Propaganda for Japanese-American internment

[1] On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which recognized specific strategic sites on the United States West Coast as off-limits to people of Japanese descent.

[2] This order gave members of the military the authority to remove Japanese people from the area if their presence there was deemed too close to the strategic installations.

In April 1942, Exclusion Order 346 was issued to force the Japanese American citizens to live in assembly centers which were located in various open spaces such as fairgrounds and tracks.

[1] By the fall of 1942, the Japanese people had been evacuated out of the West Coast and into inland internment camps built by the United States government to hold over 80,000 evacuees.

[1] Propaganda in favor of Japanese-American internment was produced by both the government and local citizens through mediums such as movies and print.

The San Francisco Chronicle on February 21, 1942, displayed a pro-Japanese-American internment stance, stating, "We have to be tough, even if civil rights do take a beating for a time".

"[1] Violent sentiment would also be characteristic of some of these editorials, as when a writer to the Corvallis Gazette Times expressed, "The loyal Jap American citizens have the law on their side, but that may not protect them.

[1] Many newspapers would also publish propaganda cartoons concerning the Japanese military, which fueled a general racist attitude towards Japanese-American residents.

[11] TheWest Seattle Herald weekly newspaper came out as pro-evacuation of Japanese residing in the U.S. two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[11] Not all Seattle publications shed the internment in a positive light,The Bainbridge Island Review released statements showing where they stood.

[14] Many of the available examples of racism in Anti-Japanese propaganda share the same likeness of a Japanese person with yellow skin, squinted eyes, and sharp, fang-like teeth.

[15] The effects on American Society that resulted from the racism toward Japanese people during the war lasted post WWII.

On December 17, 1944, the United States Supreme Court deemed that exclusion of loyal Japanese-American citizens was unconstitutional and through Public Proclamation 21, the internment came to an end.

[2] It included the resettlement of the majority of the Japanese Americans and equal treatment of these people once back in their homes and neighborhoods.

Though resettlement was issued by the U.S. government, anti-Japanese propaganda continued throughout the duration of the war until V-J Day on August 15, 1945.

1942 editorial propaganda cartoon in the New York newspaper PM by Dr. Seuss depicting Japanese Americans in California , Oregon , and Washington –states with a large population of ethnic Japanese–as prepared to conduct sabotage against the U.S.
Notices explaining Executive Order 9066 were posted around the West Coast to advertise Japanese-American Relocation.
Internees farming sugar beets while relocated at the Amache Internment Camp
An example of WWII Anti-Japanese propaganda dating from 1943. This form of propaganda features racial stereotypes through the depiction of the Japanese. The "You" and "And I" represent America.