America@250: Then They Came for Us

Gina Greenlee, Author
6 days ago
2 min read

Image Credit: Young evacuees of Japanese ancestry await relocation at Turlock, California, May 2, 1942. LMU Magazine — *Image Credit: Young evacuees of Japanese ancestry await relocation at Turlock, California, May 2, 1942.* *LMU Magazine*

On Feb. 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was issued by President Franklin Roosevelt. It authorized the incarceration (internment) of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent. About 122,000 people were sent to concentration camps . With rare exceptions, many of their homes, businesses, and farms were confiscated by banks, local governments, and speculators.

Image Credit: Newly assigned evacuees outside the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, California, April 29, 1942. LMU Magazine — *Image Credit: Newly assigned evacuees outside the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, California, April 29, 1942.* *LMU Magazine*

Image Credit: Farmer of Japanese ancestry being interviewed at the Wartime Civil Control Administration station three days before evacuation. LMU Magazine — *Image Credit: Farmer of Japanese ancestry being interviewed at the Wartime Civil Control Administration station three days before evacuation.* *LMU Magazine*

*Image Credit: At Santa Anita and Topaz. Internees at Santa Anita Relocation Center in Arcadia, California, watch a train leave that facility. (Library of Congress/Getty Images)*

Image Credit: Japanese Americans arrive at the Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, California. The racetrack was requisitioned for the Santa Anita Assembly center, with horse stalls as dwelling cells until citizens were transferred to inland incarceration camps. By Clem Albers. Source: Department of the Interior, War Relocation Authority

*Image Credit: Rail cars transported Japanese-American citizens from their homes in Woodland, Calif., to the Merced Assembly Center, about 125 miles away, in May 1942. Dorothea Lange/National Archives*

Image Credit: When the Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno, California, was transformed into the Tanforan Assembly Center, horse stalls were used for living quarters for Japanese Americans.. LMU Magazine — *Image Credit: When the Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno, California, was transformed into the Tanforan Assembly Center, horse stalls were used for living quarters for Japanese Americans..* *LMU Magazine*

Image Credit: A grandfather teaches his grandson to walk at Manzanar Relocation Center, Manzanar, California. LMU Magazine — *Image Credit: A grandfather teaches his grandson to walk at Manzanar Relocation Center, Manzanar, California.* *LMU Magazine*

◊ ◊ ◊

“The mass hysteria of February 1942, the rapid construction of detention networks, and the harsh subjection of a population to forced relocations purely on the grounds of race made the incarceration one of the most shameful moments in American history. Remembering the incarceration is important not only to recognize those who suffered unjustly, but to remain vigilant so such events never occur again.”

LSU Magazine

◊ ◊ ◊

“For Japanese-Americans, housing injustices outlived internment. In 1945, thousands were released from internment camps. But they couldn’t return to the world they had left.”

The New York Times

“I still remember being 17 when 9/11 happened, probably the first Allied solidarity friendship event I remember attending at that young age, at such a difficult time for our country, was hosted by Japanese Americans in Southern California.”

And Then They Came For Us, 2017 Documentary

◊ ◊ ◊

First They Came (1946 Poem)

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist