Detention

First family groups leave Hawaii to join fathers/husbands in Mainland internment camps; more follow in 1943 (about 900 total).

Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizing forced removal of AJAs from the West Coast; 110,000 mostly US-born are sent to internment camps, where they are imprisoned for most of the war period.

Secretary of Navy Franklin Knox visits Hawaii December 11 & 12 to assess the situation. In December 14 report, he calls for mass incarceration or removal of Japanese Americans in Hawaii.

First Hawaii AJAs are sent from the Sand Island detention camp on Oahu to Mainland prison facilities in the continental US; more follow in 1942 and 1943. Over 600 are sent from Hawaii to Mainland imprisonment. Eventually, many of their families are allowed to join them.

Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons, Hawaii’s military governor, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and prominent local leaders argue successfully against mass forced interment of Hawaii Japanese. This is foreshadowed by General Emmons’ immediate creation of the Morale Section and subsequent deflection of direction from the War Department in Washington DC to begin mass internment.

Sand Island Camp opened in Honolulu for about 300 arrested Issei & Nisei, followed days later by camps on Hawaii island, Maui, Kauai & more arrests.