Japanese-American Reintegrating into American society after the Wartime Internment, 1945

On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air force attacked Pearl Harbor. The attack led to the United States’ formal entry into World War II the next day. On February 19, 1942, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, questioning Japanese-American loyalty. This order stated that all Japanese ancestry people residing in the United States would be forced to relocate and incarcerated in concentration camps.

The U.S. Supreme Court eventually gave the verdict against the War Relocation Authority that it has no authority to subject citizens based on race. The internment camps across the country officially closed in March 1946.

American Photographer Charles Mace captured these fantastic photographs that depict the Japanese-American reintegrating into American society after the wartime internment.

#1 Children have their own standards in their selection of friends and playmates, Libertyville, Illinois, 1943.

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#2 A committee on housing is shown in session in Indianapolis.

Mrs. Royal McLain (left) is seen discussing ways and means of finding suitable quarters for the many relocatees who are finding employment in Indianapolis, 1943.

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#3 Miss Susie Yuasa, 18, a former evacuee from the Jerome Relocation Center.

She is employed in a Chicago candy factory, turns from her task momentarily to display the familiar symbol of victory, 1943.

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#4 Miss Irene Eiko Yonemura works in the Peoria, Illinois, public library, where she has found work much to her liking and her training.

Miss Yonemura is from the Poston center and came to Peoria in the summer of 1943, 1944.

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#5 Another freedom of considerable importance to the young feminine mind in America is the freedom to shop for and wear pretty clothes.

These two Nisei girls are again enjoying that privilege, Chicago, Illinois, 1943.

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#6 Eugene Kodani, from the Poston Relocation Center, now employed at the Greening Nursery Company, Monroe, Michigan, where he is engaged in budding peach trees, 1943.

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#7 Mei Yamasaki, relocated in Indianapolis from the Tule Lake Center, is now employed as secretary and office manager of The Union, an Indiana labor paper, 1944.

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#8 The Oda sisters like to entertain their friends in their apartment in Rockford, Illinois, 1944.

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#9 Happy Nisei and Caucasian couples throng the dance floor of the YMCA at the All-American Fun Night program in Chicago this winter, 1944.

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#10 At St. Anthony’s Hospital, Rockford, Illinois, the Nisei and Caucasians work together, 1944.

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#11 In the kindergarten of the McHenry, Illinois, grade school, the 6-year-old Okazaki twins, Sazami (left) and Toshiko (right), 1944.

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#12 Miss Julie Sugimoto (l) and her sister June (r), work in the home of the Burchette family in Peoria, Illinois.

June, plus her work at the home, is learning to be a photo retoucher, 1944.

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#13 When the Nisei get together for social entertainment in Chicago, their Caucasian friends also participate in the general fun.

At the mike is a popular Chicago night club singer who has just presented one of her specialties, 1944.

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#14 Mary Nakamura is a sophomore at East High School, Rockford, Illinois.

Biology is one of her favorite subjects, and in this picture she is shown receiving instructions from her teacher, 1944.

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