Japanese Americans in World War II: A National Historic Landmarks Theme Study

In 1941, nearly 113,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them American citizens, were living on the West Coast, in California, Washington, and Oregon. On December 7, Japan attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, and the United States declared war on Japan. Two months later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066 empowering the U.S. Army to designate areas from which people could be excluded. Although the Executive Order did not identify who was to be excluded, the Army enforced its provisions only against Japanese Americans. No person of Japanese ancestry living in the United States was ever convicted of any serious act of espionage or sabotage during the war, yet the entire West Coast population of people of Japanese descent was forcibly removed from their homes and placed in relocation centers, many for the duration of the war. Responding to demands for redress and reparations made by the Japanese American community, the Federal government finally took steps to publically apologize to Japanese Americans for their wartime treatment. In 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided financial redress to former detainees. The Federal government also took steps to commemorate this period of history and educate the public about the abrogation of Japanese Americans' constitutional rights during the war years. Title II of Public Law 102-248, enacted by Congress on March 3, 1992, authorized and directed the Secretary of the Interior to prepare a Japanese American National Historic Landmark (NHL) Theme Study, so that related sites could be evaluated for NHL designation. Specifically, this law defined the purpose of the study to: . . . identify the key sites in Japanese American History that illustrate the period in American history when personal justice was denied Japanese Americans. The Theme Study shall identify, evaluate, and nominate as national historic landmarks those sites, buildings, and structures that best illustrate or commemorate the period in American history from 1941 to 1946 when Japanese Americans were ordered to be detained, relocated, or excluded pursuant to Executive Order Number 9066, and other actions. This theme study, therefore, encompasses the 1941 to 1946 period assigned to the study by Public Law 102-248. An overriding purpose of the theme study was to determine the sites that are potentially eligible for designation as National Historic Landmarks, and establish priorities for designation.