Japanese Internment - Audio Program

The evacuation of the Japanese-Americans from West Coast areas.

Library of Congress: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, photographer

Quick Facts

Location:

Richmond, California

Significance:

National Historical Park

Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park 
Audio Program Intro - 7 of 8

Welcome to the audio program for "Japanese Internment". This program is designed to provide an overview of WWII history and the Richmond, California Home Front. 

Where and When to Listen?

Available On: Park Website (player or download), NPS App Driving Tour and this "Place" page (web browser only) 

This program is part of an introduction to the history of the park and the WWII Home Front. You can listen to it at home, while driving, before your visit to the park visitor center or as part of the official NPS App driving tour. These files are also available as a free download on our website and can be a great educational tool for your classroom.

• Incarceration of Japanese Americans and "Enemy Aliens".

  
  

  This program is part of an introduction to the history of the park and the WWII Home Front. You can listen to it at home, while driving, before your visit to the park visitor center or as part of the official NPS App driving tour. These files are also available as a free download on our website and can be a great educational tool for your classroom.

  Credit / Author:

  NPS/Luther Bailey/Christine Cholloway

  Date created:

  07/20/2023

  Audio Transcript

  War kindled fear and long-held prejudices, and America's own citizens became suspect. In 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 and transferred 120,000 people of Japanese descent to internment camps. Around 70,000 were U.S. citizens.

  Immigrants from Japan and Italy who had lived in Richmond for decades were labeled "enemy aliens." Italian American families were split in two: non-citizens were forced away from the Richmond waterfront, while others could stay.

  Japanese Americans in Richmond faced much harsher treatment. They were forced to leave behind their homes and businesses and taken to prison camps, where they were imprisoned behind barbed wire until 1945.

  After compulsory registration in April of 1942, Richmond’s Japanese American families were forced to move to Tanforan Assembly Center, south of San Francisco, a hastily converted horse racetrack. Most were then sent on to Topaz Relocation Center in a desolate area of the Utah desert. All faced the extreme hardship of being uprooted, and of quickly finding strategies for maintaining, or disposing of, their homes, property, and businesses.