EXHIBITS
Convicting the Innocent: Japanese American Youth at Topaz: The Origins of Evacuation
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The Origins of Evacuation
“A Jap’s a Jap. It makes no difference whether the Jap is a citizen or not.” —John L. Dewitt, General of the Western Defense Command.[1]

USS West Virginia and USS Arizona smoking after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
(Photograph courtesy of Densho)
Anti-Asian sentiment existed in the United States long before Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor. In 1882 the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited Chinese immigration. Later in 1922, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Takao Ozawa that Japanese immigrants were ineligible for citizenship.[2] U.S. immigration laws prohibited Japanese immigration after 1924 by denying entry to all races or nationalities that were ineligible for citizenship.[3]

This is a World War II Official Navy Poster, created by Hotchkiss-USNR in 1944. The poster describes Japanese labor capabilities, and by doing so, attempts to encourage American workers to increase their own efforts on the home front.
[click the image to enlarge]
(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Broadside F0006)
