Taken: FBI
December 8, 2010 - May 29, 2011

This exhibit brings to light the experiences of the families of 118 individuals in the Portland area and 17,477 in the western states taken into custody by the local authorities, then imprisoned by the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice directly following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

A little known prelude to the internment, prominent members of the Japanese American community—mostly men—were rounded up by FBI agents just hours after the bombing. Shackled and whisked away, often after dark with no explanations given to them or to their bewildered and stunned families, they were then sent to "special" camps in remote, secret sites across the United States, different from the ones their families would begin to occupy from the summer of 1942. Who were these individuals? How was the FBI able to target them so soon after the surprise attack? How was this possible in a nation founded by and built on the toil and personal sacrifices of immigrants?

Sponsored in part by Oregon Humanities, Oregon Heritage Commission, Portland State University, Spirit Mountain Community Fund, and Target.