Japanese-American internees mark New Year’s Eve, 12/31/1944, at the Central Utah Internment Camp in Topaz, UT. Photo by Charles E. Mace. Joseph Aoki portrays Father Time and his son Tommy, Baby New Year. Records of the Department of the Interior, War Relocation Authority, NARA ID 539711.
Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, led to the forced relocation of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. More than two-thirds of these people were native born American citizens. They were confined for the duration of World War II in 10 inland internment camps operated by the military. Professional photographers, including Dorothea Lange, were commissioned by the War Relocation Authority to document their daily life.Â
[The] photographs documenting the notification, assembly, relocation and incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans from 1942 until 1945... are an extraordinary record, taken by some of our greatest photographers, of a terrible injustice and the incredible dignity and resilience of its victims.
--Paul Sparrow, Director, FDR Library, from here.
Related online resources:
Japanese American Internment - main page outlining the National Archives’ extensive holdings that chronicle the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Teaching With Documents:Â Japanese-American Internment During World War II.
Images of Internment, post by Paul M. Sparrow, Director, FDR Library, Forward with Roosevelt blog.
Japanese American Internment Curriculum Guide, FDR Library.
Images of Internment: The Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II, FDR Library exhibit.
“Democracy Starts Here”: 11-minute National Archives film features Cherry Tsutsumida, Civil Rights Activist and Director, National Japanese American Memorial Foundation, who was incarcerated as a child with her family and later fought for justice for Japanese Americans:Â
