Gaman (我慢) is a widely used Japanese cultural concept.
It means “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity”.
The idea is often translated as “perseverance” or “patience.”
This is the full text of Gen. John L. DeWitt’s first order to force the Japanese — citizens and aliens alike — out of San Francisco. A map of the zone designated for evacuation by Gen. DeWitt was published in the San Francisco News April 2, 1942. The newspaper said those evacuated from San Francisco would be sent to a remote place known as Manzanar.
WESTERN DEFENSE COMMAND AND FOURTH ARMY WARTIME CIVIL CONTROL ADMINISTRATION
Presidio of San Francisco, California
April 1, 1942
INSTRUCTIONS TO ALL PERSONS OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY
Living in the Following Area: All that portion of the City and County of San Francisco, lying generally west of the of the north-south line established by Junipero Serra Boulevard, Worchester Avenue, and Nineteenth Avenue, and lying generally north of the east-west line established by California Street, to the intersection of Market Street, and thence on Market Street to San Francisco Bay.
All Japanese persons, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated from the above designated area by 12:00 o’clock noon Tuesday, April 7, 1942.No Japanese person will be permitted to enter or leave the above described area after 8:00 a.m., Thursday, April 2, 1942, without obtaining special permission from the Provost Marshal at the Civil Control Station located at:1701 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, California
The Civil Control Station is equipped to assist the Japanese population affected by this evacuation in the following ways:
1. Give advise and instructions on the evacuation.
2. Provide services with respect to the management, leasing, sale, storage or other disposition of most kinds of property including real estate, business and professional equipment, household goods, boats, automobiles, livestock, etc.
3. Provide temporary residence elsewhere for all Japanese in family groups.
4. Transport persons and a limited amount of clothing and equipment to their new residence as specified below.
The Following Instructions Must Be Observed:
1. 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 must report to the Civil Control Station to receive further instructions. This must be done between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Thursday, April 2, 1942, or between 8:00 a.m. and 5 p.m., Friday, April 3, 1942.2.
Evacuees must carry with them on departure for the Reception Center, the following property:
a. Bedding and linens (no mattress) for each member of the family.
b. Toilet articles for each member of the family.
c. Extra clothing for each member of the family.
d. Sufficient knives, forks, spoons, plates, bowls and cups for each member of the family.
e. 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 received 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 contraband items as described in paragraph 6, Public Proclamation No. 3, Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, dated March 24, 1942, will be carried.
3. 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 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.
4. Each family, and individual living alone, will be furnished transportation to the Reception Center. Private means of transportation will not be utilized. All instructions pertaining to the movement will be obtained at the Civil Control Station.
Go to the Civil Control Station at 1701 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California, between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Thursday, April 2, 1942, or between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Friday, April 3, 1942, to receive further instructions.
J. L. DeWITT
Lieutenant General, U. S. Army
Commanding
Namaste y’all.
http://www.sfmuseum.net/war/evactxt.html
World War II Japanese American Internment — Seattle/King County, Washington USA
- By David Takami
The bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan in December 1941 set in motion a series of events and decisions that led to what has been called the worst violation of constitutional rights in American history: the expulsion and imprisonment of 110,000 persons of Japanese ancestry from the U.S. West Coast. Two thirds of them were American citizens.
Social Trends in Seattle Vol 14 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1944)
The U.S. government wasted no time in clamping down on the 9,600 Japanese Americans in King County. On the evening of December 7, the FBI began to arrest Issei (first generation Japanese) and a few Nisei (second generation), including Buddhist priests, Japanese language teachers, officials, and leaders of community organizations whom the FBI considered potential spies.
In the following days, Japanese were ordered to stay away from railroad tunnels, highway bridges, and radio stations. Travel was restricted. Issei business licenses were revoked and bank accounts were frozen.
The push to expel the Japanese was centered in California and led by white farmers. In many ways, the antagonism merely continued nearly a century of hate and exclusion campaigns, first against the Chinese and then the Japanese. California state Attorney General Earl Warren, the future Supreme Court Chief Justice, was among those who asserted that the absence of Japanese “fifth column” activity (absence of activity by any group secretly in sympathy with Japan) on the West Coast was evidence that they were secretly planning another attack.
In Seattle, local Japanese began to feel the heat. At King Street Station, Japanese redcap porters were replaced by Filipinos wearing large identification buttons reading “Filipino.” In early 1942, 26 Nisei women resigned as clerks from Seattle elementary schools after the district received complaints from parents.
Social Trends in Seattle Vol 14 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1944)
Racial Grounds
Lt. General John DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command, left no doubt that Japanese and Japanese Americans were singled out for mass exclusion on racial grounds. On February 14, 1942, DeWitt wrote, “The Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second and third generation Japanese born on United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship have become ‘Americanized,’ the racial strains are undiluted.”
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced evacuation. Both Seattle Mayor Earl Millikan and Governor Arthur Langlie (1900-1966) declared their support of the removal.
By the end of March, 1942, sites had been determined for “assembly centers,” temporary prison camps to be used as holding centers for persons of Japanese ancestry until the people could be moved to more permanent “relocation centers.” At the time, 14,400 Japanese and Japanese Americans lived in Washington state, 9,600 of them in King County. The Japanese population of Seattle was nearly 7,000.
Expulsion
On March 30, 1942, Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound became the first group in the nation to be evacuated. A few weeks later in Seattle, on Tuesday, April 21, “evacuation” announcements were posted on telephone poles and bulletin boards. The community was to leave the city in three groups the following Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Because the Army limited Japanese Americans to bringing only what they could carry, people made arrangements to store their belongings at churches or at the homes or businesses of friends.
A total of 12,892 persons of Japanese ancestry from Washington state were incarcerated. Seattle and Puyallup Valley Japanese were sent to the Puyallup “assembly center” and then onto Minidoka in Idaho.
Japanese Americans rode in vans, buses, and private automobiles about 25 miles south of Seattle to Puyallup on the site of the annual Western Washington State Fair. They remained there from April 28 to September 23, 1942.
Against a surreal backdrop of a race track, roller coaster, and Ferris wheel, barracks had been constructed in converted livestock stalls, under grandstands, and on parking lots. Boards for floors were laid flat on the ground so that grass grew between the cracks. Some mattresses were issued, but many internees had to stuff straw into canvas bags.
Minidoka
Beginning on August 10, 1942, most Seattleites were sent to the “Minidoka Relocation Center” near Hunt, Idaho, about 15 miles from Twin Falls and 150 miles southeast of Boise. This was one of 10 inland concentration camps filled with Japanese who had been evacuated from the West Coast.
The 7,050 Nikkei from the Seattle area were joined by 2,500 from Oregon and 150 from Alaska — some of them children or grandchildren of Eskimo women and Japanese men.
The 500 barracks were arranged in 44 blocks, each block with two sections of six barracks, served by a mess hall and a central H-shaped shower and toilet facility. Family rooms varied depending on family size, averaging 16 feet by 20 feet, and were equipped with a potbelly stove and canvas Army cots.
Extreme weather was one of the chief hardships. Winter temperatures often dropped to 10 to 20 degrees below zero, and the thin walls of the barracks provided the barest protection against icy winds. Summer temperatures climbed as high as 115 degrees. After it rained, the dust became a thick bog of mud.
The inmates coped as best they could with the indignity of shared housing and bathing facilities, and the lingering anger and shame of their eviction from lifelong homes and neighborhoods. Minidoka became a little American city with churches, schools, newspapers, a library, fire station, and hospital.
Nisei Soldiers
In January 1943, the U.S. military began to admit Nisei. Many young men were eager to volunteer in the hope of improving the post-war status of their families. Other Nisei and their families agonized over the possibility of military service.
The all-Nisei military units — the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, served with distinction, suffering huge casualties, and helping to end the war in Europe. For its size and length of service, the 442nd was the most decorated military unit of the war.
Concentration camp residents were encouraged to relocate to the Midwest or East Coast and eventually, beginning in January 1945, were permitted to return to the U.S. West Coast.
List of Detention Camps and Temporary Detention Centers
DETENTION CAMPS
Permanent detention camps that held internees from March, 1942 until their closing in 1945 and 1946.
TEMPORARY DETENTION CENTERS Temporary detention centers were used from late March, 1942 until mid-October, 1942, when internees were moved to the ten more permanent internment prisons. These temporary sites were mainly located on large fairgrounds or race tracks in visible and public locations. It would be impossible for local populace to say that they were unaware of the removal and imprisonment of Japanese Americans.
Fresno, California First inmate arrival May 6, 1942. Last inmate departure October 30, 1942. Peak population 5120.
Manzanar, California First inmate arrival March 21, 1942. Peak population (before June 1, 1942) 9666. Before it was leased from the City of Los Angeles, Manzanar was once ranch and farm land until it reverted to desert conditions. Manzanar was transferred from the WCCA to WRA on June 1, 1942, and converted into a “relocation camp.”
Marysville, California First inmate arrival May 8, 1942. Last inmate departure June 29, 1942. Peak population 2451.
Mayer, Arizona First inmate arrival May 7, 1942. Last inmate departure June 2, 1942. Peak population 245. Mayer was a camp abaondoned by the Civilian Conservation Corp.
Merced, California First inmate arrival May 6, 1942. Last inmate departure September 15, 1942. Peak population 4508.
Pinedale, California First inmate arrival May 7, 1942. Last inmate departure July 23, 1942. Peak population 4792. Pinedale was the previous site of a mill.
Pomona, California First inmate arrival May 7, 1942. Last inmate departure August 24, 1942. Peak population 5434.
Portland, Oregon First inmate arrival May 2, 1942. Last inmate departure September 10, 1942. Peak population 3676. Portland used the Pacific International Live Stock Exposition Facilities to hold detainees.
Puyallup, Washington First inmate arrival April 28, 1942. Last inmate departure September 12, 1942. Peak population 7390.5
Sacramento, California First inmate arrival May 6, 1942. Last inmate departure June 26, 1942. Peak population 4739. Sacramento used a former migrant camp.
Salinas, California First inmate arrival April 27, 1942. Last inmate departure July 4, 1942. Peak population 3594.
Santa Anita, California First inmate arrival March 27, 1942. Last inmate departure October 27, 1942. Peak population 18,719.
Stockton, California First inmate arrival May 10, 1942. Last inmate departure October 17, 1942. Peak population 4271.
Tanforan, San Bruno, California First inmate arrival April 28, 1942. Last inmate departure October 13, 1942. Peak population 7816. Tanforan is now a large shopping mall by the same name.
Tulare, California First inmate arrival April 20, 1942. Last inmate departure September 4, 1942. Peak population 4978.
Turlock, Byron, California First inmate arrival April 30, 1942. Last inmate departure August 12, 1942. Peak population 3662.
