Winter 1943:The number of evacuees at relocation centers peaks at about 107,000.

March

March 11, 1943:The director of the WRA sends a letter to the Secretary of War in which he recommends an immediate relaxation of the exclusion order against persons of Japanese descent. In a letter of May 10, 1943, the Secretary of War said he would not consider the WRA director’s recommendation until the “vicious, well-organized, pro-Japanese minority group[s]” were removed from the relocation centers.

May

May 14, 1943: Dillon S. Myer, director of the War Relocation Authority, issues a statement which says that the relocation centers “are undesirable institutions and should be removed from the American scene as soon as possible. Life in a relocation center is an unnatural and un-American sort of life. Keep in mind that the evacuees were charged with nothing except having Japanese ancestors; yet the very fact of their confinement in relocation centers fosters suspicion of their loyalties and adds to their discouragement. It has added weight to the contentions of the enemy [the Empire of Japan] that we are fighting a race war-that this nation preaches democracy and practices racial discrimination.”

June

June 1943: The United States Supreme Court rules unanimously in Hirabayashi v. United States that a Japanese-American citizen must obey the curfew regulations promulgated by the Western Defense Command. One of the concurring opinions notes that “Today is the first time, so far as I am aware, that we have sustained a substantial restriction of the personal liberty of citizens of the United States based on the accident or race or ancestry…. It bears a melancholy resemblance to the treatment accorded to [Jews] in Germany.”