Snow Falling on Cedars

Content Warning: This guide references violence, combat, and Anti-Japanese racial prejudices.

The December 7, 1941, Japanese Pearl Harbor attack launched the United States into active combat on the side of the Allied forces in World War II. The Pearl Harbor attack also led the US government to question the allegiance of Japanese immigrants living in the United States and Japanese Americans. Indeed, prior to the outbreak of war, the FBI had kept close watch on some US residents whom it believed to harbor German or Japanese sympathies.

In February 1942, President Roosevelt, citing national-security concerns, issued an executive order asserting that all people of Japanese descent along the west coast of the nation be relocated to concentration camps. The government termed these camps “relocation centers,” and they were situated inland, in remote or desolate areas. People of Japanese descent were ordered to prepare for relocation, rushing to pack what personal items they could carry and, when possible, making arrangements for their homes, land, or other property. In many cases, however, this was not possible, and many Japanese and Japanese Americans lost everything due to their forced incarceration. An estimated 112,000 people were relocated by August 1942. Seventy-thousand were American citizens.