Broadside Ordering the Forced Removal of Japanese Americans from Los Angeles, 1942

Western Defense Command

Broadside

[Japanese American][Internment][WWII] Broadside issued April 24, 1942 by the Western Defense Command enforcing Executive Order 9066 by the compulsory removal of Japanese Americans from a designated district of Los Angeles. The broadside directs “all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien” to present themselves for relocation, initiating their forced transfer to government custody. This document dates to the first phase of the federal mass incarceration program that uprooted more than 120,000 Japanese Americans, approximately two-thirds of whom were United States citizens.

Civilian Exclusion Order No. 41 Large format broadside. Western Defense Command and Fourth Army. San Francisco: U.S. Army, April 24, 1942. The notice mandates that a “responsible member of each family, and each individual living alone” report to a designated Civil Control Station between May 6 and May 7, 1942, and warns that failure to comply would result in criminal penalties under Public Law No. 503 and possible immediate apprehension. The text specifies the geographic boundaries of the exclusion zone within Los Angeles and outlines the administrative procedure for removal, including reporting instructions and compliance requirements. Typography is stark and formal, structured to convey federal authority and legal compulsion.

Posted publicly in affected neighborhoods across California, Oregon, and Washington, exclusion orders such as this were a key part of the first phase of Japanese American mass incarceration. They introduced military command into neighborhood-level enforcement and a suspension of civil liberties for the West Coast Japanese immigrant population. The order is dated less than five months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the U.S. was rapidly expanding federal emergency powers on the home front parallel to increasing involvement in WWII abroad. Minor edge wear and light toning consistent with age; text remains clear and fully legible. Overall near fine condition. A consequential artifact of wartime Japanese American incarceration.

Item #22409

Price: $2,500.00