Japanese American Incarceration Era Collection -- Challenging Patriotism
Challenging Patriotism
Out of the 120,000 individuals moved to the assembly centers, about 70,000 of them were American citizens. In just a matter of days ordinary civilians were regarded as threats to national security, rounded up, segregated, and then asked to prove their patriotism. Many were disenchanted by this cruelty and sought repatriation to Japan.
By February 8, 1943, all detainees seventeen years and older filled out questionnaires that tested their loyalty. The “Application for Leave Clearance” and “Statement of United States Citizenship of Japanese Ancestry,” also known as “Loyalty Questionnaires,” were created by the War Relocation Authority and the US Army. They were circulated among the detainees while the Army started to voluntarily recruit at the camps. The DSS Form 304A, targeted at second-generation males, and Form WRA-126, for first-generation persons and second-generation females, contained poorly worded questions that created controversy for families and individuals trying to answer to their best interests of the individual and family as a whole.
This government abuse did not go unnoticed by other Americans. Various organizations and individuals spoke out about the severe treatment of innocent people. The objects below represent this national tension between the American government, the American people who spoke out, and those who suffered.
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Announcement of Revision of Forms DSS Form 304A and WRA Form 126 (Re: Question 28)
- Description
- Unclear reasoning behind the purpose of these questionnaires and poorly worded questions brought up conflicting feelings. Concerns arose about how to handle a government that both denied rights but asked for military service. Families worried that if members answered differently from each other than the consequences would result in families splitting up and moving to different camps, which was a harsh reality. An announcement circulated around the camps that revised these questionnaires. Clearer language was used to facilitate answering the questions and both English and Japanese translations were distributed for the internees.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 1986.3128.03
- nonaccession number
- 1986.3128
- catalog number
- 1986.3128.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Instruction sheet, Western Defense Command & Fourth Army
- Description
- This object is an instruction sheet for repatriation to Japan. Those who applied for repatriation were transferred from their original internment camps to Tule Lake Relocation Camp. In 1943 Tule Lake became a high-security Segregation Center for persons of Japanese ancestry that were believed to have conflicting national loyalties as well as those that applied for repatriation and those who did not want to leave the camp when it transformed from a Relocation Center to a Segregation Center. Many were sent to Tule Lake due to the answers they gave on the “loyalty” questionnaire; this included individuals and whole families.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1942-07
- ID Number
- 1987.3020.03
- nonaccession number
- 1987.3020
- catalog number
- 1987.3020.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Pamphlet, "70,000 American Refugees - Made in USA"
- Description
- Many fellow US citizens recognized the unjust interment of American people and went so far as to question the democratic ideology of the US government. Truman B. Douglass was one of these advocates. In this pamphlet that he authored, Douglass called attention to these horrible circumstances and compelled others to move against the unfair treatment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Douglass, Truman B.
- ID Number
- 1986.3144.34
- nonaccession number
- 1986.3144
- catalog number
- 1986.3144.34
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Pamphlet, "Issei, Nissei, Kibei"
- Description
- The reprint of Fortune Magazine’s “Issei, Nisei, Kibei”, which reviewed the war relocation program, reached a wide swathe of the United States and confronted Americans with the severe social issues taking place on the home front. Awareness of the prejudicial treatment of these specific citizens was widespread, yet, it took years until the internment system was dismantled and Japanese Americans were left to reassemble their lives.
- "Fortune Magazine reviews the program of the War Relocation Authority and the problems created by the evacuation from the West Coast of 110,000 people of Japanese descent."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1944-04
- maker
- Fortune Magazine
- ID Number
- 1986.3144.35
- nonaccession number
- 1986.3144
- catalog number
- 1986.3144.35
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
