Licensing

Executive/Exclusion/Evacuation Orders

February 19th 1942- Presidential Executive Order 9066 was issued by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to send all Japanese and Japanese Americans to internment (concentration) camps. This order authorized the Secretary of War and U.S. armed forces commanders to declare areas of the United States as military areas "from which any or all persons may be excluded," although it did not name any nationality or ethnic group. It was eventually applied to most of the west coast states and was used against those with "Foreign Enemy Ancestry" — Japanese, Italians, and Germans. The order led to the incarceration of some 120,000 ethnic Japanese people were held in camps for the duration of the war.

February 25th 1942- The Navy informs Japanese American residents of Terminal Island near Los Angeles Harbor that they must leave in 48 hours. They were the first group to be removed in mass and suffered especially heavy losses as a result.

March 18th - 1942 The War Relocation Authority is created by order of Executive Order 9102. Milton S. Eisenhower is elected as the director or the WRA.

March 24th 1942- The first of 108 "Civilian Exclusion Orders" was issued, informing Japanese Americans of Bainbridge Island, Washington that they had to leave. For the rest of the spring and through the summer, Japanese Americans up and down the West Coast were removed neighborhood by neighborhood through these "exclusion orders." Most Japanese Americans were taken to a local "assembly center," or temporary detention camp, upon arrival.

March-May 1942- General DeWitt, Head of the Western Defense Command, issued Civilian Exclusion Order No. 34, ordering all people of Japanese ancestry, whether citizens or non-citizens, who were still living in "Military Area No. 1" to report to assembly centers where they would live until being moved to permanent "Relocation Centers." The exclusion order poster was put up around the community and gave instruction for “relocation” for those people of Japanese descent such as how many suitcases they were allowed, allowable items to take with them, and date of evactuation.