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Archives in Context: Teachable Topics from the CSU Japanese American Digitization Project Main Menu About this Guide Introduction to Archives in Context Lessons: Testing Loyalties Lessons: In the Courts Resources for Teaching & Learning Educational resources to assist teachers and students California State University, Dominguez Hills

Timeline: Cases

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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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Lessons: In the Courts Steve Kutay
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U.S. declares war on Japan
Roosevelt signs Alien Registration Act 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.
Military zones designated on West Coast 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.
Minori Yasui challenges curfew 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.
Japan attacks U.S.
Public proclamation no.3 creates selective ethnic curfew 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.
Japanese American draft status restricted 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.
Executive order 9066 paves way for incarceration camps
ACLU drops challenge to consitutionality of Japanese American incarceration
Disobedience a misdemeanor in Public Law 503
Student activist Hirabayashi fights treatment of Japanese Americans 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.
West Coast Congress calls for evacuations 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 Korematsu arrested in San Francisco 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.
Trial of Minori Yasui
Executive order 9102 creates War Relocation Authority
Korematsu found guilty
Hirabayashi found guilty 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.
Mitsuye Endo resists removal of Japanese American civil servants 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.