THE ORANGE STORY

In the first chapter of the movie, Koji faces the reality that he will have to leave the life he has worked hard to build. What led up to this moment? Explore the climate of fear and racism through the archival images, documents, oral histories, and videos below
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“The wartime abuse of Japanese Americans . . . was merely a link in a chain of racism that stretched back to t h  e earliest contacts between Asians and whites on American soil.”

ROGER DANIELS, HISTORIAN

LINKS IN THE CHAIN

Witness how discrimination — before and after Pearl Harbor — contributed to the forced removal of Japanese Americans. (Note: Some primary sources contain offensive racial epithets, and are included here solely for historical accuracy and context.)

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Poster advertising mass meeting in San Francisco, CA, Dec. 10, 1906.
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Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1913.
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“The people of California are determined to repress a developing Japanese community within our midst.” – Governor William Stephens, California, 1921.
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“The intention was to confer the privilege of citizenship upon that class of persons whom the fathers knew as white, and to deny it to all who could not be so classified.” – Justice Sutherland, Supreme Court opinion, 1922.
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“President Signs Bill Compelling 3,500,000 Aliens to Register,” Los Angeles Times, June 30, 1940.
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“We have witnessed this morning . . . a severe bombing of Pearl Harbor by enemy planes, undoubtedly Japanese. The city of Honolulu has also been attacked and considerable damage done . . . . It is no joke. It is a real war.” - KGU radio, Honolulu, Dec. 7, 1941.
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“As soon as war was declared and all of this happened, the demonization of Japanese started . . . and this was the, the reincarnation of the yellow peril bit, ‘Japs’ kind of thing, ‘Japs.’ Every day.” - George Yoshida, 2002 interview.
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“Hostilities exist . . . . There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger . . . . I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December seventh, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.” – Pres. Roosevelt, Dec. 8, 1941.
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“The peculiar danger is in a Japanese raid accompanied by enemy action inside American territory . . . . The Pacific Coast is officially a combat zone: some part of it may at any moment be a battlefield.” – Walter Lippman, The Washington Post, Feb. 12, 1942.
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“And there was cartoons about the horn-rimmed glasses, and the buck-toothed ‘Japs’ appeared . . . . And all kinds of legends were born in terms of who we were and what we were doing.” - George Yoshida, 2002 interview.
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“By January, the newspapers became fairly vociferous in their attacks on Japanese. Claims of Japanese Americans who were engaged in espionage, and sabotage, and this sort of thing, which we were extremely upset about. Upset that the newspapers would tell such lies.” - Frank Miyamoto, 1998 interview.
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Confidential memo from James Lowe, Assistant to the Attorney General, Feb. 2, 1942.
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“I no longer felt that I'm an equal American.”

AKIKO KUROSE, A JAPANESE AMERICAN BORN IN SEATTLE

RISING TENSION

Listen to Japanese Americans explain how wartime hysteria and prejudice impacted their lives.
Or read along as Akiko Kurose, Roy Ebihara, and Shigeko Sese Uno share their memories.
View Transcript

Akiko Kurose: "Then when I went back to school that following morning, you know December 8th, one of the teachers said, ‘You people bombed Pearl Harbor.’ And I’m going, ‘My people?’ you know. All of a sudden my Japaneseness became very aware to me, you know, and then I no longer felt I’m an equal American.  And I felt kind of threatened and nervous about it."

‍Roy Ebihara: "You could feel the tension rising, um since, since Pearl Harbor, yeah. So we lived in mortal fear. . . . I just, recall just crying and crying, just um, living in fear. And we all cried and cried as kids."

‍Shigeko Sese Uno: “For days, we could hear commentators, especially from California, who began saying, ‘We're gonna put those Japs behind camp, in camp, behind barbed wires.’ And Chick and I would say, ‘Oh, that means our parents, because they're aliens.’ They couldn't become citizens. The law forbade them to become citizens. So we're just saying, ‘We'll have to go visit them,’ not realizing that, my goodness, they meant us, too."

“I am for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast . . . . Let ’em be pinched, hurt, hungry, and dead up against it . . . . Let us have no patience with anyone whose veins carry his blood . . . . Personally, I hate the Japanese and that goes for all of them.”

HENRY MCLEMORE, A HEARST SYNDICATED COLUMNIST,
JANUARY, 1942

FORCED REMOVAL

Watch the U.S. government defend Executive Order 9066, which led to the forced removal and incarceration of West Coast Japanese Americans, violating their citizenship rights.
View Transcript
Excerpt from “Japanese Relocation,” a newsreel produced by the U.S. Office of War Information and narrated by Milton S. Eisenhower, Director of the War Relocation Authority.

Akiko Kurose: "Then when I went back to school that following morning, you know December 8th, one of the teachers said, ‘You people bombed Pearl Harbor.’ And I’m going, ‘My people?’ you know. All of a sudden my Japaneseness became very aware to me, you know, and then I no longer felt I’m an equal American.  And I felt kind of threatened and nervous about it."

‍Roy Ebihara: "You could feel the tension rising, um since, since Pearl Harbor, yeah. So we lived in mortal fear. . . . I just, recall just crying and crying, just um, living in fear. And we all cried and cried as kids."

‍Shigeko Sese Uno: “For days, we could hear commentators, especially from California, who began saying, ‘We're gonna put those Japs behind camp, in camp, behind barbed wires.’ And Chick and I would say, ‘Oh, that means our parents, because they're aliens.’ They couldn't become citizens. The law forbade them to become citizens. So we're just saying, ‘We'll have to go visit them,’ not realizing that, my goodness, they meant us, too."

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