THE ORANGE STORY

In the final chapter of the movie, Koji says goodbye to his old life, and in the process, challenges the racism that has influenced even his young friend Judith. Although there was no evidence of collusion with the enemy, racism and wartime hysteria ultimately led to the incarceration of more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry. Explore the legacy of the incarceration through the images, videos, and documents below.
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“The Japanese Americans incarcerated in 1942 were  held guilty until proven innocent , and the hard-won success of the older generation was smashed to bits by years behind barbed wire.”

ERICA HARTH, SCHOLAR

GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT

Listen to Japanese Americans reflect on how their civil liberties were violated during World War II.
Or read along as Peggie Nishimura Bain, Mits Koshiyama, and Fred Hirasuna share their thoughts.
View Transcript

Peggie Nishimura Bain: “The Isseis would say, ‘Well, now look. What good is your citizenship? You kept saying you're American, and you have all the rights and you're so proud you're American, but now you're just as Japanese as the rest of us.’ And that was one thing the Isseis kept telling us, you know, that our citizenship meant nothing then, even if you had very little Japanese blood, you still had to go to camp.”

‍Mits Koshiyama: “Why were we there? We didn't do anything wrong. We were denied due process of the law, which is supposed to be a God-given right to all Americans.”

‍Fred Hirasuna: “In time of war there's lots of things that are not subject to civil rights. The civil rights of many, many groups of people are absolutely ignored during wartime. . . . Most of the so-called friends, they just turned their faces, they didn't know us. That's what war brings.”

“A military order, however unconstitutional, is not apt to last longer than the military emergency. . . . But once a judicial opinion rationalizes such an order . . . the Court for all time has validated the principle of racial discrimination in criminal procedure and of transplanting American citizens. The principle then lies about like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need.”

DISSENTING OPINION OF JUSTICE JACKSON, KOREMATSU V. UNITED STATES, 1944

PROTEST AND PRECEDENT

Witness post-WWII instances when politicians, journalists, and activists have invoked Japanese American incarceration as a point of protest or, at times, as a precedent for restrictions on rights.

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1955: “Six camps could be made ready almost immediately to hold 5,000 spies, saboteurs or other persons considered dangerous in case of a national emergency. . . . These camps were established under a national policy fixed by Congress when it passed the Internal Security Act of 1950. . . . After Pearl Harbor, for instance, a great many Japanese were rounded up and interned, some in one of the camps still maintained.” - New York Times
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1969: “The Japanese American Citizens League is spearheading a campaign to repeal Title II of the Internal Security Act of 1950. The Controversial law provides for detention of persons when there are ‘reasonable grounds to believe that such persons will engage in, or probably conspire with others to engage in, acts of espionage or of sabotage . . .’” - Gidra: The Monthly of the Asian American Experience
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1970: “The most vocal opposition . . . came from Representative Shirley Chisholm. . . . During World War II, ‘it was not the Italians and Germans who were rounded up, but the Japanese-Americans who were easily identifiable because of their skin. . . . Today it is not the Ku Klux Klan or the syndicate whose doors are being kicked in, it is the Black Panthers. . . . Skin, skin, skin color, gentlemen, that is the criteria.’” - New York Times
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1971: “Judiciary subcommittee voted to repeal the Emergency Detention Act which minority groups claim could be used by the government to throw them into detention camps. . . . Testimony in hearings last year cited detention of an estimated 112,000 Japanese-Americans in camps at the start of World War II.” - Chicago Defender
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1981: “We seek compensation for injuries and damages suffered by the evacuees, the detainees, and the internees, or their heirs. We want reparations for the deprivation of our civil and constitutional rights; for wrongful evacuation, detention, and imprisonment and the suspension of due process; for our loss of income, property, and education; for the degradation of internment and evacuation and for the psychological, social, and cultural damage inflicted by our government.” - Testimony of William Hohri
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1981: The U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, established by Congress, held hearings to evaluate the impact of Executive Order 9066 on American citizens and residents.
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1982: In its report, Personal Justice Denied, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians determined that the incarceration was "not justified by military necessity, and the decisions which followed from it . . . were not founded upon military conditions." Instead, the causes were "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership."
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1988: “Acting to redress what many Americans now regard as a historic injustice, the Senate today voted overwhelmingly to give $20,000 and an apology to each of the Japanese-Americans who were driven from their homes and sent to internment camps in World War II.” - New York Times
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1990: Signed presidential apology, which accompanied reparations checks.
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Sept. 24, 2001: “The Bush administration’s proposal for increased law enforcement powers to fight terrorism are provoking a debate about whether American courts would repeat the kinds of rulings that restricted civil rights of Japanese-Americans during World War II.” - New York Times
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2002: “The efforts to single out foreigners is reminiscent of the way the government treated Japanese-Americans during World War II. . . . Laura Jaghlit, an English teacher whose husband works at an Islamic study center that was a target of the investigation, said she returned to her home . . . to find agents interrogating her husband and parts of her house ‘in complete disarray.’” - New York Times
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2015: “I’m requesting that all Roanoke Valley governments and non-governmental agencies suspend and delay any further Syrian refugee assistance. . . . I’m reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from Isis now is just as real and serious and that from our enemies then.” - Mayor Bowers
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Nov. 18, 2016: Los Angeles Times.
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2017: Women’s March, Los Angeles.
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“We are determined . . . that no other Americans will ever again have to undergo this tragic personal experience.”

ROBERT MORIGUCHI, JAPANESE AMERICAN CITIZENS LEAGUE, 1970

NEVER AGAIN

Watch Japanese Americans reflect on the legacy of their incarceration, the need to be vigilant, and the importance of speaking out against injustices.
View Transcript
Or read along as Joe Takehara, Chizuko Norton, Toru Saito, Betty Morita Shibayama, and Mary Hirata share their thoughts.

Joe Takehara: “Still today, I don’t think everyone knows the impact of it or what really happened because even today, when I meet people, there's a lot that still don’t really know what really happened or what we went through. They’re shocked.”

‍Chizuko Norton: “It's been an interesting and sometimes not-so-good experience that we have had, but it does need to be told. . . . We have to be careful, don't we, and be on guard all the time that this kind of thing won't happen again.”Toru Saito: “We're all people and we all deserve the good things, you know, so if you're gonna be one of those who are gonna persecute people because they don't have money or you don't like their religion or the color, I said, you're just like the people who put us in the camp.”

‍Betty Morita Shibayama: “Having experienced this, gone through that, we needed someone to speak out for us and encourage us. . . . Don't be the 'quiet American.' . . . Speak out and be supportive of groups that, whose civil rights are being violated.”

‍Mary Hirata: “It’s a terrible thing to happen. Of course, I don't think they'll ever do it again, they couldn't. I think. But that's what we thought, too.”

LEARN MORE

Delve more deeply into the history of Japanese American incarceration through these additional resources.

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