Gathering Storm 1924 - 1941

President Franklin D. Roosevelt freezes Japanese assets, and follows with an oil embargo on Japan in August 1941.

298th & 299th Infantry Regiments of the Hawaii Territorial Guard are federalized. Over the coming year, their ranks swell with 3,000 Hawaii draftees, half of them Nisei.

Honolulu Police Department forms Espionage Bureau headed by Police Captain John A. Burns. This unit has connections in all the Japanese American community groups on Oahu, and it will work closely with the FBI unit in Hawaii.

On Sep 1, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders mobilization of National Guard nationwide.

Hawaii Council for Interracial Unity established to prepare Japanese American community for impending war. Hung Wai Ching, Director of the YMCA in Honolulu, plays a major role in organizing this foundational interracial effort in Hawaii.

Tripartite Pact between Japan, Germany, Italy pledges mutual support if attacked by a nation not already at war; this is intended to keep US neutral.

US establishes peacetime draft in September 1940, but there are no significant inductions until January 1941.

US proclaims neutrality, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares “state of national emergency” on September 8, 1939.