Timelines

Migration is a natural part of living systems, and human history is no exception. Yet it remains one of the most debated public issues of our time.

Both people and borders move. Who is allowed to move, and who is granted rights, lies at the heart of how nations define belonging. In Germany and the United States alike, these debates have been deeply intertwined with evolving ideas of race and ethnicity.

These timelines trace how citizenship and belonging have been constructed, challenged, and redefined through laws, social movements, global events, and cultural works — and how those histories continue to shape the present.

1942

1945

Japanese Americans Interned

After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, leading to the internment of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast, citing national security concerns. Nearly 120,000 individuals, the majority of whom were American citizens, were relocated to internment camps under the auspices that they posed a threat to national security. Some Japanese Americans openly resisted the order and refused to present themselves for relocation, risking arrest. Forced to sell or abandon their property, Japanese Americans collectively lost billions of dollars in assets. In 1988, the Civil Liberties Act provided reparations of $20,000 per person interned.

trumanlibrary.gov

Posters of Executive Order Issue 9066 posted on a neighborhood wall.

Nearly 120,000 individuals, the majority of whom were American citizens, were relocated to internment camps under the auspice that they posed a threat to national security.

United States

Sources

Internment History. The Children of the Camps Project. PBS, 1999. Date accessed: June 16, 2015.
Internment (Densho). Date accessed: December 2, 2014.

Additional Resources

Roger Daniels. Prisoners without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II. New York: Hill and Wang.
Valerie Matsumoto. “Japanese American women during World War II”. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. Edition 8, no. 1. Pages 6-14.

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