smallpox was a priority. Food poisoning was commonplace. So too was dysentery, with outbreaks recorded in the Topaz, Minidoka, and Jerome camps. The WRA eventually recorded 1,862 deaths across the 10 camps, with cancer, heart disease, tuberculosis, and vascular disease accounting for the majority.

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Born in detention -

Planned or unplanned, 504 babies were born in assembly centers while another 5,981 births were recorded across the 10 detention camps. Fortunately, most women described their prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care as adequate.

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High-profile visit -

Pictured: internees at the Gila River relocation center in Pinal County, Arizona, greet First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Dillon S. Myer, director of the WRA, on a tour of inspection on April 23, 1943.

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A question of loyalty -

In early 1943, WRA officials attempted to determine the loyalty of incarcerated Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) men they hoped to recruit into military service. This was done by issuing a questionnaire basically asking whether they were willing to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States. Those who said no were judged to be disloyal and sent to the maximum-security Tule Lake segregation center.

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Japanese Americans on the front line -

By 1944, the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was composed primarily of Japanese Americans from Hawaii, was deemed as serving with uncommon distinction in the European theater of the Second World War. Many of the soldiers from the continental US serving in the units had families who were held in detention camps in the United States while they fought abroad.

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End of internment -

In December 1944, the US Supreme Court handed down two decisions on the legality of the incarceration under Executive Order 9066. Shortly afterwards, the government announced that all relocation centers would be closed by the end of 1945. In March 1946, the last of these, the high-security camp at Tule Lake, was decommissioned. Pictured is the remnants of Gila River relocation center.

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Manzanar National Historic Site -

Today, Manzanar stands as the best-preserved relocation camp, and a permanent reminder of one of the most atrocious violations of American civil rights in the 20th century.

Sources: (History) (Britannica) (The National WWII Museum) (National Archives) (Grinnell College) (Densho)  

See also: American landmarks. How many do you know?

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