WW II
On Feb. 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 9066, authorizing the army to evacuate anyone it deemed necessary from any area of the courtry considered important for national defense. At first the Japanese were given a chance to leave the west coast voluntarily, so quitting her nursing job, Sue Kosaka left L.A. and went to San Antonio where her older sister, Teri Matsuoka lived. Their parents, the Otsukis, had moved to the Kishi colony from California in 1921, as had the Tanamachis. Sue's husband Roy, with his sister and mother joined Sue in Texas.
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Many Japanese suffered discrimination in Texas from the locals, but at the forefront of this anti-Japanese sentiment stood the federal government. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor public assemblies of more than a few Japanese were strickly forbidden without special permission, and government agents continued their surveillance of all Japanese in Texas.
With the U.S. declaration of war, the federal government also restricted the free travel of Japanese beyond a several-mile radius of their homes. In order to travel outside this area, Japanese Americans had to fill out forms and obtain official permission. Another hardship imposed on the Japanese and on all enemy aliens was the freezing of their bank accounts, thus prohibiting withdrawal of their money.
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But the greatest intrusion into the lives of the Japanese in Texas came in the months following Pearl Harbor when, with the blessing of the president of the United States and the support of state and local authorities, FBI agents searched the home and interrogated the members of every Japanese family living in Texas.
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During the raids on the homes of these people, federal agents confiscated all items they thought might be subversive, but few agents could read Japanese, so almost anything written in the language was suspect. As word of the raids spread through the Japanese-Texan community, so did the fear of possessing "suspicious" items. Consequently many individuals destroyed books, magazines, newspapers, documents, diaries and old letters, anything written in Japanese. Such destruction meant that valuable information about the pre-war lives of the Japanese in Texas was lost to historians forever.
Also lost was a photographic record of Japanese-Texan life during the war. Because everyone of Japanese ancestry was viewed as a "potential" spy, Japanese were not allowed to possess any type of photographic device. They were likewise forbidden to own binoculars, guns, rifles and shortwave radios. All such items had to be turned in to the proper authorities. Still these restrictions were minor in light of what else was happening to the Japanese in Texas. For some the ultimate terror came when they were whisked away, questioned and detained indefinitely by federal agents.
Life for Japanese Texans during World War II was certainly restrictive, but a few Japanese, especially the young, were determined to lead their lives as normally as possible.