Reckoning Our Past, Engaging the Present, Facing Our Future: Recognizing San Jose State's Role in Anti-Asian Racism and the Internment of Japanese Americans

Reflecting on our past

World War II & Racism in San Jose

SJSU Japanese American Internment Research Collection (Box 1, Folder 2) - Government Reports

Executive Order 9066

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States entered into World War II. With such war efforts again the Axis Powers, especially Japan, xenophobia and racism (de facto and de jure) spread throughout the country, but especially in the West Coast.

On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 providing broad powers for the War Department to create exclusion zones and to initiate an evacuation program for the Western Defense Command (WDC). Under the leadership of General John Dewitt of the WDC, the Civil Affairs Division (CAD) and the Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) were created in order to provide for the transition of voluntary evacuees, enemy aliens and United States citizens alike, from exclusion areas to other parts of the country. The failure of the voluntary evacuation plan led President Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 9102, which established the civilian run War Relocation Authority (WRA). The WRA was mandated to institute enforced evacuations for approximately 120,000 Japanese American civilians. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt4c6037c3/

On the left, you will see that no people of Japanese descent would be permitted to move into or out of the San Jose by May 30, 1942. The San Jose State Men's Gymnasium would be used as an Assembly Center.

Special SJSU Digital Collection

This exhibit explores the distant and more recent history of San José State in the moments when it has been a highly localized community responding to crises with worldwide impact.

Survival Mode: SJSU Responds to Historic Crises

The Complicity of San Jose State

SJSU Japanese American Internment Research Collection (Box 1, Folder 4) - Newspapers and Publications

Japanese american students

San Jose State Japanese Club

SJSU Japanese American Internment Research Collection (Box 1, Folder 1) - San Jose State College 1935-1994

In 1942, when Executive Order 9066 was passed, the Japanese Club was the only ethnicity-based student club recognized in the yearbook and may have been the only such club on campus. One student pictured here, Ellen Okagaki, is mentioned in a Spartan Daily article about students who will be incarcerated in prison camps. Because of widespread xenophobia, incarceration impacted all of the students in this photograph in some way. Another Spartan Daily article states that San Jose State College had 115 Japanese American students enrolled during the 1941-42 school year. https://digitalcollections.sjsu.edu/islandora/object/islandora%3A3781

Japanese Club Leadership and Members

INCARCERATION'S EFFECTS On SAN JOSE STATE's JAPANESE AMERICAN STUDENTS

SJSU Japanese American Internment Research Collection (Box 1, Folder 4) - Newspapers and Publications

San Jose State were adamant in expressing their favor of the democratic process even in light of the racism and discrimination they experienced in the local community and on campus. - SJSU Japanese American Internment Research Collection (Box 1, Folder 4) - Newspapers and Publications

Support and protest

Social Science Professors Support and Speak Out Against Japanese Internment

Left: Clara Hinze (Social Science), Japanese Club Advisor; Right: Claude Settles (Social Science), "spoke out against internment"

SJSU Japanese American Internment Research Collection (Box 1, Folder 1) - San Jose State College 1935-1994

RECKONING WITH OUR PAST

Educators and Activists

Helen Mineta, formerly a student of San Jose State College, wanted to be a teacher but was counseled that her Japanese ancestry would prevent her from being hired. Instead, she worked as a secretary in the Speech Department. In 1942, she was assigned to assist at the Men's Gym, later renamed Uchida Hall, processing Japanese American citizens for incarceration. The Mineta family, including Helen's brother Norman, were soon after incarcerated in Wyoming, however, according to her obituary, Helen spent this time working as a secretary for a chemical company in Chicago. She ultimately did become a teacher in San José, and a speaker on Japanese American Incarceration. (https://digitalcollections.sjsu.edu/exhibit_timeline/islandora:3760) SJSU Japanese American Internment Research Collection (Box 1, Folder 4) - Newspapers and Publications

Reflecting on the Past

The CSU Nisei Diploma Project

In September 2009, the CSU Board of Trustees unanimously voted to honor the academic intentions of the estimated 250 Japanese American students who were forced to leave their CSU campus and relocated to internment camps in 1942. The Nisei Diploma Project was completed in 2010. The images below are from

SJSU Japanese American Internment Research Collection (Box 1, Folder 5) - Nisei Diploma Project

Engaging the Present and Facing Our Future

Questions? Please contact Nina Chuang (nina.chuang@sjsu.edu) or Yvonne Y. Kwan (yvonne.y.kwan@sjsu.edu)

Appreciate