Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive

On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The next day, the United States and Britain declared war on Japan. Two months later, on February 19, 1942, the lives of thousands of Japanese Americans were dramatically changed when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This order led to the assembly and evacuation and relocation of nearly 122,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry on the west coast of the United States.  This site contains personal and official photographs, letters and diaries, transcribed oral histories, art, and more show the faces of the men, women, and children who were incarcerated;  the prewar neighborhoods and wartime camps; and daily life there.