Chapter One: The first episode introduces audiences to the atmosphere on the West Coast leading up to Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and its impact on Japanese Americans. It describes FBI roundups of Japanese American community leaders and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's issuing of Order 9066, which led to the incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry – most of them US citizens. Listeners will hear about the process of leaving home for prison camp, and the arrival at makeshift assembly centers—many of them former race tracks and fairgrounds, with many people forced to live in converted livestock barns. Japanese Americans were then sent to prison camps in remote parts of Arkansas and western states. Listeners will hear how incarcerated people adapted to the harsh conditions and made the best of their situation by organizing schools, sports teams, art groups and newspapers.
APM Reports Order 9066 Chapter 1
