PACIFIC WAR, the early years
Relocation Timeline

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1880. Census shows only 148 Japanese in whole of U.S.
1882. Chinese Exclusion Act ; is silent on Japanese.
1890. Census shows  2,000 Japanese.
1910. Census shows 72,000 Japanese have replaced Chinese workers. Mostly young men.
1913. California Alien Land Law
1924. Japanese Exclusion Act.
Sep 19, 1931. China invaded ; puppet state of Manchukuo (Manchuria) formed by Japanese Army.
Mar 27, 1933. Japan withdraws from League of Nations.
June 7, 1937. Start of Sino-China war.
Dec 13, 1937. Rape of Nanking: 200,000 Chinese murdered. Shocks the world.
Sept 1, 1939. Germany invades Poland. War declared in Europe on Sept 3.
-----1940 -----
Census showed 126,947 Japanese ; 40,000 now over 50 years as head of household, mostly on West Coast.
• Issei - born in Japan, enemy aliens.
• Nisei - born in US or Hawaii, dual citizens by birth.
• Kibei - born in US, schooled in Japan; also, any preferring Japan to the US.
• 30% of Nisei held Japanese citizenship and 60% of Issei had not renounced Japanese citizenship.
Sep 27 . Japan, German and Italy Tripartite Pact to support each other's military aims.
----- 1941 -----
      Spy, LCdr Ohmea, allowed to return to Japan so as to keep tabs on his successor.
May 19. Spy Nakauchi message intercepted : "We have already established contact with absolutely reliable Japanese in San Pedro and San Diego area, who will keep close watch on all shipments of airplanes and other war material …"
mid-June 1941. Spies LCdr Itaru Tachibana and Toraichi Kono arrested.
December 6, 1941. Spy Yoshikawa reports ship stations at Pearl Harbor to Tokyo ; 36-minutes later is decyphered aboard Akagi.
December 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor attacked.
Dec 7 . Malaya and Siam invaded.
Dec 7 . Philippines attacked.
Dec 7 . Wake Island attacked, repulsed. Two Japanese destroyers shell Midway.
Dec 7 . FBI arrested 1,300 aliens, including those implicated by the Tachibana/Kono ring.
Dec 8 . Japan takes Gilbert Islands
Dec 8 . HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse sunk off Malaya.
Dec 11. Burma invaded.
Dec 12. Downed Zero pilot with aid from local Japanese-American (Nisei) takes Hawaiian village hostage.
Dec 16. Borneo invaded.
Dec 20. Japanese submarine I-17 sinks US tanker Emidio off Cape Mendocino, California.
Dec 22. Philippines invaded.
Dec 23. Japanese submarine I-21 sinks US tanker Montebello four miles south of Piedras Blancas light, California, I-21 machine-guns the lifeboats, but inflicts no casualties.
Dec 23. Japan takes Wake Island
Dec 25. Enemy diplomats, including 540 Japanese, moved into resorts: Greenbrier at White Sulphur Springs, WV ; The Homestead at Hot Springs, VA ; and Park Grove Inn in Asheville, NC.
Dec 25. Hong Kong surrenders.
Dec 31. Japan occupies Manila.
----- 1942 -----
Jan 11. Dutch East Indies invaded. Entire white population of Balikpapan slaughtered.
Jan 23. Intercept : "The brilliant success of our armed forces at Pearl Harbor was due, mainly, to the military information based on reports sent by our informers on the spot, whose efforts represent untold sacrifices in blood and tears."
Jan 29. Enemy aliens excluded from strategic military and industrial areas; includes some Japanese populated coastal fishing and farming villages.
Feb 2 . Sheriffs & D.A.s meeting calls for evacuation for US security and for safety of Japanese.
Feb-March. Vigilantes turn back Japanese trying to leave California.
Feb 9 . Normandie burns at New York and capsizes.
Feb 10. Japanese given 48 hour deadline to settle affairs and leave.
Feb 15. Singapore surrenders.
Feb 19. FDR executive order 9066 excluding Japanese from entire coastal area.
Feb 19. Japanese air raid on Port Darwin, Australia. Port is abandoned.
Feb 20. Japanese invade Timor Island, N.E.I., 350 miles from Australia
Feb 21. Congressional hearings on relocation, Toland Committee.
Feb 23. Jap submarine I-17 shells oil tank farm in California.
Feb 24. Air Raid alarm on Los Angles, 1,400 3" AA shells fired at errant weather balloon.
Feb 27. Battle of Java Sea - defeat of allied navies in Far East.
March 1-5. Eleven retreating USN ships of Far East fleet sunk by IJN.
March 2 . West Coastline declared restricted zone, Japanese told to move to interior.
March 9 . Java surrenders.
March 13. Solomon Islands invaded by Japanese.
March 18. War Relocation Authority formed.
    Coupon books issued to the relocated.
March 22. First contingent from Los Angles to Manzanar Assembly Center.
March 29. End of voluntary relocation period.
April 5 . Imperial Japanese Navy raids British Eastern Fleet at Ceylon, sink carrier, cruisers, merchant fleet.
    5,000 Germans relocated to Ellis Island.
April 9 . US Army surrenders Bataan, Philippines. Bataan death march.
April 18. Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.
April 19. Japanese land in Dutch New Guinea.
April 30. Exclusion orders, to be out by May 7.
May 1 . Start move to assembly centers. (1).
May 1 . Mandalay, Burma falls to Japanese Army.
May 7 . European diplomats, 1,600, returned on Swedish ships.
May 7-8. Battle of Coral Sea. USS Lexington lost, but Japanese invasion of S. New Guinea turned back.
May 20. Burma surrenders.
May 21. U-boat attacks on tankers in Atlantic coast & Caribbean is at height.
June 1 . Manzanar Assembly Center becomes Relocation Center.
June 3 . Japanese carrier force bombs Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
June 4-6. Battle of Midway defeats Japanese capability to invade Hawaii.
June 5-7. Japanese bomb Dutch Harbor, occupy Attu and Kiska, Aleutians, without opposition.
Jun 15. Seven US ships torpedoed or mined by U-boats in Caribbean.
mid-June. Relocation centers ready for occupation by up to 130,000.
Jun 20. Japanese submarine I-26 shells Estevan Point, Vancouver Island.
July 1942-October 1943. Period of Balance of Sea Power in the Pacific.
July . US troops to S. Pacific, build supply and air bases.
Aug 7 . Evacuation from war zone complete : 110,000 people
Aug 7 . Marines land at Guadalcanal. Fight until Feb 9.
Aug 9 . Battle of Savo Island, Allied cruiser force wiped out.
August. Nisei who were not Kibei are allowed to resettle in midlands or east
Sep 9 . Seaplane from Japanese submarine I-25 drops incendiary bombs near Mount Emily, Oregon, in an attempt to ignite forest fires.
Sep 24-25. Japanese land on Gilbert Islands.
Sep 26. Japanese invasion of Port Morseby, thrown back Oct 5.
Sep 29. Seaplane from Japanese submarine I-25 bombs forest in Oregon with incendiaries.
Oct 12. Italians excluded from enemy alien restrictions.
Oct 30. Moving from assembly to relocation centers complete.
Nov 8 . Allied invasion of North Africa.
mid-Dec. Germans on West Coast excluded from enemy alien restrictions.
----- 1943 -----
Jan 28. Combat team of Nisei volunteers authorized; activated Feb 1.
Feb 9 . Guadalcanal battle ends.
Feb 10. Loyalty questionnaire to determine military duty for Nisei males over 17 and for resettlement of all others.
Feb 22. Battle of Kasserine Pass, US Army loses in its first battle.
Mar-Oct. Resettlement allowed. 15,000 loyal Japanese resettle in Midwest.
mid-April. 2,700 Nisei recruits arrive in Camp Shelby, MS, for training.
April 21. Nisei in uniform suspended from exclusion orders.
July 10. Allies invade Sicily.
July 15. Tule Lake becomes Segregation Center for disloyal.
mid-Sept-Oct. Transfers to/from Tule Lake Segregation Center ; 6,000 loyal out.
Sept 8 . Italy surrenders as Allied invasion force approaches.
Nov .   US strikes back in Pacific: Bougainville, Makin, Tarawa.
Nov 5 . Tule Lake becomes unruly, Army takes over with martial law.
Nov-Dec. 20,000 more resettle, given bus ticket and $25, about a week's wage.
----- 1944 -----
January 14. Army returns Tule Lake to WRA administration.
Jan 24-end. 442nd Nisei Regiment in Italy, earns most medals for gallantry
January 31. Marshall Islands campaign.
March 15. Japanese invade India.
June 6 . Allies land at Normandy, France.
June 15-July 9. Marianas campaign: Saipan.
June 19. Japanese carrier fleet defeated in Philippine Sea.
June 30. Jerome Relocation Center closed. Half had resettled and half moved to other centers.
July 21-Aug 10. Guam, Tinian campaign
Oct 20. US landing at Leyte, Philippines.
Dec 17. Exclusion order for West Coast rescinded, relocated can go home in January.
Dec 17. Relocation Centers to close in 12 months.
----- 1945 -----
January 2 . Order of exclusion was rescinded. All free to return to West Coast homes ; except those who rescinded citizenship : 5,000 males held in Tule Lake and another 5,000 excluded from the West Coast. There were still more than seven months of warfare remaining with Japan.
January 16. End of Battle of the Bulge.
Feb 19-March 16. Iwo Jima.
March 9 . B-29 fire bombs destroy Tokyo.
April 1-June 21. Okinawa, kamikazes wreck 300 US ships.
May 7 .   Germany surrenders.
August 6 . Hiroshima destroyed by one bomb.
August 14. Japan surrenders.
Oct-Nov . Relocation Centers closed.
----- 1946 -----
March 20. Tule Lake Segregation Center closed.
    4,000 Nisei and Kibei who renounced America are declared aliens ineligible for citizenship.
----- Notes -----
(1) Assembly centers : temporary locations of May 1942 to get Japanese away from war zone. These were CCC camps, fair grounds, race tracks, etc.
(2) Relocation Centers : low cost housing built in remote areas:

Releocation Center	Opened	Peak Pop.	Closed
Gila River, AZ	20Jun42	13,348	11-10-45
Granada, CO	27Aug42	7,318	10-15-45
Heart Mountain, WY	12Aug42	10,767	11-10-45
Jerome, AR	01Oct42	8,497	06-30-44
Manzanar, CA	21Mar42	10,046	11-21-45
Minidoka, ID	10Aug42	9,397	10-28-45
Poston(Colorada River) AZ	08May42	17,814	11-28-45
Rohwer, AR	19Sep42	8,475	11-30-45
Topaz, UT	11Sep42	8,130	10-31-45
Tule Lake, CA	27May42	18,789*	03-20-46

* Tule Lake reached its peak population 12-25-44 as disloyals were concentrated there.

    Manzanar, in California's Owens Valley, a former WPA Camp, was designated as an assembly center; the first 80 people arrived Mar 21, 1942, and it was filled by mid-April. When the WRA was formed, it became the first Relocation Center. Issei, Nisei, and Kibei factions formed ; riots, murders ; then settled down.

    Passes, permanent or temporary, were required to leave the relocation centers. Workers and college students for example were allowed to work and go to schools outside the exclusion zone. Earnings and payments were their own. Nursing students received scholarships. About 2,500 evacuees went to Seabrook Farms' New Jersey plant.

    Life goes on : birth, marriages, funerals and graduations occur in the Centers.
    Although free to relocate after March 1943, many without family or friends in the midwest or east preferred the security of the Centers rather then the uncertainty of finding a place to live on their own where they would be accepted.

    Tule Lake became Segregation Center after July 15, 1943, to house those who did not claim loyalty to U.S.

    Diplomats, businessmen and others repatriated to Japan : 4,700

    442nd Regimental Combat Team -- all Nisei unit, was most decorated unit of the war.
        100th Infantry Battalion ; 522 Field Artillery ; 232nd Engineers.

Major source : America's Concentration Camps by Allan R. Bosworth.
Other sources : The Relocation of the Japanese-Amerians During World War II by Dwight Murphey
National Park Service

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Last updated on September 15, 2003. 11Sep07 - add open,close dates.
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