Prejudice, wartime hysteria, and politics all contributed to this decision. To understand why the United States government decided to remove Japanese Americans from the West Coast in the largest single forced relocation in U.S.

In contrast, between 19, 18 Caucasians were tried for spying for Japan at least ten were convicted in court. Yet these innocent people were removed from their homes and placed in relocation centers, many for the duration of the war. Army to designate areas from which 'any or all persons may be excluded.' No person of Japanese ancestry living in the United States was ever convicted of any serious act of espionage or sabotage during the war. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D.

At that time, nearly 113,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them American citizens, were living in California, Washington, and Oregon.

On December 7, 1941, the United States entered World War II when Japan attacked the U.S. Excerpts from Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites by J.

Instal the new Warfare Area 2