Pearl Harbor

Japanese-American business in Oakland the day after the Pearl Harbor bombing. The business was forced to shut down after its accounts were frozen by the US govenrment.

San Francisco Examiner newspapers fortelling the impending internment of the Japanese-American community.

The United States did not wish to enter World War II at the start of the conflict but found themselves plunged into the war after a suprise Japanese aerial bombing attack took place December 7, 1941 on the US Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This attack cemented the American people’s desire of war and led the United States to enter World War II. Another consequence of this attack, however, was the immediate persecution of American people whose heritage was that of enemy nations. The one racial group that bore the grunt of the persecution, however, were the Japanese-Americans. In 1942, President Roosevelt signed the executive order for the relocation of Americans with Japanese descent into internment camps.[1] The intention behind this executive order aimed to prevent the possibility of Japanese Americans from spying for Japan on the West Coast or possibly carrying out sabotage missions. While this relocation of Japanese Americans occurred all along the West Coast, one of one of the areas most affected from this movement happened to be the Delta region of California. This region became a major staging area for the movement of Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast to internment camps which were located as far away as Arkansas. Furthermore, the Delta’s culture and history was further influenced by this event due to the movement of Japanese Americans from this area to other places in the nation.