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Archives in Context: Teachable Topics from the CSU Japanese American Digitization Project

Timeline: Cases

This timeline features images and text documents from the CSUJAD database that relate to the events entered here regarding court cases resulting from the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Use the left and right arrows to navigate through the timeline. Click the event titles to view a larger display of the document associated with the event.

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After General DeWitt designates western coastal areas as places where people of Japanese descent should be removed, the Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) opened 15 Assembly Centers to detain them. This is a map, circa 1942, of military areas in Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada, describing the amount of Japanese population in these areas. A page from Wartime Civil Control Administration bulletin, 12.
After the fall of France and rumors of espionage, President Roosevelt signed the Alien Registration Act (popularly known as the Smith Act), which for the first time required all resident aliens to register, be fingerprinted, and inform the government of any change of address. Aliens were issued identity cards. This aided the initial FBI roundup of aliens within 24 hours of Pearl Harbor totaling 1,717 people of which 1,212 were Japanese. Seen here is an alien registration receipt card, Form AR-3, for Tomoye Takano from 1942.
Minori Yasui, a twenty-five-year-old lawyer, deliberately made himself a test case by walking around Portland after 8 pm to challenge the constitutionality of the curfew and turned himself in. He was charged with curfew violation. This article titled, "Curfew Law is Questioned" from the April 3, 1942 issue is of the official newspaper of the Granada concentration camp reports on the the challenges by Yasui & Gordon Hirabayashi.
Japanese American draft status is changed from 1-A (available for unrestricted military service) to 4-C (“enemy alien” or dual national). Draft boards had stopped calling up Japanese Americans for military service before this. Seen here is a letter from Hideo Hashimoto to The Japanese Methodist Church, on April 13, 1942, to the congregation and friends where he summarizes his treament after Pearl Harbor and the state of the country the day before the mass removal order.
General DeWitt issued Proclamation 3, which ordered a curfew requiring all alien Japanese, Germans, and Italians to stay within their place of residence or employment (if it was not more than 5 miles from home) between the hours of 8:00 pm and 6:00 am. This was followed 3 days later by Proclamation 4 prohibiting all persons of Japanese ancestry in the coastal Military Area No. 1 from leaving that area for any purpose and then Proclamation 6 extended it to all the Japanese in Military Area No. 2 further inland.
Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi, a twenty-four-year-old college student, turned himself in to the Seattle FBI office and was charged with failing to register after the removal orders and violating the curfew. He chose to stay in the Seattle King County Federal jail refusing bail, which would have only provided him with the option to go to one of the WRA camps. This letter from the Hirabayashi Defense Committee was distributed to potential donors in January, 1943 to raise funds to take his case to the Supreme Court.
The Yasui, Hirabayashi, and Korematsu court cases came before the seven-judge Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Edward J. Ennis represented the War Department and argued for the military necessity of the curfew and mass removal. The judges declined to rule on Hirabayashi and Yasui, sending their cases directly to the Supreme Court, and asked the Supreme Court whether it was appropriate to rule on the Korematsu appeal since the previous judge only sentenced probation, which technically is not a final judgment that can be appealed. Included here is a 1982 reprint of a report on "un-American activities" from 1943-45.
A resolution signed by every member of Congress from the West Coast was sent to President Roosevelt calling for the immediate evacuation of all persons of Japanese lineage from Alaska (territory), Washington, Oregon, and California. Here is a list created on February 10, 1942 containing names, addresses, number of acres held and parcel numbers on map of Japanese tenants. It seems this document is preparation for Executive Order 9066 issued on February 19, 1942.
Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu, a twenty-three-year-old welder, had plastic surgery and assumed a false identity to pass himself off as a Spanish Hawaiian. He was recognized and arrested for not obeying the exclusion order and jailed in San Francisco. Ernest Besig, an ACLU lawyer looking for a test case, bailed Fred out and he ended up at Tanforan Assembly Center and later the Topaz WRA camp. Fred is seen in this photo from January 15, 1988 with Jack Herzig at the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of American History during the reception following the ceremony awarding Fred the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Supreme Court agrees to hear Hirabayashi and Yasui cases, but sends Korematsu back to the Ninth Circuit for a decision. Supreme Court upholds the Hirabayashi decision of guilt for the curfew violation, 9-0, and turned a blind eye to his failing to report for the mass removal. They also ruled unanimously to uphold the Yasui conviction and sent it back to the Ninth Circuit for sentencing. Judge Fee considered the nine months Yasui already served in prison sufficient and suspended the fine. Yasui was escorted to the Minidoka WRA Camp. This issue of the Rowher Outpost from June 26, 1943 discusses the results of the Supreme Court decision.
The U.S. drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and bombs Nagasaki three days later on August 9th. Japan surrenders. This is a group photo of the Hiroshima Nikkei Club. Photograph inscription: "Top row, 2nd from left Bill Rokumoto, who died in the Hiroshima nuclear bombing. Ruby Sakoda Row 2, second from right with Susie and Betty Niko. May Sakoda, Row 1, second from left. Hiroshima Nikkei Club members with Rev. Huckabee. James M. Sakoda, Row 1, right end."
The date that the 100th Infantry Battalion was shipped to North Africa. The War Department decided to create segregated Japanese American army units—the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regiment Combat Team. There were calls for volunteers and about 10,000 volunteers (2,686 chosen) from Hawaii (where there were no incarceration camps) and 1,256 volunteers (about 800 chosen) from mainland WRA camps. This pamphlet from 1944 covers Nisei in the 100th battalion serving in the armed forces during World War II.
Minori Yasui was brought back to Portland from the Minidoka camp to hear Judge Fee announce the result of his 5-month deliberation. He ruled that the statute of March 1942, which made it a criminal offense to disobey General DeWitt’s orders, was unconstitutional when applied to American citizens. However, the judge held that Minori must be deemed to have renounced his American citizenship because of his employment at the Japanese Consulate. As an alien enemy, Minori was subject to the curfew, which he deliberately violated. Judge Fee sentenced Minori to a year in prison and fined him the maximum of $5,000. His lawyer, Earl Bernard, filed an appeal.Pages 17 through 20 of this pamphlet identifies the major cases against Japanese Americans including that of Minori Yasui.
Supreme Court agrees to hear Endo appeal and schedules it and Korematsu for the fall. The Justices met to decide on Korematsu and Endo, but delayed the announcement until after the November presidential election. They announced decisions upholding the Korematsu conviction, 6-3, the dissenting opinions refer to violations of constitutional rights. Endo’s petition is unanimously granted. In ex parte Endo the Supreme Court ruled that the WRA had no authority to detain “concededly loyal” American citizens. Included is a list of aggregated facts and opinions on the topic assembled by the WRA.
Peter Irons, a University of California, San Diego, attorney and professor of political science published a book entitled “Justice at War.” He found archival evidence demonstrating the suppression of evidence in the Japanese American cases casting doubt on the military necessity of Japanese American WWII incarceration. He persuaded Yasui, Hirabayashi, and Korematsu to try using the somewhat obscure writ of coram nobis to force a reconsideration of their wartime convictions and recruited lawyers in Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco to take on this work pro bono. Here are the November 11, 1983 proceedings from the petition of Fred Korematsu for writ of error coram nobis and the government's motion to vacate conviction and dismiss indictment of Korematsu before the honorable Marilyn Hall Patel.
Truman signs Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act providing $38 million for lost income and property (less than 10 cents on the dollar). This is an informational pamphlet for all "evacuee-claimants" filing claims for losses incurred during forced removal and incarceration during World War II. It includes analysis of public law 886, assistance in preparing claims, how to answer form questions, and types of real and personal property.
Mitsuye Endo, a twenty-two-year-old typist at a Sacramento Department of Motor Vehicles office, first resisted by protesting against the efforts of the California State Personnel Board to remove Japanese American civil servants. Then, San Francisco lawyer, James Purcell, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus after Mitsuye had been sent to the Tule Lake WRA camp and later Topaz. U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. Roche began an all-day hearing and then held on to the writ for almost a year, delaying and subsequently denying it. Purcell appealed.
President Ford issues Proclamation 4417 formally rescinding Executive Order 9066. Included here is the official verification form for Masaichi Ishibashi confirming that he was detained in a War Relocation Center During World War II. In June 1983, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians recommended that the United States Government make a one-time payment of $20, 000 to each of the surviving persons who were excluded from their places of residence pursuant to Executive Order 9066.
Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi’s trial took place in Seattle’s Federal courthouse before Judge Lloyd L. Black and a jury. He was found guilty of not complying with the registration and curfew regulations imposed on those of Japanese ancestry. Hirabayashi was sentenced to and chose 3 more months in the Seattle jail, in addition to the 5 months already served, rather than have to go to one of the WRA camps. This pamphlet by the Gordon Hirabayashi Defense Committee discusses the case leading up to the trial.
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians concludes that incarceration was not justified by military necessity, but caused by racial/war hysteria and calls for presidential apology. In the summary of the report entitled, Personal Justice Denied, it was stated, “The promulgation of Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity, and the decisions which followed from it—detention, ending detention and ending exclusion—were not driven by analysis of military conditions. The broad historical causes which shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership. Widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan. A grave injustice was done to American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry who, without individual review or any probative evidence against them, were excluded, removed and detained by the United States during World War II.” (Irons, Justice Delayed, 1989, p. 120). Here is a copy of the newsletter from the National Coalition Redress/Reparations discussing the travelling commission.