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Palo Alto's Japanese American community was never large. On the eve of World War II it numbered about 200 people, a few dozen families plus students and workers. But what happened to them in 1942 is one of the most important chapters in the city's history and one of the least known. Within six months of Pearl Harbor every one of them had been ordered out of town by the federal government.
This page draws on local histories, Stanford's archives and Densho, the leading online archive of the incarceration. It covers the community before the war, the removal, the camps, the return and the places where this history is remembered. For the city's broader story, see our history of Palo Alto.
Before the war
Japanese immigrants began arriving in California in large numbers in the 1890s. Many found work on farms, in orchards and in household service. Others came to study. Stanford, which opened in 1891, drew Japanese students early in its history.
The best-known of them was Yamato Ichihashi. Born in Nagoya in 1878, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in economics at Stanford. In 1912 the university appointed him an instructor in Japanese history, in a position endowed by the Japanese government. His 1932 book Japanese in the United States was a major study of the immigrant community and he often defended Japanese immigrants in public debate.
In town, families such as the Okados put down roots. Arthur Okado's family had been in America since 1909. By the late 1930s the community supported a Palo Alto Japanese American Association. Its young people went to Palo Alto High School and some joined the Army before the war began.
A hostile climate
Japanese residents faced open discrimination. California's alien land laws of 1913 and 1920 barred immigrants who could not become citizens from owning farmland. Federal law in 1924 ended new immigration from Japan. Locally, the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce in 1920 passed a resolution calling for a "segregated district" for Asian and Black residents. The Palo Alto Times, the Native Sons of the Golden West and the American Legion backed it. Henry Dodson, president of the Colored Citizens Club of Palo Alto, spoke out against it and the plan died. Restrictive deed covenants later did quieter work. Our page on Eichler homes explains how one builder broke with that practice after the war.
After Pearl Harbor
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Two days later the president of the Palo Alto Japanese American Association published a statement of loyalty in the Palo Alto Times. The association reported that members had bought about $2,700 in defense bonds. Seven of its men were serving in the Army. One of them, Paly graduate Fred Yamamoto, was later killed in France and awarded the Silver Star after his death.
Suspicion grew anyway. About ten weeks after Pearl Harbor, FBI agents arrested Arthur Okado and three other Palo Altans on suspicion of belonging to an "alien Japanese organization." Okado was later cleared, but he did not return home until February 1945.
- February 19, 1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, which allows the military to exclude people from the West Coast.
- March 1942: Japanese Americans in Palo Alto must register their property at police headquarters on Bryant Street.
- April 1942: An 8 p.m. curfew applies to Japanese Americans only.
- May 19, 1942: Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt orders all people of Japanese ancestry out of Palo Alto.
May 26, 1942
Families had less than a week to sell or store homes, cars, farm equipment and businesses. Buyers knew they had to sell and paid little. Nationwide, Japanese Americans lost an estimated $400 million in 1942 dollars. Each person could bring only what they could carry. Most pets could not come and many were put down.
On May 26, 1942, 144 local residents boarded buses in Palo Alto. Members of the Palo Alto Society of Friends, the local Quaker meeting, served refreshments at the departure. The Gray Ladies of the Red Cross handed out lunch and milk. The Palo Alto High School paper, the Campanile, urged students to come and say goodbye.
The buses went south to the Santa Anita Assembly Center, a racetrack near Pasadena turned into a temporary prison. Families slept in hastily built barracks and in horse stalls. Japanese Americans from San Mateo County and San Francisco were mostly sent to Tanforan in San Bruno, but most people removed from Santa Clara County went to Santa Anita.
Stanford's Nisei students
The same month, Santa Clara County's removal took nearly all of Stanford's Nisei, the American-born children of Japanese immigrants. A Stanford news release quotes a letter saying "practically the whole Nisei student body of Stanford" was gathered at Santa Anita. Yoshiro Oishi, president of the Japanese Students Association, wrote to a professor in June 1942 that the students were working on Army camouflage nets and applying for jobs outside. Our Stanford history page covers the university in the war years.
Heart Mountain and other camps
After a few months at Santa Anita, most Palo Altans were sent by train to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in northwest Wyoming, between Cody and Powell. The camp opened on August 11, 1942. Over three years it held 13,997 people, with a peak of 10,767, which made it the third-largest town in Wyoming. Local accounts say the daily food budget was 45 cents a person. Others from Palo Alto went elsewhere. Cherry Ishimatsu later described a train ride of about nine days to a camp in Arkansas.
Heart Mountain is remembered for two kinds of courage. Members of its Fair Play Committee refused the draft until their families' rights were restored and dozens went to federal prison. At the same time, 649 men from the camp served in the U.S. military. The camp closed on November 10, 1945.
Ichihashi was removed along with the students. Stanford made him professor emeritus in 1943 while he was held at the Tule Lake camp in California. He kept detailed diaries throughout, which historian Gordon H. Chang later published as Morning Glory, Evening Shadow (Stanford University Press, 1997).
Coming home
West Coast exclusion ended in early 1945 and families began to return. Across the West Coast, some families found homes and belongings looked after by neighbors while others found them gone. Local histories record few incidents of open hostility in Palo Alto. Residents who had visited the camps, taught there, sent books and clothing or later gave legal help were honored by Japanese Americans after the war. James E. Edmiston of the War Relocation Authority praised Palo Alto's efforts to help families resettle.
Ichihashi returned to Stanford after the war and left his papers to the university. Stanford's Nisei alumni had kept in touch through the war with a newsletter, published in 1944, that Chang later found in the Hoover Institution archives.
Formal redress took more than four decades. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 acknowledged the injustice of the incarceration and paid $20,000 to each surviving detainee.
Memorials and places to visit
We could not find a public memorial in Palo Alto dedicated to its incarcerated residents. These sites tell the story nearby and farther afield:
- Tanforan Memorial, San Bruno BART station. Dedicated in August 2022. Its bronze figures of two Mochida sisters are based on a Dorothea Lange photograph. Nearly 8,000 people were held at Tanforan from April 28 to October 12, 1942. It is an easy BART ride from San Francisco.
- San Jose Japantown. One of the last historic Japantowns in the country, with the Japanese American Museum of San Jose. Bay Area groups hold Day of Remembrance events around February 19 each year. Our San Jose day trip guide covers getting there.
- Heart Mountain, Wyoming. The site became a National Historic Landmark in 2007. The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center opened there in 2011 and four original barracks survive in place.
- Stanford. The Ichihashi papers are in Stanford Special Collections. The Hoover Institution Library and Archives holds other wartime material.
Researching this history
If you are tracing a family or a story, these sources are the best starting points:
- Densho. A free archive of photos, documents and oral histories with an online encyclopedia. Its entry on Yamato Ichihashi is a good place to start.
- The National Archives. War Relocation Authority records include camp rosters and individual case files.
- Local collections. The Palo Alto Historical Association keeps photographs and clippings from the Palo Alto Times. Palo Alto's libraries can help with newspaper research. See our libraries guide.
- Books. Chang's edition of Ichihashi's wartime writings and Ichihashi's own Japanese in the United States.
For other dates in the city's past, use our Palo Alto timeline.
Frequently asked questions
Where were Palo Alto's Japanese Americans sent in 1942?
On May 26, 1942, 144 local residents left by bus for the Santa Anita Assembly Center, a converted racetrack near Pasadena. After a few months most were moved to the Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming. Some went to camps elsewhere, including Arkansas.
How many Japanese Americans lived in Palo Alto before World War II?
About 200, according to local histories. The community had its own Japanese American Association and several of its young men were already serving in the U.S. Army when the war began.
What happened to Japanese American students at Stanford?
In May 1942 nearly all of Stanford's Nisei students were sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center. Professor Yamato Ichihashi, who had taught at Stanford since 1912, was also incarcerated and was named professor emeritus in 1943 while held at Tule Lake.
Is there a Japanese American memorial near Palo Alto?
The closest major one is the Tanforan Memorial at the San Bruno BART station, dedicated in August 2022. It marks the racetrack where nearly 8,000 people from the Bay Area were held in 1942. Palo Alto residents went to Santa Anita instead, but Tanforan is the region's main memorial.
Where can I research Japanese American families from Palo Alto?
Start with Densho, a free online archive and encyclopedia of the incarceration. Stanford Special Collections holds Yamato Ichihashi's papers and the Hoover Institution holds a 1944 Stanford Nisei alumni newsletter. The National Archives keeps War Relocation Authority records.