Unwelcome: Japanese Family Arrives At Their Home In Seattle, 1945

Via: theatlantic

May 10, 1945

After being released from a relocation camp in Hunt, Idaho, a Japanese family arrives at their home in Seattle, Washington, the father smiling in spite of the broken windows and graffiti that greet them.

Executive Order 9066 was issued in 1942, driven by anti-Japanese sentiment shortly after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. The decree allowed for the exclusion of "any or all persons" from militarily-designated zones, resulting in the confinement of Japanese Americans in "War Relocation Camps."

Among the zones that were designated? The entire West coast.

In total, over 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were ordered to relocate, many forced to sell homes and assets before moving to remote camps or other parts of the United States. The last camp was closed in 1946, but the controversy of the unprecedented act remained strong. By 1999, the U.S. government had paid $1.6 billion in reparations to the detainees and their descendants.