BACKGROUND

Photo from LAPL Photo Database. Title: Japanese aliens in custody. Date: 1942. Physical Details: 1 photograph: b&w. Collection: Herald-Examiner Collection. Description: Deputy Sheriff H. G. Storlie, left and Deputy William Adolph, right, are shown on February 21, 1942, with some of the Japanese aliens taken into custody here. Left to right, Nikuma Tanoue, Toragugu Honda, K. Idezoe, Shigekazu Umemoto, M. Hireta. Subject: Japanese Americans California Los Angeles. Headings: Japanese Americans Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945, World War, 1939-1945 California Los Angeles. Location United States California Los Angeles. Order: 00043985. Number File HE box 9180

IT ALL STARTED WHEN…

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese immigrants suspected as cooperating with the Imperial Japan were arrested and taken to camps such as Tuna Canyon Detention Station, to await hearings. Many were community, religious or business leaders, fishermen, Japanese language school teachers, or instructors of Japanese martial arts that were trying to uphold culture in their communities. Also arrested were Germans and Italians.

In the spring and summer of 1942, under EO9066, approximately 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast, were forced into temporary detention and then permanent War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps.