U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy battleship USS California sinking. December 7, 1941. National Archives, Washington D.C. Wikipedia. Web. March 2014.
Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941 Japan bombed the military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Waves of Japanese aircraft dropped bombs on the base. Losses to the navy and army were heavy. Soon afterwards, Japan declared war on the United States and Great Britain.
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Effects on Civilians
At this point racism among civilians became terrible, but legally things were worse. Japanese-Americans on the West Coast were told they could "evacuate" voluntarily, but few had another place to go, so most stayed. They had an 8:00 p.m. curfew and could not go farther than five miles from their home. Any shortwave radios, cameras, binoculars, and firearms had to be turned in. Japanese-American families had to register, and were each given a number.
"February 19, 1942, is the (day) which Executive Order 9066 was signed, and this was the order that called for the exclusion and internment of all Japanese-Americans living on the west coast during World War II."
-Xavier Becerra
found on BrainyQuote
Fear was everywhere, and Japanese-Americans became scapegoats. Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Roosevelt due to rising hysteria among civilians about the war. It allowed the Secretary of War and certain Military Commanders to designate certain military areas from which any or all people could be excluded, though the intent was to remove mainly Japanese-Americans. It also placed on the military the responsibility of providing necessary accommodations for excluded persons.
"For a period of several weeks following December 7th, substantially every ship leaving a West Coast port was attacked by an enemy submarine. This seemed conclusively to point to the existence of hostile ship-to-shore communication...
Because of the ties of race, the intense feeling of filial piety and the strong bonds of common tradition, culture and customs, (Japanese-Americans) presented a tightly-knit racial group. Whether by design or accident, virtually always their communities were adjacent to very vital shore installations... While it is believed that some (Japanese-Americans) were loyal, it was known that many were not. It was impossible to establish the identity of the loyal and the disloyal with any degree of safety...
The Commanding General was confronted with the Pearl Harbor experience, which involved a positive enemy knowledge of our patrols, our naval dispositions, etc., on the morning of December 7th; with the fact that ships leaving West Coast ports were being intercepted regularly by enemy submarines; and with the fact that an enemy element was in a position to do great damage and substantially to aid the enemy nation...
The Commanding General, charged as he was with the mission of providing for the defense of the West Coast, had to take into account these and other military considerations. He had no alternative but to conclude that the Japanese constituted a potentially dangerous element from the viewpoint of military security–that military necessity required their immediate evacuation to the interior."
-Commanding General
found in his report on the Japanese evacuation
Starting in March of 1942 and continuing through August, John L. DeWitt, Lieutenant General, U.S. Army signed a series of Civilian Exclusion Orders. These orders directed all those of Japanese descent in each military area to report to a specified Civil Control Station with necessary items for departure. They often had a week or even less to prepare their things and sell their property, automobiles, and livestock or pets.