The Smith Act paved the road to internment | A Glance at the Past | November

By HARRIET MUHRLEIN

The Smith Act; Executive Order No. 9066; Order 68. These three acts greatly affected the eight Japanese families living in Kingston in 1942.

The Smith Act (or Alien Registration Act) was passed by Congress and signed into law in June 1940 very shortly after Mussolini declared war on France. It updated laws on the books, some dating back over 100 years, and required all aliens living in the United States to register with the government through their local Postmaster. Well more than 4.5 million non-citizen adults registered in the three months after the bill was enacted.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, alien adults of countries that were at war with the U. S. were again required to register. They were photographed and fingerprinted. They were required to carry documents with them when traveling. Some Germans and Italians, considered security risks, were interred. The document in the photo (right) is the front page of my grandmother Lehman’s document.

Executive Order No. 9066, signed by President Delano Roosevelt February 19, 1942, required the relocation of all Japanese immigrant residents and their U.S. citizen descendants to be removed from the coastal regions of Washington, Oregon and California, and part of southern Arizona to secure inland internment camps.

Other restrictions were enforced until the relocations were completed. All radios, cameras, weapons were confiscated. Curfews were in force from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m. and family members were not allowed to travel farther than five miles from home.

Order 68 issued by Lt. Gen. John L. Dewitt, commanding the western defense command and the 4th Army, was posted everywhere in the area. It required the 200 Japanese living in Kitsap County (excluding those on Bainbridge Island, who were already gone), Vashon Island, and Pierce County west of the Tacoma Narrows to leave the area on Saturday May 16, 1942, before noon.

Yukie Fukuzawa Yumibe remembers the family having only six days to be completely ready with their one suitcase per member. The family was picked up with an Army transport truck enclosed with canvas. They were taken to the train in Seattle and left that evening for Pinedale, Calif., and their new home until the end of the war.