| Original caption: “There were laughter and tears as two hundred and thirty-seven Japanese, ordered evacuated from Bainbridge Island, dropped down to the ferry today. The army guided the evacuees.” Japanese Americans wait at a Bainbridge Island pier for a ferry to Seattle, during their forced removal from home on March 30, 1942, after President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. Bainbridge Island’s close proximity to United States Navy facilities prompted United States Army Lieutenant General John DeWitt (January 9, 1880 – June 20, 1962) to call for their removal on March 24, 1942, the very day he issued Civilian Exclusion Order Number 1. Bainbridge residents had 6 days to sell or lease their farms, store belongings, find homes for pets, bid neighbors farewell and pack personal belongings. As the 1st community to be removed, Islanders lacked local support systems and the government had inadequately prepared for the eviction process. Church groups helped other communities pack and store belongings, but the Seattle Council of Churches did not organize aid in time to help Islanders. The greatest confusion concerned transportation of material possessions. Eviction posters instructed Islanders to limit their luggage to “that which can be carried by the family or individual. However, the United States Government had not decided definitively how to handle this issue. After many Islanders sold their belongings, army officers announced that the government would ship additional luggage to the camps. Nikkei began repurchasing items before learning that the army had not secured the allocation of these funds. On the morning of March 30, 1942, United States Army trucks appeared at Island Nikkei homes to transport families to the Eagledale dock where the ferry Kehloken waited to take them to Seattle. Bainbridge High School allowed students to miss school to say “goodbye” to their friends; many younger students played “hooky” to see their friends off. Earl Hanson (June 29, 1923 – December 24, 2014), a 1941 high school graduate and later a veteran of Okinawa and Korea, told 1 of the soldiers, “You’re taking away some of our best friends.” Adults, as well as young people, came to wish their departing neighbors well. A frightened, well-behaved group of Americans, allowed to take only what they could carry, waited to begin a journey without knowing where they were going, nor how long they would be gone. In Seattle, they would board a train. With curtains drawn, they rode through the night. On April 1, they transferred from the train to buses and traveled through the California desert. After a few hours, Kazuko S. “Kay” Nakao (December 13, 1919 – August 17, 2020) looked out the window and saw a desolate piece of land with tarpaper-covered buildings. She told a woman sitting next to her, “I would hate to have to live there.” Her heart sank when the buses turned into this compound that was the Manzanar Assembly Center (later the Manzanar Relocation Center.) There were a few Japanese bachelors already living there who were completing the construction of the camp. The Bainbridge Islanders were the 1st families to arrive. For weeks, they had no sewer system and the facilities were very crude. 227 Bainbridge Islanders were forced to leave on the morning of March 30, 1942. For many this was their 1st long trip away from home. From Zenmatsu Seko (January 6, 1876 – January 14, 1952), age 69, to Jane Chiseko Kitamoto (June 2, 1941 – February 17, 2001), age 9 months, evacuees of all ages had to wear numbered identification tags and carry special permits to travel. They were brought to the only government facility ready to accept prisoners. At that time Manzanar was to be a “Reception Center,” a place to temporarily house evacuees. It would later become a “Relocation Center” with a population of approximately 10,000 persons of Japanese ancestry. Because Bainbridge Island was the 1st community to be forcibly removed to a “Relocation Center,” there were several press reporters and photographers out to cover the story. They walked onto the ferry Kehloken for a special evacuee only trip to Seattle. They would travel by train and then bus from Seattle to the California desert. It was April Fools’ Day when they arrived at Manzanar. Being the 1st group meant they did not have to stay at an Assembly Center as did future evacuees. However, when they arrived at Manzanar the facilities were still under construction, and it would be weeks before the plumbing, sewers, and other infrastructure would be complete. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1703.jpg |
| Image Size | 950.90 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1857 x 2400 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | March 30, 1942 |
| Location | Bainbridge Island |
| City | Seattle |
| State or Province | Washington |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | Densho |
| Record Number | ddr-densho-34-2 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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