Internment Broadside - American History, 1493-1945

Instructions to all persons of Japanese ancestry

3 May 1942

View the Japanese Internment Broadside in the resource

After the Japanese Empire carried out its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the shocked American public responded with fury. Almost overnight, a population dedicated to isolationism threw themselves wholeheartedly into preparations for a war they had previously hoped to avoid. However, it was not only the Axis powers who would feel the nation’s wrath. In one of the darkest episodes of twentieth century American history, fear of internal enemies would manifest as racial hostility towards innocent civilians.

Published in May 1942, five months after the attack in Hawaii, this broadside outlines a set of instructions for the forced removal of ethnically Japanese families from the Pacific coast: "Pursuant to the provisions of Civilian Exclusion Order No. 33 […] all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated". Readers were advised to visit the “Civil Control Station” for further instructions on assembling personal belongings – internees would be allowed only what they could carry.

Though Japanese-American communities initially retained support, public opinion slowly began to turn, especially after the Ni’ihau Incident when three Japanese-Americans in Hawaii attempted to help an injured Japanese pilot escape capture. In February 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. The order authorized the military to designate zones from which ‘any or all people may be excluded’. Though not initially aimed at any one group, months later it would be used to facilitate the forced migration of up to 120,000 Japanese-Americans from their homes. Of this number, roughly 80,000 were second or third generation migrants. 11,500 German-Americans (including Jewish refugees) and 3,000 people of Italian ancestry were also detained due to fears of disloyalty.

With as little as six days’ notice, thousands were forced to abandon their homes, businesses, farms and belongings for remote “Relocation Centres”. Few had time to arrange the sale of their land, and those who did had to accept huge losses. Inside the swiftly constructed camps, the interned lived in cramped, overcrowded and initially unsanitary conditions. 30,000 of the detainees were children, and funds for school facilities were scarce. Class sizes were large, supplies short and temperatures high. Armed sentries guarded the large enclosures, and, over the course of detainment, seven internees were shot dead.

Handed down by the Supreme Court in December 1944, Ex parte Endo declared that loyal citizens, regardless of their descent, could not be detained without cause. Nevertheless, the last camp would not close until 1946. Former detainees were given 25 dollars and a train ticket back to their former residences, but many had nothing to return to. Most families had lost their land and property, while personal belongings entrusted to government storage had been stolen or broken. Some of the internees chose to emigrate to Japan, others were forcibly repatriated.

In the 1960s, inspired by the Civil Rights movement, young Japanese-Americans began to demand reparations and an official apology. By the end of the twentieth century, the U.S. government had paid $1.6 billion to detainees and their descendants. This broadside sheds light on an aspect of American history that is rarely discussed. The dispassionate tone masks the true horror of the government’s decision to punish an entire community not for any act of disloyalty, but for their heritage.