Any person subject to this order who fails to comply with any of its provisions of published instructions....or who is found in the [described] area after [removal]...will be liable to the criminal penalties provided by Public Law No. 503...and alien Japanese will be subject to immediate apprehension and internment.
Civilian Exclusion Order
Civilian Exclusion Order
The Japanese Internment
The War Department and Western Defense Command were in charge of determining the logistics of the exclusion of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry to secured areas and how to get them there. Dewitt's first approach was voluntary. Issei and Nisei would have to leave restricted military zones on the West Coast, but could move to any area in interior areas of the United States. This didn't work as the military viewed enemies as enemies regardless of where they were located. As a result, Public Law 503 was signed on March 21, 1942 making it a crime to evade the exclusion order. The first stage of the forced removal was to relocate the Japanese to 'Assembly Centers' - temporary jails until the permanent concentration camps were built. |
"We were imprisoned for three years. Of course, we lost the lucrative years of farming during WWII, we lost our freedom and rights of citizenship, and our normal family life was destroyed, including the untimely death of our Father. We were humiliated. Guilt and shame, which were not ours, were put upon us wrongly."
- Sab Masada, recollecting his imprisonment years during my interview February 11, 2014
- Sab Masada, recollecting his imprisonment years during my interview February 11, 2014
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The concentration camps placed entire families in one room cells. Severe weather conditions, like those in Manzanar and Tule Lake in California, made it difficult to live in the camps. Japanese were forced to use communal toilets, showers, and eat in mass dining halls.
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" There was no family life. We all ate in the mess halls ... never as a family...years without a close family life in camp probably affected me adversely in ways I am not aware. I know that when my father caught pneumonia and died three weeks after arrival in Jerome concentration camp, I did not grieve the way I would have if we were living on the farm." - Sab Masada, recollecting his imprisonment years during my interview February 11, 2014
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Terminology
“‘Evacuation’ and ‘relocation’ are the two most commonly used terms to describe the World War II experience of Japanese Americans. A close examination of the definitions of these words, however, reveals the underlying propagandistic intent. “Evacuation” is the process of temporarily moving people away from an immediate and real danger. Similarly, “relocation” is the process of more permanently moving people away from a long-term hazard. Both terms strongly suggest that the movement is for the protection or safety of the affected people. It was precisely for this reason that the government selected such words. There is no hint in either term that people are to be confined, detained, imprisoned, or restrained in any way. Thus if these terms are accepted at face value, complaints and lawsuits about false imprisonment or unlawful detention are effectively precluded.”
-The American Concentration Camps: A Cover-up Through Euphemistic Terminology
Raymond Y. Okamura
The Journal of Ethnic Studies
Volume 10, Number 3, Fall 1982
-The American Concentration Camps: A Cover-up Through Euphemistic Terminology
Raymond Y. Okamura
The Journal of Ethnic Studies
Volume 10, Number 3, Fall 1982