Paper Wishes

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.

In the late 1800s, Japanese people began migrating to Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States in large numbers. By the early 20th century, hundreds of thousands of Japanese migrants were living in the United States. These migrants were the target of discrimination and harassment, especially in California. When Japan began trying to expand into Southeast Asia in the 1930s, tensions grew between Japan and the US, worsening prejudices against Japanese Americans. Believing it might end up in a war against Japan, the federal government began conducting surveillance of Japanese American communities. It created lists of people of Japanese descent. These “custodial detention lists” were intended to help the government quickly incarcerate Japanese Americans should war actually be declared.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US formally entered World War II on the side of the Allied powers. The federal government began rounding up perceived leaders within Japanese American communities. Soon, political leaders along the West Coast were calling for even more widespread incarceration of Japanese Americans. President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, allowing the army to incarcerate whichever Japanese Americans it chose.