March 26, 1790 1790-03-26 The U.S. Congress, in the Naturalization Act of March 26, 1790, states that "any alien, being a free white person who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for a term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof." February 18, 1875 1875-02-18 The phrase "aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent" is added to the language of the 1790 Naturalization Act, granting citizenship to freed slaves but still denying it to Japanese and other Asian immigrants. The ban will last until 1952. May 6, 1882 1882-05-06 Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, ending Chinese immigration for the next sixty years. Enforcement creates a labor shortage, leading to increased immigration from Japan to the mainland United States. February 8, 1885 1885-02-08 Japanese laborers begin arriving in Hawaii, recruited by plantation owners to work the sugarcane fields. September 2, 1885 1885-09-02 Resentment of cheap labor and strikebreakers results in an anti-Chinese riot in Rock Springs, Wyoming, killing twenty-eight Chinese miners and wounding fifteen. All sixteen white suspects are acquitted. Summer 1887 1887-07-01 Thirty Japanese immigrants arrive in San Francisco to start an agricultural colony in California. The group buys 20 acres in Calaveras County. June 27, 1894 1894-06-27 A U.S. district court rules that Japanese immigrants cannot become citizens because they are not "free white" persons, as the Naturalization Act of 1790 requires. May 7, 1900 1900-05-07 The first large-scale anti-Japanese protest is held in California, organized by various labor groups. February 23, 1905 1905-02-23 "The Japanese Invasion: The Problem of the Hour," reads the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, further escalating racism in the Bay Area. May 14, 1905 1905-05-14 The Asiatic Exclusion League is formed in San Francisco. In attendance are labor leaders and European immigrants, marking the first organized effort of the anti-Japanese movement. October 11, 1906 1906-10-11 The San Francisco Board of Education passes a resolution to segregate children of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ancestry from the majority population.Controversy around this resolution escalates into an international incident, leading to the 1908 Gentlemen's Agreement. 1908 1908-01-01 Japan and the United States formalize the Gentlemen's Agreement to halt the migration of Japanese laborers to the United States. Japanese women, however, are allowed to immigrate if they are wives of U.S. residents (some were "picture brides"--a man in the U.S. would send a photograph of himself to Japan where the family, through the use of a go-between, would seek a suitable wife). May 19, 1913 1913-05-19 California passes the Alien Land Law, forbidding "all aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning land. This law targeted Japanese who were becoming successful farmers. This law later expanded to include a prohibition on leasing land as well, and twelve other states adopted similar laws. November 1920 1920-11-01 A new, more stringent 1920 Alien Land Law passes in California, intended to close loopholes found in the 1913 Alien Land Law. 1920 1920-01-01 Japanese American farmers produce $67 million dollars worth of crops, more than 10 percent of California's total crop value. There are 111,000 Japanese Americans in the United States: 82,000 immigrants and 29,000 born in the U.S. July 19, 1921 1921-07-19 White vigilantes drive out fifty-eight Japanese laborers from Turlock, California, at gunpoint. Other incidents occur across California and in Oregon and Arizona. November 13, 1922 1922-11-13 The U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Ozawa v. U.S. reaffirms the ban on Japanese immigrants becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. May 26, 1924 1924-05-26 President Calvin Coolidge signs into law the Immigration Act of 1924, effectively ending all Japanese immigration to the U.S. August 29, 1930 1930-08-29 First convention of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) opens in Seattle. The JACL would grow to become the largest Japanese American political organization during and after World War II. November 1, 1941 1941-11-01 U.S. Army starts a small school, the Military Intelligence Service Language School, in San Francisco to train persons with background in Japanese. The first class has four nisei instructors and sixty students, fifty-eight of whom are nisei. Thirty-five members of the graduating class go immediately to serve in the Pacific. November 7, 1941 1941-11-07 A U.S. intelligence report known as the "Munson Report" commissioned by President Franklin Roosevelt concludes that the great majority of Japanese Americans are loyal to the U.S. and do not pose a threat to national security in the event of war with Japan. Munson separately considered the issei (first-generation immigrants), nisei (U.S.-born second generation), and kibei (nisei educated in Japan). He concluded that the issei considered the U.S. their home; the nisei showed a "pathetic eagerness to be Americans"; and only a small number of kibei--already under surveillance--might be a threat. December 7, 1941 1941-12-07 Japan bombs U.S. ships and planes at the Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii. More than 3,500 servicemen are wounded or killed. Martial law is declared in Hawaii. On the mainland and in Hawaii the FBI begins arresting Japanese immigrants on prewar "ABC" lists of potential subversives: Buddhist priests, Japanese language teachers, newspaper publishers, and heads of organizations. Within 48 hours, 1,291 are detained at Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) stations. December 8, 1941 1941-12-08 Congress approves the declaration of war presented by the president. December 11, 1941 1941-12-11 The Western Defense Command is established with Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt as the commander. Immediately after Pearl Harbor DeWitt issues public warnings of Japanese attack without substantiated evidence. He favors a mass purging of Japanese, German, and Italian nationals for security reasons. December 15, 1941 1941-12-15 Accepting rumors of Japanese American espionage without any evidence, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox announces to the press, "I think the most effective Fifth Column work of the entire war was done in Hawaii . . . " Newspapers and radio spread unsubstantiated reports of spying by Japanese Americans. December 30, 1941 1941-12-30 A Naval intelligence report states that the majority of Japanese Americans are loyal; that the "Japanese problem . . . is no more serious than the problems of the German, Italian, and Communistic portions of the United States population, and, finally that it should be handled on the basis of the individual, regardless of citizenship, and not on a racial basis." January-May 1942 1942-01-01 The FBI searches thousands of Japanese American homes for "contraband" such as shortwave radios, cameras, heirloom swords, and explosives used for clearing stumps. The FBI arrests more "suspect" issei. After brief hearings, thousands of these men will be held for the duration of the war in Department of Justice and U.S. Army internment camps, separate from their families. January 23, 1942 1942-01-23 In the town of Clovis, New Mexico, the INS rounds up all thirty-two residents of Japanese descent (both citizens and immigrants) and detains them at Old Raton Ranch, an isolated and abandoned campsite. Work, school, and other activities are unavailable to the inmates. After almost a year of these bleak conditions, the inmates are transferred to WRA incarceration camps at Poston, Gila River, and Topaz. February 19, 1942 1942-02-19 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, authorizing military authorities to exclude civilians from any area without trial or hearing. The order does not specify Japanese Americans--but they are the only group to be imprisoned as a result of it. Roosevelt disregards intelligence reports that Japanese Americans are overwhelmingly loyal. The War Department lobbies to remove all people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast, while the Attorney General opposes the sweeping exclusion as unconstitutional. February 25, 1942 1942-02-25 The U.S. Navy orders all people of Japanese ancestry living on Terminal Island in the Port of Los Angeles--some 500 families--to leave within 48 hours. March 2, 1942 1942-03-02 General DeWitt, commander of the Western Defense Command, issues Public Proclamation No. 1 to designate as military areas the western halves of California, Washington, Oregon, and parts of Arizona. These areas have a curfew imposed--all people of Japanese ancestry must remain at home from eight in the evening until six in the morning. Japanese Americans are encouraged to "voluntarily" move inland away from the prohibited zone in order to save government resources. A few move eastward where they have no jobs or contacts. March 1942 1942-03-01 The Wartime Civil Control Administration, an Army agency, prepares seventeen "assembly centers" in order to temporarily incarcerate approximately 92,000 men, women, and children until the inland incarceration camps are completed. March 5, 1942 1942-03-05 The State of California "releases" thirty-four Japanese American civil servants from their jobs. March 18, 1942 1942-03-18 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9102, establishing the War Relocation Authority (WRA), a civilian agency in charge of managing the incarceration camps. He appoints Milton Eisenhower as director. March 24, 1942 1942-03-24 The first Civilian Exclusion Order is issued by the Army for Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Washington. Forty-five families are given one week to prepare to leave. By the end of October 1942, 108 exclusion orders are issued for all people of Japanese descent in military areas to be taken to "assembly centers." These makeshift detention camps, erected at fairgrounds, racetracks, and similar facilities, are surrounded by barbed-wire fences and guarded by armed soldiers. March 27, 1942 1942-03-27 "Voluntary evacuation" ends as the Army prohibits the changing of residence for all Japanese Americans in the western halves of Washington, California, and Oregon. March 28, 1942 1942-03-28 Minoru Yasui surrenders himself for arrest in a Portland police station to test the curfew regulations in court. Like fellow activists Gordon Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu, and Mitsuye Endo, he challenges the forced removal and detention of Japanese Americans in a landmark Supreme Court case. June 1942 1942-06-01 The incarcerees are transferred from the "assembly centers" to War Relocation Authority incarceration facilities called "relocation centers." The camps, set in remote, desolate terrain, total ten: Gila River, Granada, Heart Mountain, Jerome, Manzanar, Minidoka, Poston, Rohwer, Topaz, and Tule Lake. Two-thirds of the incarcerees are U.S. citizens. May 16, 1942 1942-05-16 University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi turns himself in to the authorities. His written statement explains that he will not submit to the imprisonment on constitutional grounds. Like Yasui, Hirabayashi's case will go to the Supreme Court. June 3-6, 1942 1942-06-03 The Allies win a decisive victory over the Japanese at the Battle of Midway and turn the advantage in the war to the U.S. July 12, 1942 1942-07-12 A writ of habeas corpus is filed for Mitsuye Endo. Her case will not be decided until December 1944, but the Supreme Court ruling will signal the end of the incarceration camps. July 27, 1942 1942-07-27 Two issei men are shot to death by camp guards while allegedly trying to escape from the Lordsburg, New Mexico, internment camp. Both men reportedly had been too ill to walk from the train station to the camp gate when they first arrived at the camp. December 6, 1942 1942-12-06 Three nisei incarcerees are arrested on suspicion of beating a fellow incarceree they allege is a pro-camp administration "informer." A crowd of about five hundred incarcerees demands the release of the three arrested nisei. Military police (MP) use tear gas to break up the crowd; chaos ensues and without an order the MP fire, killing a seventeen-year-old and a twenty-one-year old and wounding nine. In the aftermath of this incident, authorities set up the Moab citizen isolation center to hold sixteen men they label "troublemakers." February 1, 1943 1943-02-01 The War Department announces the formation of a segregated unit of nisei soldiers and calls for volunteers in Hawaii (where there was no mass incarceration of Japanese Americans) and from among the men held in the camps. One month later President Roosevelt announces the formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team with the words, "Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry." March 1943 1943-03-01 Ten thousand Japanese American men volunteer for the armed services from Hawaii. Out of the camps on the mainland, 1,200 volunteer. Training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, the Hawaiian and mainland enlistees clash. They undergo ten months of basic training, twice the normal time. April 13, 1943 1943-04-13 General John L. DeWitt testifies to the House Naval Affairs Subcommittee that "A Jap's a Jap. There is no way to determine their loyalty . . . This coast is too vulnerable. No Jap should come back to this coast except on a permit from my office." June 21, 1943 1943-06-21 The U.S. Supreme Court accepts the government's argument of military necessity and upholds the constitutionality of the curfew order in Hirabayashi v. U.S. and Yasui v. U.S. February 6, 1943 1943-02-06 The U.S. Army and the War Relocation Authority (WRA) produce questionnaires for all WRA incarcerees seventeen years of age and older. The army wants men for military intelligence in the Pacific and to join the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Europe. The army's version of the questionnaire is for nisei (U.S. citizens) males. The WRA wants to establish a work and school release program for incarcerees. The WRA version is for nisei females and the issei. Both questionnaires contain two questions (27 & 28) that cause confusion and controversy for incarcerees. Despite serious problems with the wording and meaning of the questions, government officials and others generally consider those who answered "no" to these two questions to be "disloyal" to the United States; they are transferred to the Tule Lake incarceration camp which is designated a segregation camp. "Yes" answers to these questions make incarcerees eligible for service in the U.S. Army, and some become eligible for release and resettlement in areas outside of the West Coast exclusion zones. July 15, 1943 1943-07-15 The War Relocation Authority designates Tule Lake incarceration camp as the site to segregate those who answered "no" to questions 27 & 28 of the "loyalty questionnaire" and are considered "disloyal" to the United States. In September, "loyal" incarcerees from Tule Lake are transferred to other camps and "disloyal" incarcerees from other incarceration camps begin to arrive at Tule Lake. The number of guards increases from a few hundred to 930; an eight-foot high double fence is erected. The camp's capacity is 15,000, but the peak population reaches 18,789 as 6,249 original "loyal" incarcerees elect to stay rather than be uprooted again. January 14, 1944 1944-01-14 The War Department imposes the draft on nisei (U.S. citizen) men, including those incarcerated in the WRA camps. More than 33,000 nisei, including several hundred women, serve in the military during World War II. Approximately 300 refuse to be inducted. Many of these men resist the draft in protest of their incarceration and loss of rights. Charges against some draft resisters are later dismissed by judges who agree that it is indefensible to confine people on the grounds of suspected disloyalty and then compel them to serve in the armed forces. Other draft resisters, however, are sentenced to up to three years in federal prisons. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman grants full pardons to the 267 Japanese Americans who had been convicted of violating the Selective Service Act. May 10, 1944 1944-05-10 Sixty-three draft resisters from Heart Mountain incarceration camp are indicted by a federal grand jury. On June 26, 1944, they are found guilty and sentenced to serve time in federal penitentiaries. These sixty-three, along with 204 other nisei resisters, are pardoned by President Truman on December 24, 1947. October 30, 1944 1944-10-30 In France the nisei unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, is ordered to find and bring back a Texan battalion trapped nine miles away. After six days of continuous night-and-day battles against heavy German resistance, the 442nd rescues the 211 surviving Texans. The 442nd suffers over 800 casualties during the week of fighting. December 17, 1944 1944-12-17 Public Proclamation Number 21 is issued and General DeWitt's mass exclusion orders are rescinded. Persons of Japanese descent are allowed to return to the West Coast. This announcement comes one day before the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reverses ex parte Endo and rules that a loyal U.S. citizen cannot be held in incarceration camps against her will. December 18, 1944 1944-12-18 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds Fred Korematsu's conviction for violating the exclusion order by a six-to-three margin. In his dissent, Justice Murphy states: "This exclusion of 'all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien,' from the Pacific Coast area on a plea of military necessity . . . goes over the very brink of constitutional power and falls into the ugly abyss of racism." On the same day as the Korematsu decision, the U.S. Supreme Court gives a very different decision by unanimously reversing ex parte Endo and ruling that a loyal U.S. citizen cannot be held in incarceration camps against her will. May 7, 1945 1945-05-07 Germany surrenders, ending the war in Europe. August 6, 1945 1945-08-06 The U.S. drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, a second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. Japan surrenders on August 14. August 1945 1945-08-01 Some 44,000 people remain in incarceration camps. Thousands have nowhere to go after losing their homes and jobs. Many are afraid of anti-Japanese hostility and refuse to leave the camps. March 20, 1946 1946-03-20 Tule Lake segregation center shuts down, the last War Relocation Authority incarceration camp to close its gates. July 15, 1946 1946-07-15 "You not only fought the enemy but you fought prejudice . . . and you won," says President Truman on the White House lawn as he receives the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The 442nd is one of the most decorated combat teams of World War II, earning 7 Presidential Distinguished Unit Citations, 21 Medals of Honor, 53 Distinguished Service Crosses, and 9,846 Purple Hearts. December 24, 1947 1947-12-24 President Truman grants a presidential pardon to 267 nisei draft resisters. January 1948 1948-01-02 Crystal City Department of Justice internment camp shuts down, the last internment camp to close. July 2, 1948 1948-07-02 President Harry S. Truman signs the Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act. Approximately $38 million is paid from this act, only a small fraction of the estimated losses in income and property. June 27, 1952 1952-06-27 The Senate and House override President Truman's veto and vote the Walter-McCarren Act into law. This bill permits a small number of Japanese to immigrate to the U.S. and allows issei to become naturalized U.S. citizens. March 6, 1968 1968-03-06 Lawyer Wayne Collins settles his last renunciation case, 23 years after the original renunciation of citizenship. Of the 5,589 persons whose applications for renunciation were accepted, 5,409 asked to have their citizenship returned, and 4,978 such requests were granted. Collins handles almost all of the cases. December 27, 1969 1969-12-27 The first annual Manzanar pilgrimage takes place. The Manzanar pilgrimages inspire return journeys to other incarceration camps. February 19, 1976 1976-02-19 President Gerald Ford issues "An American Promise," a presidential proclamation terminating Executive Order 9066. The proclamation calls upon the American people to affirm "that we have learned from the tragedy of that long-ago experience forever to treasure liberty and justice for each individual American, and resolve that this kind of action shall never again be repeated." July 31, 1980 1980-07-31 The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) is established, calling for a congressional committee to investigate the detention program and whether a wrong had been committed. 1981 1981-01-01 The CWRIC holds hearings in ten locations around the country. The commissioners hear testimony from more than 750 witnesses. 1983 1983-02-24 The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) issues two reports: Personal Justice Denied on February 24 and Recommendations on June 16. In Recommendations, the CWRIC states that "Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity . . . causes that shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership." Recommendations also calls for a presidential apology and a $20,000 payment to each of the surviving persons incarcerated under Executive Order 9066. 1983-1988 1983-01-02 The wartime convictions of Gordon Hirabayashi, Minoru Yasui, and Fred Korematsu (the three men who protested the curfew and/or exclusion orders) are vacated, or "nullified," because of government misconduct. August 10, 1988 1988-08-10 President Ronald Reagan signs HR 442 into law. It acknowledges that the incarceration of more than 120,000 individuals of Japanese descent was unjust, and offers an apology and reparation payment of $20,000 to each person incarcerated under Executive Order 9066. October 9, 1990 1990-10-09 In a Washington, D.C. ceremony the first nine redress payments are made to the oldest surviving issei. June 21, 2000 2000-06-21 After military review, President William J. Clinton awards an additional twenty Medals of Honor, the nation's highest military award for valor, to nisei members of the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.