On March 30th 1942, 227 Japanese and Japanese-American people were forced to leave their homes on Bainbridge Island, Washington, taking the ferry into Seattle under armed guard and then the train and bus to Manzanar Relocation Center in the Mojave Desert. This was in response to Executive Order 9066, signed by President Roosevelt, which ordered all people in the western U.S. of Japanese ancestry (both American citizens and non-citizens) be removed from their homes and incarcerated in “relocation centers”, in remote and inhospitable camps under armed guard across the West. The Bainbridge Islanders were the first to be taken away. When they left, they did not know where they would be taken or how long they would be imprisoned there. They were tagged like luggage and could only bring what they could carry.
