During WWII, one country imprisoned 120,000 innocent people in concentration camps. That country was the United States of America.
March 24, 1942: Civilian Exclusion Order No. 1 was issued — the first step in the removal of over 120,000 people, two-thirds U.S. citizens.
Civilian Exclusion Order No. 1 was issued by General John L. DeWitt under the authority of Executive Order 9066. It was the first of 108 orders that would remove every Japanese American from the West Coast — without trial, without charges, without due process.
This first order targeted Bainbridge Island, Washington, a small, tight-knit community of 276 Japanese Americans.
They were given just six days to pack and report to the ferry terminal. Six days to abandon homes, businesses, schools, farms, and possessions. Each person was allowed to carry only one piece of luggage. Some were forced to leave their pets behind.
Courtesy of the National Archives
This wasn’t a private remark. General DeWitt was regularly making these statements publicly, justifying the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Civilian Exclusion Order No.1 being posted. Orders like this appeared on street corners to alert families had only few days to pack up and report for incarceration.
Courtesy of UC Berkeley Bancroft Library
Civilian Exclusion Order No. 1, issued March 24, 1942. The first of 108 orders that would systematically remove over 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast.
Courtesy of the Museum of History and Industry
The dog refusing to leave his owners at Bainbridge Island. Without his family, the dog later refused to eat and died of starvation.
Courtesy of the Museum of History and Industry
A Japanese American couple is escorted from their home, March 1942. Reports described those being removed as “polite and agreeable.”
Courtesy of the Museum of History and Industry
Bainbridge Island families waiting to board the ferry, March 30, 1942, forced from their homes under Civilian Exclusion Order No. 1.
AP Photo
What was called a “Reception Center” came with armed guards and guard towers. Manzanar, May 23, 1943
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Japanese American residents in Terminal Island were already forced from their homes during mass round-up back in February, 1942.
The Departure
On March 30, 1942, 227 Japanese American residents of Bainbridge Island were placed aboard the ferry Kehloken at the Eagledale dock, the first group removed under the exclusion orders.
In total, 276 people from the island would be forced from their homes in the days that followed.
They were sent to the Owens Valley Reception Center in California, later known as Manzanar, one of ten camps built in remote areas of the country, surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards.
They were not the first to arrive. A voluntary advance group from Los Angeles had already been sent ahead to prepare the site. Nor were they the first to be removed. On February 25, about 500 Japanese Americans from Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor were forced from their homes, though they were not immediately sent to a camp.
Strangers In A Strange Land
The Bainbridge Islanders were among the few from the Pacific Northwest sent to Manzanar. Most Japanese Americans from Washington, Oregon, and Alaska were sent instead to Minidoka War Relocation Center in Idaho.
Many from Bainbridge wanted to be with friends and family at Minidoka.
Tensions emerged between the small group from Washington and the larger population from California.
Within a year, most Bainbridge families were transferred to Minidoka, where they remained for the duration of the war.
Photo by Ansel Adams
Most of those incarcerated at Manzanar were from California, including Mrs. Yaeko Nakamura and her daughters Louise and Joyce, photographed here.
Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration
Minidoka held many Japanese Americans from the Pacific Northwest, including those from Washington, Oregon, and Alaska.
Courtesy of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community
The Sakuma family harvesting strawberries on Bainbridge Island before the war. Many old neighbors would later welcome them back after the war.
Courtesy of the Museum of History and Industry
A Japanese American student from Bainbridge Island says goodbye to her high school classmates during forced removal, March 1942. Some would reunite years later.
Slight Return
After the war, only about half of Bainbridge Island’s Japanese American residents returned.
According to the Bainbridge Island School District’s Minority History Committee, some chose not to come back. Others had already begun rebuilding their lives elsewhere after years away.
Those who returned largely did so without incident.
A small group attempted to block their return but received little support. Most island residents welcomed their Japanese American neighbors back, standing in contrast to many communities on the West Coast, where returning families faced open hostility.
Not Good To Be The First
The Bainbridge Island community was the first to be forcibly removed and directly incarcerated under the exclusion orders.
Majority of them were U.S. citizens. They were not accused of any crime. Their only offense was being of Japanese ancestry.
In the months that followed, more than 120,000 Japanese Americans would be removed from their homes and sent to temporary “assembly centers,” then to incarceration camps across the country.
The United States would not formally apologize until the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 when President Ronald Reagan called it a “grave injustice.” It was 46 years later.
Courtesy of the Museum of History and Industry
Bainbridge Island residents are led from their homes, March 1942, the first group removed under the Civilian Exclusion Orders. Many more would follow.
Courtesy of the Museum of History and Industry
A young boy looks on as his family is removed under armed guard, Bainbridge Island, March 1942. It would not be the last time this happened.
Courtesy of the Museum of History and Industry
Fumiko Hayashida and her one-year-old daughter await removal from Bainbridge Island, March 1942. One of the most enduring images of Japanese American incarceration.
President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, issuing a formal apology and reparations to Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II.