NOTICE TO PERSONS OF JAPANESE DESCENT TO VACATE SAN FRANCISCO’S MILITARY ZONE

(WORLD WAR II) U.S. ARMY. Civilian Exclusion Order No. 41. San Francisco: Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, May 5, 1942. Large original broadside (14 by 22 inches). Housed in a custom chemise.

Original military public notice, ordering that “all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien, be excluded from the Military Area” in San Francisco, or “be liable to criminal penalties… and subject to immediate apprehension and internment.”

During World War II, over 110,000 ethnic Japanese residing in the Americas were removed to internment camps run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, part of the Department of Justice. In the wake of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt had issued Executive Order 9066, which allowed local military commanders to designate “military areas” as “exclusion zones,” from which “any or all persons may be excluded.” This power eventually resulted in the removal of all people of Japanese ancestry from the entire Pacific coast, including all of California and most of Oregon and Washington. They were interned in compounds called “War Relocation Camps” located in seven western states. Of those held, 62 percent were American citizens. Questions about the loyalty of ethnic Japanese seemed to stem more from racial bias than from fear of malfeasance. Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt (over whose name this Notice is written) was among the most concerned over Japanese-American loyalty. He testified to Congress that “I don’t want any of them here… There is no way to determine their loyalty… It makes no difference whether they are American citizens, they are still Japanese. American citizenship does not necessarily determine loyalty… But we must worry about the Japanese all the time until they are wiped off the map.” DeWitt also sought Justice Department approval to conduct search and seizure operations aimed at thwarting possible communications to the Japanese military— a request that was denied on grounds that the FBI had determined no security risk, therefore affording no probable cause.

Fine condition, with only four small corner holes where the notice was affixed.