[image link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UVpUmq0dOWu1wW0llL2NrkTmyGwKtVBz/view?usp=sharing]
[image caption = Civilian Exclusion order #41, Part II, Directing Removal of Persons of Japanese Ancestry in May 1942]
[image alt text = Photograph of Civilian Exclusion Order 41 that directs the removal of people of Japanese ancestry from a defined area of San Francisco, California. It provides specific instructions about where to go, when to go, and what to bring and not bring.]
[image credit = GHI/Universal History Archive via Getty Images]
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Text of Civilian Exclusion Order No. 41:
WESTERN DEFENSE COMMAND AND FOURTH ARMY WARTIME CIVIL CONTROL ADMINISTRATION Presidio of San Francisco, California May 5, 1942
INSTRUCTIONS TO ALL PERSONS OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY
Living in the Following Area:
All of that portion of the City and County of San Francisco, State of California, within that boundary beginning at the intersection of Presidio Avenue and Sutter Street; thence easterly on Sutter Street to Van Ness Avenue; thence southerly on Van Ness Avenue to O'Farrell Street; thence westerly on O'Farrell Street to St. Joseph's Avenue (Calvary Cemetery); thence northerly on St. Joseph's Avenue to Geary Street; thence westerly on Geary Street to Presidio Avenue; thence northerly on Presidio Avenue to the point of beginning.
Pursuant to the provisions of Civilian Exclusion Order No. 43, this Headquarters, dated May 5, 1942, all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated from the above area by 12 o'clock noon, P. W. T., Monday, May 11, 1942.
No Japanese person living in the above area will be permitted to change residence after 12 o'clock noon, P. W. T., Tuesday, May 5, 1942, without obtaining special permission from the representative of the Commanding General, Northern California Sector, at the Civil Control Station located at:
1530 Buchanan Street, San Francisco, California
Such permits will only be granted for the purpose of uniting members of a family, or in cases of grave emergency.
The Civil Control Station is equipped to assist the Japanese population affected by this evacuation in the following ways:
Give advice and instructions on the evacuation.
Provide services with respect to the management, leasing, sale, storage or other disposition of most kinds of property, such as real estate, business and professional equipment, household goods, boats, automobiles and livestock.
Provide temporary residence elsewhere for all Japanese in family groups.
Transport persons and a limited amount of clothing and equipment to their new residence.
The Following Instructions Must Be Observed:
A responsible member of each family, preferably the head of the family, or the person in whose name most of the property is held, and each individual living alone, will report to the Civil Control Station to receive further instructions. This must be done between 8:00 A. M. and 5:00 P. M. on Wednesday, May 6, 1942, or between 8:00 A. M. and 5:00 P. M. on Thursday, May 7, 1942.
Evacuees must carry with them on departure for the Assembly Center, the following property:
Bedding and linens (no mattress) for each member of the family;
Toilet articles for each member of the family;
Extra clothing for each member of the family;
Sufficient knives, forks, spoons, plates, bowls and cups for each member of the family;
Essential personal effects for each member of the family.
All items carried will be securely packaged, tied and plainly marked with the name of the owner and numbered in accordance with instructions obtained at the Civil Control Station. The size and number of packages is limited to that which can be carried by the individual or family group.
No pets of any kind will be permitted.
No personal items and no household goods will be shipped to the Assembly Center.
The United States Government through its agencies will provide for the storage, at the sole risk of the owner, of the more substantial household items, such as iceboxes, washing machines, pianos and other heavy furniture. Cooking utensils and other small items will be accepted for storage if crated, packed and plainly marked with the name and address of the owner. Only one name and address will be used by a given family.
Each family, and individual living alone, will be furnished transportation to the Assembly Center or will be authorized to travel by private automobile in a supervised group. All instructions pertaining to the movement will be obtained at the Civil Control Station.
Go to the Civil Control Station between the hours of 8:00 A. M. and 5:00 P. M., Wednesday, May 6, 1942, or between the hours of 8:00 A. M. and 5:00 P. M., Thursday, May 7, 1942, to receive further instructions.
J. L. DeWITT Lieutenant General, U. S. Army Commanding
SEE CIVILIAN EXCLUSION ORDER NO. 41
Additional Terms Often Used in the Discussion of Japanese Internment
Courtesy of the Manzanar National Historic Site, Minidoka National Historic Site, and Tule Lake National Monument
442nd Regimental Combat Team: A segregated U.S. Army regiment of primarily Japanese American soldiers. The 442nd fought in Italy, France and Germany.
Assembly Centers: Used by the Army for temporary detention camps to hold Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed from their West Coast homes. Most assembly centers were located at fairgrounds, racetracks or former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps. By mid-1942, Japanese Americans were transferred to more permanent war relocation centers. Assembly centers are also known as “temporary incarceration camps” and “temporary prison camps.”
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC): A Congressional commission established in 1980 to “review the facts and circumstances surrounding Executive Order 9066” and to “recommend appropriate remedies.”
Evacuation: The term used by the Army during World War II to describe the process of forcibly removing Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes located within exclusion zones. The terms “exclusion” and “removal” are more commonly used today.
Exclusion Zones: Areas described in each Civilian Exclusion Order from which all Japanese Americans were forcibly removed. Civilian Exclusion Orders were issued by the Western Defense Command and in San Francisco to implement the provisions of Executive Order 9066.
Executive Order 9066: Authorized the War Department to establish military areas from which “any or all persons may be excluded … .” This order was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 and was the basis for the removal from the West Coast of anyone with 1/16 Japanese ancestry.
Family Number: A number assigned by the army to each family unit or individual living alone during registration for “evacuation.” The numbers were used for administrative and property identification purposes.
Immigration Act of 1924: Also known as the Johnson-Reed Act, it banned further immigration from Japan and all other Asian countries to the U.S. and restricted overall immigration.
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952: Also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, this statute gave immigrants from Japan and other countries the right to apply to become naturalized U.S. citizens.
Internment Camps: Administered by the Department of Justice for the detention of enemy aliens (non-citizens from countries with which the U.S. was at war) considered dangerous and a threat to national security during World War II. The term has often been used to describe War Relocation Authority camps as well.
Issei: The first generation of immigrants from Japan, most of whom came to the U.S. between 1885 and 1924. With few exceptions, Issei were not allowed to become U.S. citizens until 1952.
Japanese American Citizen League (JACL): The largest Japanese American political organization in the U.S., the JACL was formed in 1928 and emphasized assimilation and Americanization during World War II.
Kibei: A Japanese American (born in the U.S.) who received some or all of their formal education in Japan, then returned to the U.S.
Loyalty Questionnaire: Administered in February 1943 to all Japanese Americans, aged seventeen years and older, in war relocation centers. Despite serious problems with the wording of questions 27 and 28, those who refused to answer or who answered “no” to one or both of the controversial questions were considered “disloyal” to the U.S. and were sent to Tule Lake Segregation Center in northern California. Those who answered “yes” became eligible for service in the U.S. Army and for release and resettlement to the Midwest and eastern U.S.
[Question 27: “Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?” Question 28: “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power, or organization?” (“The ‘Loyalty Questionnaire’”).]
Military Intelligence Service (MIS): A branch of the U.S. Army in which many Japanese Americans served during World War II, using their language skills in the Pacific to translate enemy documents, interrogate Japanese prisoners of war and persuade enemy units to surrender.
Nisei: Second generation Japanese Americans, U.S. citizens by birth, born to Japanese immigrants (Issei).
Non-alien: A term used by the Army during World War II to describe a U.S. citizen of Japanese ancestry. The U.S. government often referred to U.S. residents of Japanese ancestry as “aliens” and “non-aliens” rather than as “citizens” and “non-citizens.”
No-no boys: A term used for Japanese Americans who refused to answer the loyalty questionnaire or who answered “no” to questions 27 and 28.
Reception Centers: Temporary areas established and maintained by the Wartime Civilian Control Administration (WCCA) intended to house Japanese Americans after “evacuation.” While the WCCA planned many reception centers, only one was established, Owens Valley, and it ultimately became Manzanar War Relocation Center.
Redress and reparations: Terms used to refer to compensation made by the U.S. government to Japanese Americans for their wartime detention in war relocation centers. Reparations refer to monetary compensation, while redress also includes the official apology from the U.S. government.
Relocation: Term used by the government during World War II to describe the forced resettlement of Japanese Americans who were removed from their homes into war relocation centers. “Relocation” also referred to the process of leaving war relocation centers and settling in the Midwest and East before the evacuation orders for the West Coast were lifted by the war department in January 1945.
Renunciation: The process by which more than 5,500 Japanese Americans surrendered their American citizenship during World War II. Citizens of the U.S. were permitted to renounce their citizenship under Public Law 405, signed by President Roosevelt on July 1, 1944.
Repatriation: The process by which people of Japanese ancestry (aliens and citizens) were sent to Japan during and after World War II. Repatriation was also used to refer to Japanese Americans who were exchanged for Americans held in Japan.
Resettlement: The term used by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) to describe the process for Japanese Americans to move from war relocation centers to the Midwest and East before the evacuation orders were lifted. The term was also used to refer to the return of Japanese Americans to the West Coast after the evacuation orders were lifted in January 1945.
Sansei: Third generation Japanese Americans; children of the Nisei and grandchildren of the Issei.
Segregation: The removal of Japanese Americans considered “disloyal” because of their answers to the loyalty questionnaire from the war relocation centers to Tule Lake, California, which became a “segregation center” on July 31, 1943.
Voluntary Resettlement: The “voluntary” moving and resettlement of Japanese Americans from designated West Coast military areas. Voluntary resettlement occurred for a three-week period in March 1942 after the exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast and before the creation of war relocation centers. It was very difficult to “self-evacuate” given wartime propaganda, unfamiliarity with areas away from their homes and the short time frame.
War Relocation Authority (WRA): The civilian government agency responsible for the administration of the war relocation centers where Japanese Americans were held during World War II. The WRA was created by Executive Order 9102 on March 18, 1942.
War Relocation Centers: The term used by the WRA to describe the facilities in which most Japanese Americans were held during World War II. The WRA administered ten such centers, most surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by military police. War relocation centers are also referred to as “incarceration camps,” “prison camps,” “internment camps” and “concentration camps.”
Wartime Civilian Control Administration (WCCA): A “civilian affairs” branch of the Western Defense Command (part of the War Department established to oversee the defense of the U.S. West Coast). Established on March 11, 1942 by General Order No. 34, the WCCA supervised the removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast as part of their responsibilities for the “formulation of policies, plans and directives” pertaining to “control and exclusion of civilians” during World War II.
Work Cited
“The ‘Loyalty Questionnaire’ of 1943 Opened a Wound that Has Yet to Heal.” Densho, 19 July 2019, https://densho.org/catalyst/the-loyalty-questionnaire-of-1943-opened-a-wound-that-has-yet-to-heal/.