Japanese Internment Timeline

For more information, go to pbs.org/childofcamp/history or www.livingvoices.org.

Dec. 7, 1941: The attack on Pearl Harbor. Local authorities and the FBI begin to round up the leadership of the Japanese American communities. Within 48 hours, 1,291 are in custody, held under no formal charges.

Feb. 19, 1942: President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 which allows military authorities to exclude anyone from anywhere without trial or hearings.

Feb. 25, 1942: The U.S. Navy informs Japanese American residents of Terminal Island near Los Angeles Harbor they must leave in 48 hours. They are the first group to be removed en masse.

March 18, 1942: The president signs Executive Order 9102 establishing the War Relocation Authority (WRA) with Milton Eisenhower as director. It is allocated $5.5 million.

March 21, 1942: The first advance groups of Japanese American "volunteers" arrive at Manzanar, Calif. The WRA would take over on June 1 and transform it into a "relocation center."

March 24, 1942: The first Civilian Exclusion Order issued by the Army is issued for the Bainbridge Island area near Seattle. The 45 families there are given one week to prepare. By the end of October, 108 exclusion orders would be issued.

June 1942: The movie "Little Tokyo, U.S.A." is released by Twentieth Century Fox. In it, the Japanese American community is portrayed as a "vast army of volunteer spies" and "blind worshippers of their Emperor, " as described in the film's voice-over prologue.

Aug. 10, 1942: The first inmates arrive at Minidoka, Idaho.

Aug. 12, 1942: The first 292 inmates arrive at Heart Mountain, Wyoming.

Aug. 27, 1942: The first inmates arrive at Granada, or Amache, Colorado.

Sept. 11, 1942: The first inmates arrive at Central Utah, or Topaz.

Sept. 18, 1942: The first inmates arrive at Rohwer, Arkansas.

Oct. 20, 1942: President Roosevelt calls the relocation centers "concentration camps" at a press conference. The WRA had denied the term "concentration camps" accurately described the camps.

Sept. 13, 1943: The realignment of Tule Lake as a camp for "dissenters" begins.

May 24, 1944: Shoichi James Okamoto is shot to death at Tule Lake by a guard after stopping a construction truck at the main gate for permission to pass. Private Bernard Goe, the guard, would be acquitted after being fined a dollar for "unauthorized use of government property" - a bullet.

June 30, 1944: Jerome becomes the first camp to close when the last inmates are transferred to Rohwer.

May 7, 1945: The surrender of Germany ends the war in Europe.

Aug. 6, 1945: The atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later, a second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. The war in the Pacific would end on August 14.

Aug. 10, 1988: H.R. 442 is signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. It provides for individual payments of $20,000 to each surviving internee and a $1.25 billion education fund among other provisions.

Oct. 9, 1990: The first nine redress payments are made at a Washington, D.C., ceremony. Rev. Mamoru Eto, 107, of Los Angeles is the first to receive his check.