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“NOTICE TO ALIENS OF ENEMY NATIONALITIES
“The United States Government requires all aliens of German, Italian, or Japanese nationality to apply at post offices nearest to their place of residence for a Certificate of Identification.” 2/9/1942
Series: Public Relations Records, 1940 - 1954
Record Group 85: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004
Transcription:
As soon as war was declared with Japan, Germany, and Italy in December 1941, enemy aliens were picked up and sent to Ellis Island. This is a patrol wagon arriving at the Ellis Island Ferry in Manhattan. An FBI man on the left guides a prisoner, one of seven in this wagon. One was a Japanese and the rest were German and Italian. All the prisoners tried to hide their faces.
Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
In April 1942, Princeton University circulated this questionnaire for its “enemy aliens” among faculty, staff, and students. “Enemy aliens” included Germans, Italians, and Japanese people, no matter how long they had resided in the United States.
Office of the Treasurer Records (AC128), Box 10.
“Two Days for Jap On Curfew Infraction,” Vancouver Sun. April 18, 1942. Page 17. --- Kichiji Shimizu, 52, Japanese of 252 Powell Street, was sentenced to two days in jail Friday for being outside his home after sundown Thursday.
"I think if he hadn't been drunk he'd have been inside," Constable E. R. Lindy told the court. He said the man was a First Great War veteran and a naturalized Canadian.
[AL: A small sample of the conditions of registration of ‘enemy alien’ Japanese Canadians, even if a war veteran and citizen, who could be jailed for curfew ‘infractions.’ As Shimizu was over 45, he was not subject to immediate internment.]
[ID: A drawing of Charley Pollard, wearing a blue and white pinstriped shirt, and dark khaki pants, smiling as she is pulled by the hand by The Doctor, who is off screen. She is looking back over her shoulder, with musical notes over her head, to indicare that she is singing. Behind her in the distance are tiny, smiling stick figures leaning against a railing, with musical notes over their heads to indicate they are singing back. The background is blank white. End ID.]
this was the cutest thing I have ever heard.
we’re gonna pretend nothing bad happened immediately afterward to ruin the fun
Big Finish: Destiny Of The Doctor
“In 2013, to mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, Big Finish produced a special range of audiobook titles, each focusing on one of the eleven Doctors. They are collected together here in a new set, telling the complete story.” - Big Finish
Listen on Spotify courtesy of Doctor Who
(List of episodes under the cut.)
Shimae’s Story
In honor of Women’s History Month, we bring you one woman’s story of how she was personally affected by the events of World War II.
Shimae Yamamoto was born in Okayama, Japan, in 1900, married Hotori Kazahaya in 1917, and came to the United States on the SS Shunyo Maru on August 10, 1918. Mr. and Mrs. Kazahaya had two sons, Susumu and Takeshi, who were both born in Orange, California. Susumu joined the U.S. Army in July 1941, just months before the U.S entry into World War II.
Once Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Kazahaya family’s lives changed beyond imagination. Shimae was apprehended by the FBI on December 7, 1941, as were hundreds of other people of Japanese descent who lived on the West Coast. She had a “hearing” in February 1942, after which she was declared an enemy alien and was recommended to be interned, which she was, at the Convent of Good Shepherd in Los Angeles.
Nearly a year later, she had a re-hearing where evidence in her favor was presented, along with the fact that one of her sons was himself serving in the U.S. Army. At this second hearing, “she convinced the Board that she would not commit any acts detrimental to the internal security of the United States,” and the Board recommended “parole.”
Shimae wrote several letters to her family members, including her husband, son, and daughter-in-law (who was pregnant at the time), whom had been interned at the Rohwer Relocation Center in McGehee, Arkansas.
On April 24, 1943, Shimae wrote, “I pray that you are all in good health, and especially that Ayako take good care of herself. I also pray that she gives birth to her child without much trouble.” And on May 3rd she wrote, “I have been awaiting word daily as I want to return home before Ayako gives birth to her child. Please let me know whether it is a boy or a girl. … I am spending my days being very lonesome. … I am worrying about her [Ayako] every day, and praying that she delivers her child safely.”
Shortly thereafter, a message was sent to the authorities stating that Shimae was “now suffering from melancholic condition,” and that the convent recommended for her to be transferred to Rohwer War Relocation Center to join her husband and daughter.
She must have been thrilled to receive the following letter: May 12, 1943 “Mrs. Shimae Kazahaya Convent of Good Shepherd 1500 South Arlington Los Angeles, California The Attorney General has ordered your parole. Permission has been granted for your transfer to Rohwer War Relocation Project in order that you may join your husband.”
On May 14, 1943, Shimae arrived at the Rohwer Relocation Center in McGehee, Arkansas.
She returned to her home in Los Angeles on June 13, 1945, but remained on “parole” until November 15, 1945, when “enemy alien proceedings [were] terminated” per the U.S. Department of Justice. Despite all the hardships and the harsh treatment she received, Mrs. Kazahaya still desired to become a U.S. citizen, which she accomplished in 1955. She died at the age of 93.
We are sharing with you today several of Shimae’s letters and her petition for naturalization.
For an overview of the World War II Enemy Alien Control Program, please visit this website and you can also learn more about Women’s History Month.
Series: Enemy Alien Case Files, 1941 – 1948. Record Group 85: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004. (National Archives Identifier: 6217699).
Series: Petitions for Naturalization, 1887 – 1991. Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685 - 2009. (National Archives Identifier: 594890).
Propaganda film made at Crystal City Internment Camp by the Immigration and Naturalization Services, c. 1945.
Crystal City Internment Camp
Suspicion and Removal When World War II broke out, all people of German, Italian, and especially Japanese ancestry living in the US became suspect. Executive Order 9066 allowed for the creation of "Military Zones" and the removal of suspect people to military controlled concentration camps. The government also needed a place to hold prisoners of war and enemy aliens deported from Latin American countries in the name of “hemispheric safety.” At first, the people interned were mostly adult men, but many of their wives and children asked to go with them. The families were often left without a bread winner and wanted to be reunited with their husbands and fathers, who, in the case of those coming from Latin America, had been removed to an entirely different country. Looking around for a place far from anything important to the war effort, the government hit on Crystal City, Texas. The government already owned land in the area that had been used for housing migrant farm workers during the Great Depression, and it was connected to the local electrical grid and water systems.
Aerial view of Crystal City Internment Camp. Texas Historical Commission [source].
First Arrivals In December of 1942, the first internee families arrived at Crystal City Internment Camp. Although the camp was meant primarily for people of Japanese ancestry, who would eventually make up about two-thirds of the internees, this first group was made of Germans. In early 1943, another group, this time of Latin American Germans, arrived at the camp, followed shortly after by the first Japanese Americans. The government originally wanted to transfer all of the Germans out of the camp, but they asked to stay, since Crystal City was much nicer than any camp they’d stayed in previously, and the camp was instead segregated. There were tensions between the Japanese and German internees, but the Japanese were the much larger group and were often more organized, giving them a larger voice in the camp.
View of Victory Huts, looking south, courtesy UTSA's Institute of Texan Cultures, [source]
Building a Life From 1942 until 1948 when the camp closed, over 4,500 people were interned at Crystal City, including German, Japanese, and a small number of Italian Americans, as well as Germans and Japanese from Latin America, particularly Peru. At its height, Crystal City housed 3,374 people. The first groups helped to construct the family living quarters and additional buildings in the camp. There were three schools, the Federal (American), Japanese, and German; a swimming pool; a post office; newspapers; and cultural spaces, such as a Sumo wrestling ring and a Biergarten. The internees quickly out grew the available housing and "Victory Huts" were built to help house the excess. The internees were offered a small wage for work around the camp and often needed to make goods and grow crops to help make up for war-time shortages.
Women doing needlework, c. 1943, Crystal City internment camp, Texas. Courtesy of the UT Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio, Betty Fly, No. 098-0982, Densho ID: ddr-densho-115-3 [source]
Leaving the Camp As the war wound down, American internees were released to return to their lives. However, non-US citizens and those deported from Latin America remained in the camp. Many of the internees were exchanged to Germany or Japan in 1944, including American citizens who had never lived in these countries. Some were returned to the countries in Latin America, but Peru refused to allow the Japanese they had deported to return. Several hundred Japanese Peruvians remained in the camp while a lawsuit wound its way through the courts to determine their status. In 1948, they were finally "paroled" to work in a truck plant farm, but would remain undocumented immigrants until immigration law changed in 1952.
