Licensing

Hood River, OR, 9:40 a.m., May 13, 1942

Some of the Japanese in the valley were at the Japanese Community Hall on Sunday, December 7, 1941, preparing for a variety show when news of the Pearl Harbor bombing came on the radio.

Japanese homes were searched. Men were taken away and their families waited weeks, months, even years before being reunited again.

Families had little notice to make preparations before being evacuated. Land holders tried their best to arrange for their farms to be cared for by neighbors and other caretakers. Possessions, employees, businesses...all had to be left behind. Families were ordered to take only what they could carry.

At 10:00 a.m., May 13, 1942, all Japanese still in Hood River left on an old train. The destination was unknown to the occupants. After a journey of two days and one night, the passengers disembarked at the Wartime Civil Control Administration's Pinedale Assembly Center, eight miles north of Fresno, California. Ten barracks blocks, each with 26 buildings, housed 4,823 detainees from Oregon, Washington and California, from May to July, 1942.

Photo by Alva L. Day. Courtesy of Hood River County Historical Museum.

Content © Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center.