Resource Guide for Educators-Timeline of the Japanese American Story in WWII

March 26, 1790

The U.S. Congress, in the Act of March 26, 1790, states that "any alien, being a free white person who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for a term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof."

January 1, 1873

The phrase "persons of African nativity or descent" is added to the language of the act of 1790, which is used to deny citizenship to Japanese and other Asian immigrants until 1952.

May 6, 1882

Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, ending Chinese immigration for the next 60 years.

January 1, 1885

Japanese laborers begin arriving in Hawaii, recruited by plantation owners to work the sugarcane fields.

September 2, 1885

Anti-Chinese rioters set fire to Chinatown in Rock Springs, Wyoming, killing 28 Chinese miners and wounding 15, as a result of a swelling anti-Chinese reaction over cheap labor and strikebreakers. All 16 white suspects were acquitted.

January 1, 1891

Japanese immigrants arrive on the mainland U.S. for work primarily as agricultural laborers.

June 27, 1894

A U.S. district court rules that Japanese immigrants cannot become citizens because they are not "a free white person" as the Naturalization Act of 1790 requires.

May 7, 1900

The first large-scale anti-Japanese protest in California is held, organized by various labor groups.

February 23, 1905

"The Japanese Invasion: The Problem of the Hour," reads the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, helping to escalate racism towards the Japanese in the Bay Area.

May 14, 1905

The Asiatic Exclusion League is formed in San Francisco. In attendance are labor leaders and European immigrants, marking the first organized effort of the anti-Japanese movement.

October 11, 1906

The San Francisco Board of Education passes a resolution to segregate children of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ancestry from the majority population.

January 1, 1908

Japan and the U.S. agree (Gentlemen's Agreement) to halt the migration of Japanese laborers in the United States. Japanese women are allowed to immigrate if they are wives of U.S. residents. For more information: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Gentlemen's_Agreement

January 1, 1913

California passes the Alien Land Law, forbidding "all aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning land. This later grew to include prohibition on leasing land as well, and 12 other states adopted similar laws. For more information: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Alien_land_laws

November 1, 1920

A new, more stringent 1920 Alien Land Law passes in California, intending to close loopholes found in the 1913 Alien Land Law.

January 1, 1920

Japanese American farmers produce $67 million dollars worth of crops, more than ten percent of California's total crop value. There are 111,000 Japanese Americans in the U.S., 82,000 are immigrants and 29,000 were born in the U.S.

July 19, 1921

White vigilantes deport 58 Japanese laborers from Turlock, California, driving them out by truck at gunpoint. Other incidents occur across California and in Oregon and Arizona.

November 13, 1922

The United States Supreme Court rules on the Ozawa case, reaffirming the ban on Japanese immigrants from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. This ban would last until 1952. For more information: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Ozawa_v._United_States

January 1, 1924

Congress passes the Immigration Act of 1924 effectively ending all Japanese immigration to the U.S. For more information:http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Immigration_Act_of_1924

November 1, 1941

A U.S. Intelligence report known as the "Munson Report" commissioned by President Roosevelt concludes that the great majority of Japanese Americans are loyal to the U.S. and do not pose a threat to national security in the event of war with Japan. For more information:http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Munson_Report

December 7, 1941

Japan bombs U.S. ships and planes at the Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii. Over 3,500 servicemen are wounded or killed. Martial law is declared in Hawaii. For more information: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/December_7,_1941

December 7, 1941

The FBI begins arresting Japanese immigrants identified as community leaders: priests, Japanese language teachers, newspaper publishers, and heads of organizations. Within 48 hours, 1,291 are arrested. Most of these men would be incarcerated for the duration of the war, separated from their families.

December 8, 1941

A declaration of war against Japan is brought by the President and passed by Congress.

December 1, 1941 —January 1, 1942

Attorney General Francis Biddle authorizes search warrants for contraband materials in any home in which an "enemy alien" resides. Over the next few months, thousands of Japanese American households were randomly searched for such things as short wave radios, cameras, and anything that might be construed of as a weapon, ranging from heirloom Japanese swords to dynamite famers used to clear stumps. The FBI found nothing it deemed sinister in these searches.

December 11, 1941

The Western Defense Command is established with Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt as the commander.

December 15, 1941

Without any evidence of sabotage, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox announces to the press, "I think the most effective Fifth Column work of the entire war was done in Hawaii..."

February 19, 1942

President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 authorizing military authorities to exclude civilians from any area without trial or hearing. The order did not specify Japanese Americans--but they were the only group to be imprisoned as a result of it. For more information:http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Executive_Order_9066

February 25, 1942

The U.S. Navy orders all Japanese Americans living on Terminal Island in the Port of Los Angeles--some 500 families--to leave within 48 hours. As the first group to be removed en masse, they incur especially heavy losses.

March 1, 1942

General DeWitt, commander of the Western Defense Command issues Public Proclamation No. 1 and begins the process of removing all persons of Japanese ancestry--U.S. citizens and aliens alike--living in the western halves of Washington State, California, Oregon, and parts of Arizona. A curfew goes into effect in these areas--all those of Japanese ancestry must remain at home from 8 pm to 6 am. For more information:http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Civilian_exclusion_orders

March 1, 1942

The Wartime Civil Control Administration opens 16 "Assembly Centers" to detain approximately 92,000 men, women, and children until the permanent incarceration camps are completed.

March 5, 1942

The State of California "releases" 34 Japanese American civil servants from their jobs.

March 24, 1942

The first Civilian Exclusion Order is issued by the Army for Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Washington. Forty-five families are given one week to prepare. By the end of October 1942, 108 exclusion orders would be issued. For more information: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Bainbridge_Island,_Washington

March 27, 1942

"Voluntary evacuation" ends as the Army prohibits the changing of residence for all Japanese Americans in the western halves of Washington State, California and Oregon. For more information: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Voluntary_evacuation

March 28, 1942

Minoru Yasui walks into a Portland police station to surrender himself for arrest in order to test the curfew regulations in court. For more information:http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Minoru_Yasui

May 1, 1942

The incarcerees begin transfer to permanent WRA incarceration facilities or "camps." They total ten: Manzanar, Poston, Gila River, Topaz, Granada, Heart Mountain, Minidoka, Tule Lake, Jerome, and Rohwer.

May 16, 1942

University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi turns himself in to the authorities with a four-page statement explaining why he would not submit to the imprisonment on Constitutional grounds. For more information: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Gordon_Hirabayashi

June 3, 1942 —June 6, 1942

The Allies victory at the Battle of Midway is significant, thus turning the advantage in the war to the United States.

July 12, 1942

Mitsuye Endo's attorney files a writ of habeas corpus on her behalf. The case wouldn't be decided upon until December 1944, but its ruling would signal the end of the incarceration camps.

July 27, 1942

Two men are shot to death by a camp guard while allegedly trying to escape from the Lordsburg, New Mexico, internment camp. Both men had been too ill to walk from the train station to the camp gate prior to being shot.

January 1, 1943

The War Department announces the formation of a segregated unit of Japanese American soldiers, and calls for volunteers in Hawaii (where Japanese Americans were not incarcerated) and from among the men incarcerated in the camps.

March 1, 1943

10,000 Japanese American men volunteer for the armed services from Hawaii. 1,200 volunteer out of the camps.

June 1, 1943

The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the curfew order in Hirabayashi v. U.S. and Yasui v. U.S.

September 1, 1943

From the results of the "loyalty questionnaire," "loyal" incarcerees from Tule Lake begin to depart to other camps and "disloyal" incarcerees from other camps begin to arrive at Tule Lake. For more information: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Segregation

January 1, 1944

The War Department imposes the draft on Japanese American men, including those incarcerated in the camps. The vast majority comply, a few hundred resist and are brought up on federal charges. Most of the resisters are imprisoned in a federal penitentiary.

May 10, 1944

63 Heart Mountain draft resisters are indicted by a federal grand jury. On June 26 the 63 are found guilty and sentenced to jail terms. The 63 were pardoned on December 24, 1947, by President Truman. For more information: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Draft_resistance

January 2, 1945

The War Department announces that the exclusion orders are rescinded after the Supreme Court rules in the Endo case that "loyal" citizens could not be lawfully detained.

May 7, 1945

Germany surrenders, ending the war in Europe.

August 6, 1945

The U.S. drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, a second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. Japan surrenders on August 14.

August 1, 1945

Some 44,000 people still remain in the camps. Many have nowhere to go, having lost their homes and jobs. Many are afraid of anti-Japanese hostility and refuse to leave.

March 20, 1946

Tule Lake "Segregation Center" closes. This is the last War Relocation Authority facility to close.

July 15, 1946

"You not only fought the enemy but you fought prejudice... and you won." These were the words of President Truman on the White House lawn as he received the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

January 1, 1948

President Truman signs the Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act. Approximately $38 million was paid from this act, only a small fraction of the estimated loss in income and property. For more information: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Japanese_American_Evacuation_Claims_Act

June 1, 1952

The Senate and House override President Truman's veto and vote the McCarran-Walter Act into law. Among other effects, this bill grants Japan a token immigration quota and allows Japanese immigrants to become naturalized U.S. citizens. For more information:http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Immigration_Act_of_1952

January 1, 1980

The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians is established calling for a congressional committee to investigate the detention program and the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066. For more information:http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Commission_on_Wartime_Relocation_and_Internment_of_Civilians

January 1, 1981

The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians holds hearings in 10 locations. They hear testimony from over 750 witnesses.

January 1, 1983

The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians issues its report, Personal Justice Denied, on February 24 and its Recommendations, on June 16. The Recommendations call for a presidential apology and a $20,000 payment to each of the approximately 60,000 surviving persons excluded from their places of residence pursuant to Executive Order 9066. For more information: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Personal_Justice_Denied_(book)

January 1, 1983 —January 1, 1988

The wartime convictions of Gordon Hirabayashi, Minoru Yasui, and Fred Korematsu (the three men who protested the curfew and/or incarceration orders) are vacated ("nullified") on the basis of newly discovered evidence that the U.S. military lied to the Supreme Court in the original proceedings. For more information: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Coram_nobis_cases

August 10, 1988

President Ronald Reagan signs HR 442 into law. It acknowledges that the incarceration of more than 110,000 individuals of Japanese descent was unjust, and offers an apology and reparation payments of $20,000 to each person incarcerated.

October 9, 1990

In a Washington D.C. ceremony, the first nine redress payments are made.

Further resources found on The Densho Encyclopedia

More Info & Features

Current & Upcoming

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

November 27 – December 24, 2021

Winner of five Tony Awards including Best Play This Broadway smash hit takes you inside the mind of Christopher, an exceptionally intelligent, neurodivergent 15-year-old boy. Now, it is seven minutes after midnight and Christopher is under suspicion of killing his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, with a garden fork. Determined to find the true culprit, Christopher carefully records each fact of the crime. Ultimately, his detective work takes him on a deeply personal quest that upturns his world.

Learn More

Pre-Show Holiday Music with Lo Steele

Fri, Dec 10, 6:30 p.m. • FREE

This pre-show holiday music set features Portland-based musician and vocalist Lo Steele, with piano accompaniment from Charlie Brown III.

Learn More

Productive Discomfort: Disability Equity in Theater & Beyond

Sun, Dec 12, 1 p.m. • FREE

Join us for a panel discussion with local artists and activists to discuss what disability justice looks like and how it can be applied to every aspect of the art of theater.

Learn More

Improvisation Classes for Beginners

Sun, Dec 12, 3:30 p.m. • SOLD OUT

Whether you're looking to get more confident in social situations, think quicker on your feet, or get in touch with your imaginative side, this once-a-month improv class will set you on the path to success! (One of four sessions.)

Learn More

Urban Jazz Dance Classes with Noelle Simone

Mon, Dec 13, 6 p.m. • $5-$20 sliding scale

Urban Jazz dance technique is a fusion of: Jazz, Hip-hop, Horton, Graham, Ballet, and Voguing. Originated in Chicago Illinois by Mr. Joel Hall, owner of the Joel Hall Dancers and Center. Urban Jazz focuses on isolations, rhythm, and soul, fused with the lively energy of the Chicago streets. All levels are welcome!

Learn More

Steps PDX School Presents: The Nightmare Before Christmas

December 13 & December 14 • $10 – $43

Steps PDX School proudly presents an original production of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Gather your family and loved ones for an adventure of wonder and magic just in time for the holidays. This show is appropriate for all ages. You can even dress up as your favorite character!

Learn More

View All Events

Portland Center Stage is committed to identifying & interrupting instances of racism & all forms of oppression, through the principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, & accessibility (IDEA).

Learn More

Resource Guide for Educators-Timeline of the Japanese American Story in WWII

Season Superstars

Season Supporting Sponsors

Season Producing Sponsors

Resource Guide for Educators-Timeline of the Japanese American Story in WWII

More about Hold These Truths:

Current & Upcoming

Season Superstars

Season Supporting Sponsors

Season Producing Sponsors