Japanese immigrants began arriving in the United States in large numbers during the latter half of the nineteenth century as employers on the West Coast sought cheap sources of labor to work in western industries such as lumber, agriculture, fishing, and railroads. Japanese immigrants often established “Japantowns” with traditional foods and shared cultural traditions, which provided a source of comfort for the residents but often engendered suspicion and distrust from white Americans. As the population of immigrants increased, many Japanese Americans began to face discriminatory policies that limited their land ownership and employment opportunities, affected naturalization, and encouraged segregation.

As a result of increasing tensions in the late nineteenth century, American and Japanese officials signed the so-called Gentlemen’s Agreement in 1907. This agreement prohibited the immigration of Japanese laborers to the United States with the understanding that those who had already immigrated would not be legally segregated. Despite the law, persecution and prejudice still permeated the West Coast resulting ultimately in the Immigration Act of 1924, which prohibited immigration from all Asian nations. In the following years, as military and political relations between the United States and Japan became tenuous, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted investigations of the Japanese immigrant populations to determine their loyalty and the likelihood of “fifth column activity,” meaning sabotage or betrayal from within.

On December 7, 1941, the fears and suspicions that many Americans held toward the Japanese immigrant population reached their climax with Japan’s attack at Pearl Harbor. State and national authorities began instituting curfews, travel restrictions, and weapons restrictions on the Japanese American population. Similarly, the government imprisoned those who had already been deemed suspicious based on earlier investigations. For many Americans, this was a time of great fear as those on the West Coast believed another attack by the Japanese was imminent and that the Japanese Americans in their midst would betray their adopted homeland.

In light of the political, social, and military context of the time, President Roosevelt was forced to make a decision regarding how to deal with the nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. On February 19, 1942, he issued Executive Order 9066 allowing the West Coast Defense Command under the leadership of General John DeWitt to create an “exclusion zone,” from which they could prohibit anyone from entering. Though not stated directly, Japanese Americans were the target of this order. Additional legislation created the War Relocation Authority, a bureaucratic organization that oversaw the creation of ten relocation camps across the United States to house the removed Japanese American population. Several Japanese Americans tested the legality of this law, but the order was upheld through the end of 1944, resulting in the mass removal and forced relocation of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans for the duration of the war.