Oregon's Japanese Americans Learn Their Fate
Signs provide instructions to Japanese Americans and nationals in the wake of the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Roosevelt. (Image courtesy National Archives, Truman Library)
Roosevelt Starts the Process
On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 9066
and put to rest more than two months of intense speculation and
lobbying about the fate of Japanese Americans during World War
II. By September more than 110,000 Japanese Americans had been uprooted from
their jobs and homes, denied their civil rights, and interned in camps surrounded
by barbed wire in the single largest forced relocation in American history.
Proclamations and confusion
Executive Order 9066 empowered the secretary of war or designated military
commanders to prescribe military areas and to exclude "any or all" persons
from them. While couched in broad terms, the order was aimed at Japanese
Americans. Less than two weeks later, Lt. General J.L. DeWitt, commanding
general of the Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, was more specific.
His Public Proclamation No. 1 defined Military Area No. 1 and No. 2 running
north-south from the Canadian border to Mexican border. In Oregon, these
areas roughly were divided by Highway 97 in Central Oregon with Area
No. 2
lying to
the east. DeWitt signaled that he would soon issue Civilian Exclusion
Orders to clear the "exclusion area" of Military Area No. 1 in
Western Oregon along with territory in other western states.
Some Japanese American families endured discrimination and vandalism in the runup to relocation. (Image courtesy latinamericanstudies.org)
Before mandatory evacuations were imposed, the federal government encouraged voluntary resettlement outside of the demilitarized zone. As a result, some Japanese Americans attempted to move inland but they often met with resistance from a Caucasian population fearful of unsupervised aliens. Masaomi Kibe's family tried to relocate from Tacoma, Washington to a farm near Merrill in Klamath County with the intention of farming on a friend's property. They complied with all of the rules and regulations and secured a permit from the the proper authorities to make the move. The family simply wanted to be self-supporting and "avoid becoming government charges in a concentration camp." Their problems began quickly, however, when the Klamath County Sheriff took them into custody with no end in sight "because he fears mob violence if they move into the Merrill neighborhood. For two weeks they have been couped [sic] up in a dark, dingy apartment while the sheriff has tried to obtain a permit to move them back to Tacoma." The Kibe family was caught in a bureaucratic nightmare. They had been issued a valid permit to move to Merrill. But days later General DeWitt had announced that voluntary evacuations would cease and all future "evacuation would be on a planned, orderly basis to War Relocation Authority relocation camps." A friend pleaded with Governor Sprague's office for help and was told that "they are to be escorted to Portland when the military authority issues the necessary order, and they will be cared for as other Japanese of the coastal area are to be cared for."(1)
Restrictions increasingly constrained Japanese Americans during the spring. Andrew Kuroda, a Japanese American minister from the Salem area, summed up the situation in a letter to friends:
May 6, 1942
Dear Friends:
We do not know when the evacuation order will come. But we do know that it is
imminent. Therefore, while I still have a little time to spare, I shall write
these few lines to you.
...At first only aliens were effected [sic] by various
restrictions. But presently citizen children of Japanese aliens are brought
into regulations. Proclamation
followed proclamation, swiftly and widely along the whole western States
by the Western Command and Fourth Army to set up the prohibited and restricted
areas, the curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., five mile limit, forbidding voluntary
evacuation from the Military Area No. 1, and compulsory evacuation of not
only aliens but also citizens from that area.
To the Nisei-American citizens of Japanese descent - this is all but unintelligible.
They were born in this country and have never lived in any other. They
owe their allegiance to no other nation. They speak the American language,
they
have been educated in American schools, they accept American customs, pay
taxes, vote and render military service. They are proud of their citizenship
which is protected by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, that "no
person may be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process
of law...."
Andrew Kuroda(2)
Exclusion orders for Oregon
Authorities issued exclusion orders based on the most sensitive and critical
zones within the military area. Civilian Exclusion Order No. 1 ordered
those of Japanese ancestry to evacuate Bainbridge Island by March 30. The
controlled process of relocation began for the Japanese population of Multnomah
County
by
the issuance of
Exclusion Orders Nos.
25 and 26.
No. 25 applied to
about 950 people who
lived west
of the
Willamette River while No. 26 affected those to the east of the river extending
further east to 122nd Avenue.
Despite efforts by government officials to limit the impact, many Japanese Americans disposed of their assets for a fraction of true value before their forced relocation. (National Archives, image no. ARC 299687)
The evacuees had only a few days to get their affairs in order before they had to report to the Portland Assembly Center that was part of the process of internment. Homes, businesses, and farms had to be disposed of on extremely short notice. Bargain hunters, fully aware of the situation, stood ready to purchase the property and belongings at a fraction of their true value. To combat this, the Civil Control Stations were staffed by representatives of a number of federal agencies to offer advice and assistance to the evacuees on how to avoid forced sales and otherwise "cope with the multitude of problems involved in suddenly cutting off the normal business, social and economic relationships of the evacuees." For example, the U.S. Employment Service offered registration and provided welfare service; the U.S. Health Service gave examinations and inoculations; the Federal Reserve helped with the sale, lease, or management of property; and the Farm Security Administration arranged for new operators to work evacuated farms to limit the loss of crop production. (view PDF-21 pages)(4) To further ease the transition, Portland area Japanese Americans were allowed to store personal property in the Oregon Transfer Company Building.(5)
The evacuees could take only a small amount of personal belongings to the assembly center. Thus, within a dizzying few days, Japanese Americans lost not only much of their property but also their civil rights and their freedom. One Japanese American observer noted that:
"No one understands what our hardship and suffering means unless one is among the evacuees. Uprooted from their businesses, jobs, lands, they have to be dispossessed of whatever they have toiled hard to gain for the past half century."(6)
Notes:
1. Letter from Kenneth Lambie to Governor
Sprague, April 11, 1942. Folder 16, Box 4, Gov. Sprague Records, OSA;
Letter from Governor Sprague's Office to Kenneth Lambie, April 15, 1942.
Folder 16, Box 4, Gov. Sprague Records, OSA.
2. Letter from Andrew Kuroda to Friends, May 6, 1942. Page 1, Folder
16, Box 4, Gov. Sprague Records, OSA.
3. Janet Cormack, ed., "Portland Assembly Center: Diary of Saku Tomita," Oregon
Historical Quarterly, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Summer 1980): Page 164.
4. "Establishment of Japanese Relocation Areas," National
Reclamation Association Bulletin, May 20, 1942. Page 8, Folder 16,
Box 4, Gov. Sprague Records, OSA.
5. Janet Cormack, ed., "Portland Assembly Center: Diary of Saku Tomita," Oregon
Historical Quarterly, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Summer 1980): Page 165.
6. Letter from Andrew Kuroda to Friends, May 6, 1942. Page 3, Folder 16,
Box 4, Gov. Sprague Records, OSA.