Japanese Relocation Posters

[Japanese Relocation] De Witt, J. L., Lieutenant General, U.S. Army.

 

Original Posters Announcing and Implementing the Removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast

Presidio of San Francisco: Headquarters, Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, May 1942.

Broadsides measuring 14 by 22 inches, printed letterpress on thin paper.

These posters appeared in 110 communities in California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona. They informed residents of Japanese descent (whether citizens or not) when and where to report for removal, first to assembly centers and then to internment camps.

Priced from $500 to $750 each

(see below for details)

 

 

Above: A Civilian Exclusion Order

Even before Pearl Harbor, American army commanders worried about the possibility of sabotage from "enemy aliens"—citizens of the waring countries living in the United States. After the surprise Japanese attack, these fears multiplied. In the final report on the Japanese relocation, which affected all persons of Japanese ancestry, including tens of thousands of native-born citizens, DeWitt explained the reasoning for his actions (which were approved by President Franklin Roosevelt):

The continued presence of a large, unassimilated, tightly knit and racial group, bound to an enemy nation by strong ties of race, culture, custom and religion along a frontier vulnerable to attack constituted a menace which had to be dealt with. Their loyalties were unknown and time was of the essence. The evident aspirations of the enemy emboldened by his recent successes made it worse than folly to have left any stone unturned in the building up of our defenses. It is better to have had this protection and not to have needed it than to have needed it an not to have had it—as we have learned to our sorrow.

DeWitt's original plan was to intern all "Jap citizens" and all Italian and German immigrants. He first implemented a curfew and travel restrictions on all enemy aliens in the western United States, and then moved forward with forced relocation. The sheer numbers of Italian (700,000) and German (300,000) citizens made relocating them logistically difficult, and beside, the public felt, who would want to jail Joe DiMaggio's parents, neither of whom had applied for American citizenship. So DeWitt started with the Japanese.

The Japanese relocation began with the posting of Civilian Exclusion Orders. These orders were posted throughout the West Coast, and provided the legal authority for the coming relocation. They were quickly followed by Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry, which explained the details of the relocation. Japanese Americans were informed that officials at the Civilian Control Stations would "provide services with respect to the management, leasing, sale, storage or other disposition of most kinds of property, such as real estate, business and professional equipment, household goods, boats, automobiles and livestock." Yet the space of time between the posting of the Civilian Exclusion Orders and the evacuation of the Japanese Americans was typically less than a week, making it virtually impossible for anyone to wind up their affairs.

There is virtually no evidence that the Japanese Americans were disloyal or planning sabotage, yet the very lack of violence on the part of the Japanese living on the mainland was seen at the time as proof their military discipline and organization. Further proof of the injustice of the Japanese internment is found by comparing the treatment of mainland Japanese with those living in Hawaii.

At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, more than a third of all Hawaiian residents were of Japanese ancestry. While plans to relocate the Japanese from the West Coast were underway, similar actions were contemplated for Hawaii (where more Japanese lived than in the 48 contiguous states). The military commander on the island resisted these moves. The proposal to evacuate the Japanese to the mainland was defeated because there weren't enough ships. The proposal to move them all to a single island was deemed impractical. A plan to fire all Japanese civilians working for the military would result in a labor shortage. In the end, only a 1,000 Hawaiian Japanese were interned, even though those islands had been hit by an actual Japanese attack.

Civilian Exclusion Order No. 7   (governing Santa Monica, California). Fine, but for an old horizontal fold. SOLD

Civilian Exclusion Order No. 9 (governing Burbank, California). Fine, but for an old horizontal fold. SOLD

Civilian Exclusion Order No. 18 (governing Seattle, Washington). Fine, but for an old horizontal fold. $650

Civilian Exclusion Order No. 21 (governing Los Angeles, California). Fine, but for an old horizontal fold. $650

Civilian Exclusion Order No. 49 (governing Hood River, Oregon; pictured). Fine, but for an old horizontal fold. SOLD

Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry (printed for Auburn, Washington; pictured). Fine, but for an old horizontal fold. SOLD

Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry (printed for San Jose, California). Very good, with chips missing from both right corners (not affecting text) and an old horizontal fold. SOLD

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