Japanese American Internment Timeline

(1942–1946)

This timeline examines the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, including its causes, human impact, legal challenges, and lasting legacy. More Less

Go to: Timeline | Event List | Key Facts | Directory

Prewar discrimination

Gentlemen's Agreement

1907 - 1908

The United States and Japan reached an informal agreement under which Japan stopped issuing passports to laborers traveling to the continental United States, while President Theodore Roosevelt's administration opposed San Francisco's segregation of Japanese American schoolchildren. The agreement restricted Japanese immigration without formally barring all Japanese immigrants.

California alien land law

1913

California enacted an alien land law barring immigrants ineligible for citizenship—primarily Japanese and other Asian immigrants—from owning agricultural land. The statute limited leases and property rights and became a major component of institutional discrimination against Japanese Americans.

California alien land law strengthened

1920

California voters approved a stronger alien land law that prohibited immigrants ineligible for citizenship from leasing agricultural land and used anti-evasion provisions to target Japanese American farmers. Japanese American communities responded by using citizen children and corporations to preserve farms and businesses.

Ozawa v. United States

Nov 13, 1922

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Takao Ozawa, a Japanese immigrant who had lived in the United States for decades, was not eligible for naturalization because he was not legally classified as white. The decision reinforced racial restrictions on citizenship.

Immigration Act of 1924

May 24, 1924

The Immigration Act of 1924 established national-origins quotas and excluded immigrants who were ineligible for citizenship, effectively ending immigration from Japan. It intensified the legal isolation of Japanese American communities and divided many families between Japan and the United States.

Image source: Immigration Act of 1924

Incarceration and military policy

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor

Dec 7, 1941

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II. Although Japanese Americans overwhelmingly supported the United States, public suspicion and military fears rapidly focused on them because of their ancestry.

Image source: Attack on Pearl Harbor

FBI arrests Japanese American community leaders

Dec 7, 1941 - Dec 8, 1941

Immediately after Pearl Harbor, the FBI arrested thousands of Issei community leaders, including Buddhist priests, language-school teachers, Japanese association officers, and businesspeople. Officials generally selected people from secret lists and detained them without individualized proof of espionage or sabotage.

Japanese American bank accounts frozen

Dec 7, 1941

The Treasury Department froze Japanese American bank accounts and other assets under wartime regulations. The action disrupted businesses, farms, and families and made it difficult for detainees to pay mortgages, taxes, employees, or legal expenses.

Executive Order 9066 signed

Feb 19, 1942

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing military commanders to exclude any or all persons from designated military areas. The order did not name Japanese Americans, but it provided the legal framework for their mass removal from the West Coast.

Image source: Executive Order 9066

Military curfew imposed

Mar 2, 1942

Western Defense Command issued curfew and movement restrictions for people of Japanese ancestry in designated military areas. Japanese Americans had to remain home during specified nighttime hours and carry identification, despite the absence of evidence that the population posed a collective security threat.

Public Proclamation No. 1 issued

Mar 2, 1942

Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt issued Public Proclamation No. 1, dividing the West Coast into military areas and announcing that persons of Japanese ancestry would soon be excluded. The proclamation marked the beginning of the forced-removal process.

Executive Order 9102 creates the WRA

Mar 18, 1942

Executive Order 9102 created the War Relocation Authority, a civilian agency directed by Milton S. Eisenhower and later Dillon S. Myer. The WRA administered the incarceration camps and the forced relocation of Japanese Americans.

Image source: War Relocation Authority

Manzanar War Relocation Center opens

Mar 21, 1942

Manzanar opened in California's Owens Valley and became one of the best-known incarceration centers. Ultimately, more than 10,000 Japanese Americans were held there, including many removed from Los Angeles and surrounding areas.

Image source: Manzanar

Civilian exclusion orders begin

Mar 24, 1942

The first Civilian Exclusion Order, covering Bainbridge Island, Washington, required Japanese Americans to leave their homes and report for removal. Similar orders soon applied across the West Coast, usually allowing only a few days to prepare.

Bainbridge Island removal

Mar 30, 1942

The U.S. Army removed 227 Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island and transported them to the Manzanar Assembly Center. They were the first West Coast Japanese Americans forcibly removed under the exclusion program.

First mass removal to assembly centers

Apr 1, 1942

Large-scale removals began as Japanese Americans reported to temporary assembly centers, often located at fairgrounds, racetracks, and livestock facilities. Families were forced to sell or abandon homes, farms, businesses, and personal property at severe losses.

War Relocation Authority assembly centers open

Apr 1942 - Jun 1942

The Army and WRA operated temporary assembly centers while permanent incarceration camps were constructed. More than 100,000 Japanese Americans lived in cramped barracks, converted exhibition halls, or horse stalls under military guard and surrounded by barbed wire.

Japanese American incarceration camps fill

May 1942 - Oct 1942

By the fall of 1942, approximately 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry had been confined in ten WRA camps. Around two-thirds were U.S. citizens, including many children, and nearly all had been removed without criminal charges or individual hearings.

Wartime Civil Control Administration ends

Mar 20, 1943

The Army transferred primary responsibility for the mass detention program to the War Relocation Authority. This administrative shift formalized the WRA's central role in operating the ten permanent camps.

Tule Lake Segregation Center designated

May 26, 1943

Tule Lake in northern California was converted into a maximum-security segregation center for people labeled disloyal after the WRA loyalty questionnaire. The center held more than 18,000 people and became the largest and most restrictive incarceration site.

Hirabayashi v. United States decided

Jun 21, 1943

The Supreme Court upheld Gordon Hirabayashi's convictions for violating the wartime curfew and exclusion orders. The ruling accepted the government's claim that military necessity justified race-based restrictions, although it did not directly approve the entire incarceration program.

Image source: Hirabayashi v. United States

Korematsu v. United States argued

Oct 11, 1944

The Supreme Court heard Fred Korematsu's challenge to his conviction for violating the exclusion order. Korematsu argued that the exclusion of Japanese Americans was unconstitutional racial discrimination.

West Coast exclusion lifted

Dec 17, 1944

The War Department announced that the West Coast exclusion orders would end on Jan. 2, 1945. Japanese Americans were permitted to return, although many still faced hostility, housing shortages, economic losses, and continuing restrictions.

Ex parte Endo decided

Dec 18, 1944

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the government could not continue detaining a concededly loyal U.S. citizen. The case, brought by Mitsuye Endo, helped compel the administration to end the exclusion and begin closing the camps.

Korematsu v. United States decided

Dec 18, 1944

The Supreme Court upheld Fred Korematsu's conviction, distinguishing exclusion from the detention of loyal citizens. The decision accepted the government's assertion of military necessity and became one of the most criticized civil-liberties rulings in U.S. history.

Japanese American camps begin closing

1945 - Mar 20, 1946

The WRA closed the permanent camps as inmates returned to the West Coast or relocated elsewhere. The last WRA facility, Tule Lake, closed on March 20, 1946, leaving many families to rebuild lives after losing homes and livelihoods.

Resistance and military service

Japanese American Citizens League supports incarceration

1942 - 1945

The Japanese American Citizens League generally cooperated with federal authorities during the war and promoted Nisei military service, believing that demonstrations of loyalty could secure civil rights. Its wartime stance later became controversial among former inmates and activists.

Image source: Japanese American Citizens League

Manzanar uprising

Dec 5, 1942 - Dec 11, 1942

Tensions over informants, labor conditions, political factions, and the arrest of Harry Ueno led to protests and violence at Manzanar. Military police fired into a crowd, killing two inmates and wounding others, exposing the coercive conditions within the camps.

Loyalty questionnaire administered

Feb 1943 - Mar 1943

The WRA administered a controversial questionnaire to adult inmates, including questions about willingness to serve in the U.S. military and to swear unqualified allegiance to the United States. Poor wording, family obligations, and distrust produced many 'no-no' answers and intensified divisions within the camps.

442nd Regimental Combat Team activated

Feb 1, 1943

The U.S. Army activated the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated unit composed largely of Nisei volunteers. Its motto, 'Go for Broke,' came to symbolize Japanese American military service despite incarceration and discrimination at home.

Nisei soldiers enter combat

Apr 1943

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team began training and later fought in Europe. Japanese American soldiers served with distinction while their families remained incarcerated, creating a powerful contradiction between military service and domestic exclusion.

Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee resists draft

1944

The Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee argued that Japanese American men should not be drafted while their families were imprisoned and their citizenship rights were suspended. Sixty-three resisters were convicted of draft violations, making the group one of the most visible organized challenges to the incarceration system.

442nd rescues the Lost Battalion

Oct 30, 1944

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team rescued roughly 211 soldiers of the encircled 141st Regiment in the Vosges Mountains of France. The operation cost the 442nd hundreds of casualties and became one of its most celebrated actions.

Redress and legacy

Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act

Jul 2, 1948

Congress enacted the Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act, allowing some former inmates to seek compensation for documented property losses caused by removal. The law excluded many economic and personal harms and required extensive proof, so payments covered only a fraction of losses.

California alien land laws struck down

1952

In Oyama v. California, the Supreme Court struck down a discriminatory application of California's alien land law, ruling that it violated the equal-protection rights of a U.S.-born citizen. The decision weakened the legal structure that had targeted Japanese American landownership.

McCarran-Walter Act allows Asian naturalization

Jun 27, 1952

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 eliminated racial bars to naturalization, allowing Issei and other Asian immigrants to become U.S. citizens. It retained national-origins quotas and other restrictions but ended one of the central legal disabilities imposed on Japanese immigrants.

Day of Remembrance observances expand

1978 - 2021

Japanese American communities began organizing annual Day of Remembrance events to commemorate the signing of Executive Order 9066 and educate the public about incarceration. The observances became a national civil-rights tradition emphasizing the warning against government-sanctioned racial targeting.

Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment established

Jul 31, 1980

Congress established the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians to investigate the facts, circumstances, and consequences of the removal and detention of Japanese Americans and other civilians during World War II.

Personal Justice Denied published

Dec 1982

The congressional commission published Personal Justice Denied, concluding that the incarceration resulted from 'race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership,' not military necessity. Its findings provided the foundation for a federal apology and monetary redress.

Korematsu conviction overturned

Nov 10, 1983

A federal district court in San Francisco vacated Fred Korematsu's wartime conviction after attorneys demonstrated that the government had withheld and altered evidence regarding the alleged military necessity of exclusion. The ruling did not overturn the Supreme Court precedent but cleared Korematsu's criminal record.

Civil Liberties Act signed

Aug 10, 1988

President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, formally apologizing for the incarceration and authorizing $20,000 payments to each surviving eligible detainee. The law acknowledged that the policy was driven by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and political failure.

First redress payments delivered

Oct 9, 1990

The federal government issued the first redress checks and apology letters to former Japanese American inmates. Nearly 82,000 eligible survivors ultimately received payments under the Civil Liberties Act.

Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to Fred Korematsu

Jan 15, 1998

President Bill Clinton awarded Fred Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his lifelong commitment to civil rights. The honor recognized his challenge to wartime exclusion and his later role as an educator and advocate.

Image source: Fred Korematsu

Key Facts

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing military exclusion zones that enabled the forced removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast.
Approximately 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated, and about two-thirds were American citizens.
The War Relocation Authority operated ten major incarceration camps in remote areas across the United States.
In Korematsu v. United States (1944), the Supreme Court upheld the exclusion of Japanese Americans, though the decision has since been widely condemned.
The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 formally apologized and provided monetary compensation to surviving Japanese American incarceration victims.

Source

This Japanese American Internment timeline was generated with the help of AI, using information found on the internet.

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