In the early 20th century, New York’s predominantly Issei Japanese community comprised a diverse range of professionals, including businesspeople, diplomats, merchants, industrial workers, business owners, domestic workers, artists, and writers. As the war intensified in the late 1930s, Japanese businesses began to close their New York offices, leading many Japanese-born workers and their families to return to Japan to avoid the escalating hostilities.
In the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States government passed Executive Order 9066 on December 7, 1941, in response to widespread anti-Japanese sentiment and bigotry. This executive order led to the mass removal and internment of over 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans residing in California, Oregon, Washington State, and a portion of Arizona. These individuals were subsequently detained and imprisoned in internment camps.
Presidential Proclamations 2525, 2526, and 2527, collectively known as the Enemy Alien Control Program, authorized the federal government to monitor and detain citizens of Japan who were alleged to be dangerous enemy aliens. A significant number of Issei men residing in New York, New Jersey, and a portion of Connecticut underwent scrutiny by the FBI and were subsequently interned on Ellis Island from 1941 to 1944. They were prohibited from possessing items deemed hazardous, including firearms, radios, and cameras, and were confined to designated exclusion zones.
In New York, individuals occupying the role of household head (typically the father) and having affiliations with Japanese-based organizations were arrested. After the war, hundreds of diplomats and leaders were detained by U.S. authorities at Ellis Island and Camp Upton on Long Island. Many were paroled, while others were imprisoned in WRA camps and some Nisei enlisted in the U.S. military. At the same time, people had trouble finding jobs in the city because of widespread racial discrimination. In New York, hundreds of Japanese people were arrested and questioned at Ellis Island.
Jiro Kozai was a prominent figure within the Japanese community. During the 1920s, he served as a writer, publisher, proprietor of the Japanese American, a Japanese-language newspaper in New York, and president of the New York Nihonjinkai. Kozai’s activities during this period led to his detention and internment at Ellis Island and Camp Upton. This experience compelled him to return to Japan and leave his Nisei wife and daughters in New York. Rev. Hozen Seki, who founded the The New York Buddhist Church (NYBC) in 1938, was detained at Ellis Island and sent to camps, including Fort Meade, the hard labor road camp at Kooskia, Idaho, and Santa Fe. His Nisei spouse led the temple, offering spiritual guidance to the evacuees and serving as a gathering point for Japanese American Buddhist soldiers, including those from the 442nd Infantry Regiment, before their deployment to the European theater. Dr. Sabro Emy, a physician, treated many Japanese-speaking patients from working-class and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. After Ellis Island, he was placed under house arrest and monitored by the FBI until the war ended.
Individuals engaged in artistic and creative professions were similarly detained. Takeo Shiota, a renowned Japanese gardener and landscape architect, is particularly noteworthy for his design of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, constructed between 1914 and 1915. During World War II, anti-Japanese sentiment erupted, leading to widespread discrimination and the temporary closure of the Hill-and-Pond Garden. Shiota was apprehended and held on Ellis Island, where he passed away in 1943 while interned in a South Carolina camp.
Prior to the war, Yasuo Matsui was a prominent architect in New York, having contributed to the design of the Japanese pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. However, his professional trajectory took an unexpected turn following his arrest and subsequent detention at Ellis Island for a period of two months. Following his release, Matsui’s professional standing was compromised, he was compelled to report monthly to federal authorities and was subjected to restrictions on his travel until October 1945, a month after the conclusion of World War II. Yosei Amemiya, a New York-based artist and architectural photographer, was similarly detained at Ellis Island. In 1941, Nelson Rockefeller, a prominent collector of Japanese art, wrote a letter requesting his release. However, Amemiya was interned for nearly four years and was finally released in 1945.
In August 1941, the remaining Issei leaders in New York established the Committee for Democratic Treatment of Japanese Residents in the Eastern States. This organization was formed on the basis of a desperate effort to convince the American public that the Japanese community in the United States was not responsible for Japanese aggression in Asia and that they had no ill will towards the American people and their government. (Fig: Selected images from Art created by Japanese during the war (NARA MD))
