On February 19 , 1942,President Franklin D. RooseveltissuedExecutive Order 9066 , which pass American military personnel to gaol Japanese Americans in the U.S. for fear they would be fast to Imperial Japan in the wake of the flack onPearl Harbor . Today , more than 80 years later , the Irei Project — a non-profit-making dedicate to maintain the memories of individuals who were held in these WWII assiduity camps — has team with Ancestry.com to publish the names of 125,284 citizenry detained in those camps . This digitized , innocent - to - access listis the most comprehensive of its variety .
Beginning in 2019 , Irei Project director Duncan Ryūken Williams fastidiously researched information about the detainee , turning the tilt of names into a book that became an interactive exhibit at the Nipponese American National Museum in Los Angeles . Participants were able to use ahankostamp — a carved mold that is used to represent a person ’s identity element — to grade a little blue dot below political detainee ’ epithet as a means of honour them . Irei also has a beautiful scrolling wall of the names organized by birth yearon their site .
In increase to the names , more than 350,000 diachronic documents related to Nipponese imprisonment are also available on Ancestry — a site Williams used extensively during a thought-provoking research operation that often found him contending with smudged documents , multiple spellings , and miss record .
“ You ca n’t honor hoi polloi if their names are spelled incorrect , ” Williams wrotein a blog postannouncing the inclination ’s issue . He used the 1940 census , draft wit , wedding credential , and other official politics documents to verify the correct spelling of each detainee ’s name .
The most far-famed exemplar of literally disperse i ’s and scotch t ’s isStar Trek’sGeorge Takei , who was lag as a youthful male child alongside more than 8000 other Nipponese Americans at the Rohwer Relocation Center in Tillar , Arkansas . refugee camp record listed him as “ Hosato George Takei ” while record from the Tule Lake Relocation Center in Newell , California , listed him as “ Hozato George Takei . ” Williams used Takei ’s birth certificate to properly list him as “ Hosato ” in the registry .
In addition to the list of names , theIrei Projectalso has plans for memorial presentation at some of the resettlement camp and a memorial statue at the Nipponese American National History Museum .
“ This project is not a still nor complete one , ” Williams write on Ancestry . “ The assumption of the Irei Project is that we need the public to verify we not only commend the injustice of the captivity , but their help in resort the wound of that story . By accurately recording the details of those who were incarcerated during this time , we unendingly make up the historic record for generation to come . ”
