February 2017 marks 75 years since presidential Executive Order 9066 forcibly removed over 100,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry from their homes and businesses, and placed them in concentration camps at the start of World War II.
A little-noted outcome of this trampling of Americans' civil liberties, is that the protracted process of public redress in the decades after the War has shed a clear light on the unconstitutionality of this action.
It is hoped that the precedent established by the WWII Japanese American redress efforts can help prevent similar, uninformed, and dangerous assaults on civil liberties from occurring in the future.
The CSUEB Library exhibit will run from February 8, to March 22, 2017.
This timely exhibit utilizes 3 posters created by Cal-State, Dominguez Hills, the CSU campus directing the Japanese American History Digitization Project.
The full set of CSUDH-created posters can be viewed here: https://www2.calstate.edu/csu-system/media-center/Documents/csujad-posters.pdf
The Mission of the Digitization Project [as quoted from their website]:
Project Mission
The central purpose of the California State University Japanese American History Digitization Project is to improve access to CSU archival collections about the history of Japanese Americans and to develop a functional model for ongoing planning and collaboration among the CSU archival and library community.
While researching ways in which the University Libraries at CSUEB might recognize the 75th Anniversary of Executive Order 9066 - and the incarceration of 100,000 Japanese American citizens during World War II - we discovered the excellent exhibition already created by our sister institution, Cal-State University at Dominguez Hills.
CSUDH allowed us to print 3 of the exhibit posters from their exhibit. To this we added a summary/title poster (far left box on this page), and several items from our own archives that deal with this historical event.
Additionally, Diana Wakimoto designed a handout for the exhibit that provides historical background to the 1942 internment and its aftermath:
--------- [CSUEB Title Poster for this hybrid CSU exhibit] -----------
[CSUEB TITLE POSTER TEXT from sidebar on page one of this LibGuide:]
75th Anniversary
February 19, 1942
Executive Order 9066
Relocation
Executive Order 9066 authorized the removal of Japanese Americans from military areas along the Pacific Coast during World War II
Redress
Efforts by Japanese America ns to obtain restitution of civil rights, an apology, and/or monetary compensation after World War II
Remembrance
Ongoing efforts to protect the rights of immigrants, and to preserve civil liberties for all Americans
[Center photo image caption:]
Following evacuation orders, this store, at at 13th and Franklin Streets, was closed. The owner, a University of California graduate of Japanese descent, placed the “I Am An American” sign on the store front on December 8, the day after Pearl Harbor. Photo by Dorothea Lange, Oakland, California, 3/13/42.
--------- [CSU Dominguez Hills Exhibit Posters utilized with permission for this CSUEB wall exhibit] -----------
[Poster #1 Title: E.O. 9066]
[Poster title/header] Executive Order 9066 authorized the removal of any and all persons from military areas along the pacific coast.
“Any and all persons” were specified as all Japanese Americans on the West Coast in a later “Civilian Exclusion Order.” This facilitated the removal of Japanese Americans to 16 temporary assembly centers. The Centers consisted of fairgrounds, racetracks and other public facilities in California, Oregon, Washington State, and Arizona. The Assembly Centers were temporary holding facilities until more permanent camps could be constructed away from the coast. The Centers were administered by the U.S. Army's Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA).
The Japanese Americans were forced into the Assembly Centers behind fences and guarded by police in watchtowers. They were confined to horse stalls and other unsanitary areas that immediately resulted in a striking loss of privacy and freedom. Though newspapers were published and recreational events took place, the Centers were temporary and that state of flux resulted in additional stress for those uprooted citizens.
[Photo image #1 caption:]
Japanese Americans board train for trip to Santa Anita Assembly Center, 1942. SJSU
[Photo image #2 caption:]
Imprisoned graduating students pledging allegiance to the flag, Santa Anita,
1942. SJSU
[Photo image #3 caption:]
Photograph shows a registration and processing scene at Santa Anita, California Assembly Center, 1942. SJSU
[Photo image #4 caption:]
One of three canteens, Santa Anita Assembly Center, 1942. SJSU
[Image of May 3 1942 poster notifying Japanese Americans of the evacuation order and process.]
[Poster footer credits:]
[sponsor logos:] Cal-State Dominguez Hills; CSU – California State University; National Endowment for the Humanities; National Park Service
This project was funded, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program. The project was also funded, in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. www.CSUJAD.com
Design: LaToya Johnson - 2017
[Poster #2 Title: Redress & Remembrance]
[Poster title/header] Redress & Remembrance
The Redress Movement refers to efforts to obtain restitution of civil rights, an apology, and/or monetary compensation from the U.S. government during the decades that followed the World War II mass removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. Beyond the fight for recognition and redress from the U.S. government, Japanese Americans have also fought on a personal level and collectively to ensure that this dark period in American History is remembered and that future generations will have the opportunity to learn about this incarceration of American citizens. Redress resulted in each living former prisoner receiving $20,000.
[Photo image #1 caption:]
Henry Fukahara notebook. Manzanar watercolor. CSUDH
[Photo image #2 caption:]
President George Bush redress letter, 1991.
[Photo image #3 caption:]
Speaking Out for Personal Justice. CSUDH [subtitle:] Site summaries of testimonies and Witnesses Registry from the U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation & Internment of Civilians Hearings (CWRIC). 1961
[Photo image #4 caption:]
30th annual Manzanar Pilgrimage. CSUDH
[Poster footer credits:]
[sponsor logos:] Cal-State Dominguez Hills; CSU – California State University; National Endowment for the Humanities; National Park Service
This project was funded, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program. The project was also funded, in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. www.CSUJAD.com
Design: LaToya Johnson - 2017
[Poster #3 Title: Immigration Issues After 1945]
[Poster title/header] Immigration Issues After 1945
Over 120,000 Japanese American citizens and immigrants were imprisoned
during 1942-1945.
Portions of majority populations in the U.S. have always feared rather than embraced differences. Politicians listen to that fear.
• Housed in detention centers in Texas during 2014-2016, immigrant families and children have been imprisoned in ICE facilities (often managed by private contractors) while awaiting deportation.
• In all 762 detainees were swept up nation -wide, including 491 in the New York area (after 9/11). The arrests came after the FBI was flooded with tips to a hotline, including 96,000 in the week after 11 September 2001.
[The Guardian, June 21, 2015].
• Japanese American community organizations are often quite vocal when it comes to the government infringing on the rights
of immigrants.
• In 2016 the Presidential campaign of Donald Trump brought many of these issues to the forefront of public opinion.
• Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump told TIME that he does not know whether he would have supported or opposed the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
“I would have had to be there at the time to tell you, to give you a proper answer,” he said during a recent interview in his office in New York City.”
“I certainly hate the concept of it. But I would have had to be there at the time to give you a proper answer.”
[Time.com, December 8, 2015].
[Photo image #1 caption:]
Toske Hoshimiya to J. Ralph McFarling, Nov 1, 1945. CSUDH.
[Photo image #2 caption:]
South Texas Family Residential Center Web Page https://www.ice.gov/detention-facility/south-texas- family-residential-center
[Photo image #3 caption:]
Article from Aljazeera America [entitled: “Decades After Internment, Japanese-Americans warn of what’s still possible”]: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/2/18/japanese- americaninternmentremembrancemuslimpatriottsa.html
[Poster footer credits:]
[sponsor logos:] Cal-State Dominguez Hills; CSU – California State University; National Endowment for the Humanities; National Park Service
This project was funded, in part, by a grant by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program. The project was also funded, in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
www.csujad.com
Designed by Maria Hernandez - 2017 Background watercolor by H. Takada, Granada Camp, 1944-45. CSUDH.
