Arroyo Grande historian recounts WWII internment of local citizens of Japanese descent

By Tom Wilmer

Published March 30, 2022 at 9:52 PM PDT

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Americans of Japanese descent await transport to internment camps following Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 in February, 1942.

Eighty years ago, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevet signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the evacuation and relocation of all Americans of Japanese descent to internment camps far removed from the West Coast.

U.S. Army soldier tacks up evacuation orders for Americans of Japanese descent living on the West Coast.

Join correspondent Tom Wilmer for a conversation with Historian Jim Gregory, author of WWII Arroyo Grande.

Gregory shares the sorrows and triumphs of the dramatic period in Arroyo Grande history—a time when more than forty percent of the town’s high school student body was of Japanese ancestry.

Click here to view WWII U.S. Office of War Relocation Authority video about relocation of Japanese following Executive Order 9066

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