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(Milton S. Eisenhower): When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,
our West Coast became a potential combat zone.
Living in that zone were more than
a hundred thousand (100,000) persons
of Japanese ancestry; two-thirds of them
American citizens, one-third - Aliens. We knew that
some among them were potentially danger. No one
knew what would happen among this
concentrated population if Japanese forces
should try to invade our shores. Military
authorities therefore determined that all of them -
citizens and aliens alike - would have to move.
This picture tells how the mass migration was
accomplished. Neither the army nor the War
Relocation Authority relished the idea of taking
men, women, and children from their homes, their
shops and their farms, so the military and civilian
agencies alike determined to do the job as a
democracy should - with real consideration for the
people involved. First attention was given to the
problems of sabotage and espionage. Now (pointing to a location on a map), here in San
Francisco, for example, convoys were being made
up within site of possible access agents. (Music)
There were more Japanese in Los Angeles than in any
other area. In nearby San Pedro, houses and hotels,
occupied almost most exclusively by Japanese,
were within a stone's throw of a Naval airbase.
Shipyards, oil wells. Japanese fishermen had every
opportunity to watch the movement of our ships.
Japanese farmers were living close to vital aircraft
plants. So in first step, all Japanese were required
to move from critical areas such as these. But, of course
this limited evacuation was a solution to only part
of the problem. The larger problem, the
uncertainty of what would happen among these
people in case of a Japanese invasion, still
remained. That is why the commanding general of
the Western Defense Command, determined that all
Japanese within the coastal areas should move inland.
Immediately, the Army began mapping evacuation
areas and for a time, encouraged the Japanese to
leave voluntarily. The trouble for the voluntary
evacuee soon threatened their new locations. So
the program was quickly put on a planned and
protected basis. Thereafter, the American citizen,
Japanese and Japanese aliens, made plans in
accordance with orders (??).
Notices were posted. All persons of Japanese
descent were required to register.
They gathered in their own churches and schools,
and the Japanese themselves cheerfully handled the
enormous paperwork involved in the migration.
Civilian physicians made preliminary medical
examinations. Government agencies helped in a
hundred ways. They helped the evacuees find
tenants for their farms. They helped businessmen
lease, sell or store their property. This aid was financed
by the government, the quick disposal of property
often involved financial sacrifice for the
evacuees. Now the actual migration got under way.
The army provided fleets of vans to transport
household belongings...and buses to move the
people to assembly centers. The evacuees
cooperated wholeheartedly, and any loyal
among them, felt that this was a sacrifice they
could make in behalf of America's war effort.
♪ (Music) ♪
Small towns, as well as large, up and down the coast.
The moving continued. ♪ (Music)
Behind them, they left shops and homes they had
occupied for many years.
♪ (Music) ♪
Their fishing fleets were impounded and left
under guard. Now, they were taken to racetracks
and fairgrounds, where the Army almost
overnight had built assembly centers. They
lived here until new pioneer communities could
be completed on federally-owned lands in the interior.
♪ (Music) ♪
Santa Anita racetrack, for example, suddenly
became a community of about 17,000 persons.
The Army provided housing, and plenty of
healthful, nourishing food for all.
The residents of the new community set about
developing a way of life as nearly normal as possible.
They held church services: Protestant, Catholic
and Buddhist. They issued their own newspaper,
organized nursery schools, and some made camouflage
nets for the United States Army.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and elsewhere,
quarters were being built where they would have an
opportunity to work, more space in which to live.
When word came that these new homes were ready,
the final movement began.
♪ (Music) ♪
At each relocation center, the evacuees were met by
an advanced contingent of Jappies who had
arrived some days earlier, and who now acted as
guides. Naturally, the newcomers looked about
with some curiosity. They were in a new area. On
land, it was raw, untamed, and full of
opportunity. Here they would build schools,
educate their children, reclaim the desert.
Their own physicians took precautions to guard
against epidemics. They opened advanced
Americanization classes for college students, who
in turn would instruct other groups.
They made a rough beginning of self-government,
for while the Army would guard the outer limits of each area,
community life and security within were largely
up to the Japanese themselves.
They immediately saw the need for developing
civic leaders. At weekly community meetings,
citations were given to the block (??) leaders who had
worked most diligently.
Special emphasis was put on the health and care of
these American children of Japanese descent.
♪ (Music) ♪
Their parents, most of whom are American citizens,
and their grandparents who are aliens, knew that they
wanted to go to work. At Manzanar, they built a lathe
house and began rooting Guayule cuttings.
The plants, when mature, will add to our rubber supply.
At Parker, they undertook the irrigation of fertile
desert lands.
Meanwhile, in areas away from the coast, and
under appropriate safeguards, many were
permitted to enter private employment,
particularly, to work in sugar beet fields, where
labor was badly needed.
Now, this brief picture is actually the prologue to
a story that is yet to be told. The full story will
begin to unfold when the raw lands of the desert
turn green, when all adult hands are in
productive work on public lands, or in private
employment. It will be fully told only when
circumstances permit the loyal American citizens
once again, to enjoy the freedom we in this
country cherish, and when the disloyal, we hope,
have left this country for good. In the
meantime, we are setting a standard for the rest
of the world in the treatment of people who may
have loyalties to an enemy nation. We are
protecting ourselves without violating the
principles of Christian decency. We won't change
this fundamental decency, no matter what our
enemies do, but of course, we hope most
earnestly, that our example will influence the
Axis powers in their treatment of Americans who
fall into their hands.
♪ (Music) ♪