Civilian Exclusion Orders (108 total) effectively forced any person with 1/16th or more Japanese blood to evacuate, including adopted children with Caucasian parents, elderly, sick, orphans, and newborn babies. (4) Exclusion Order No.1 appeared on March 24, 1942 in Bainbridge Island, WA. The last, Exclusion Order No. 108, posted August 11, 1942 in Tulare County, CA. (5) For the 150,000 Issei and Nisei living in Hawai’i, however, removal or incarceration never happened. General Delos Emmons, the commanding general in Hawai’i, viewed people of Japanese descent as loyal U.S. citizens. (6)
Multnomah County, OR Exclusion Order No. 25
Photo: National Archives
Within days of an Exclusion Order given in a region, families of Japanese descent were forced to put all of their personal and business affairs into order. Each head of household was interviewed by a Wartime Civil Control Administration representative at a Civil Control Station. Information about the family’s business and personal affairs was recorded, including whether or not storage for their personal items was necessary. From the Multnomah County, OR Civil Control Station report (dated May 5, 1942), twenty-nine family automobiles and ninety-eight businesses were sold as a result of Exclusion Order No. 25. Between March and August 1942, one hundred and eight reports like this were given. Document Credit
“Closed for Good” 
Japanese Restaurant, San Francisco, CA
Vacated Prior to Evacuation (1942)
Dry Goods Store Closing,
San Francisco, CA (April 1942)
“Leaving the Neighborhood and Home” (May 10, 1942)
Illustration: University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Estelle Ishigo Photographs, Accession Number 10368, Box 1, Folder 1.
These Civilian Exclusion Orders gave specific instructions about what personal property evacuees could take to Assembly Centers, often referred to as “only what we could carry.” These temporary holding areas were located primarily in California, in places like the Santa Anita Racetrack or the Pomona County Fairgrounds. Although designed to accommodate large groups of people, most Assembly Centers were ill-equipped to house the incarcerated Japanese Americans. Evacuees slept in the stables at the Santa Anita Racetrack. Centers were also located in remote locations in Arizona, Oregon, and Washington. All told, about 112,000 people waited in fifteen to seventeen of these sites. Approximately 70,000 of them were Nisei. Natural-born American citizens. (7)
“Relocation-Pomona Fair Grounds, CA” (1942) 
“…part of the first group of 664 to be evacuated from San Francisco on April 6, 1942.” San Francisco, CA 
“Evacuees of Japanese ancestry waiting for the train…assembly center…”
San Pedro, CA (April 5, 1942)
Illustration: University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Estelle Ishigo Photographs, Accession Number 10368, Box 1, Folder 1.
IMNPB
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