HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Historical Videos - A 5-video series courtesy of Densho, providing a historical background of Japanese Americans and their incarceration during World War II.

Timeline & Key Historical Dates - A timeline with key historical dates of the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Japanese American Incarceration - A short introduction to the history of the exclusion and incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.

GOVERNMENT

Civilian Exclusion Orders - A series of orders issued by Gen. John L. DeWitt as head of the Western Defense Command (WDC) directing the exclusion of "all persons of Japanese ancestry, including aliens and non-aliens" from designated areas on the West Coast.

Executive Order 9066 - EO9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, authorized what was to become the mass forced removal and incarceration of all Japanese Americans on the West Coast.

War Relocation Authority - The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was the federal agency created in 1942 to care for the 110,000 Japanese Americans whom the army removed from the West Coast during World War II.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Everyday Popular Resistance - Although history books and the Suyama Project website highlight major protest activities that occurred within the Japanese American community during World War II, it is important to note that resistance was not limited to only a handful of Japanese Americans.

Shattering the Myth of the "Quiet American" - Shortly after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, people of Japanese descent living on the West Coast were removed from their homes and imprisoned in United States concentration camps. The stereotype that formed of Japanese Americans from this experience was that of the "quiet" American who went "quietly" into the camps, never questioned the constitutionality of their incarceration, agreed to serve in the military while imprisoned in the camps to prove their loyalty and "quietly" returned to their pre-war lives after the war.