After President Roosevelt signed Executive order 9066 the Japanese community was faced with the threat of military force, the community, disarmed and vulnerable, had little choice but to submit to the evacuation orders.
In March of 1942, signs were posted by the government in areas where Japanese lived instructing "all persons of Japanese ancestry" to report to centers to find out when they would be evacuated. People were given about two weeks to sell all their belongings and property. A Nisei florist in San Francisco, James Omura, testified before the Toland Hearings, a Congressional "fact finding" committee to determine whether evacuation was necessary. Omura begged for fair treatment, "
In March of 1942, signs were posted by the government in areas where Japanese lived instructing "all persons of Japanese ancestry" to report to centers to find out when they would be evacuated. People were given about two weeks to sell all their belongings and property. A Nisei florist in San Francisco, James Omura, testified before the Toland Hearings, a Congressional "fact finding" committee to determine whether evacuation was necessary. Omura begged for fair treatment, "
"I would like to ask the Committee - Has the Gestapo come to America? Have we not risen in righteous anger at Hitler's mistreatment of the Jews? Then is it not incongruous that citizen Americans of Japanese descent should be similarly mistreated and persecuted?" -James Omura The U.S. government not only evacuated U.S. Japanese, but created a plan which included 20,000 Japanese being evacuated and imprisoned in Canada and thousands of Japanese living near the Pacific Coast in Mexico, Central and South America. This was part of a plan to hold a hostage reserve of Japanese who would be exchanged for American prisoners of war.
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Internment Camps
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