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New Jap Evacuation Order

New orders were issued for the evacuation of 5100 more Japanese from Alameda, Contra Costa and Los Angeles Counties as part of the Japanese exclusion program today.

This brought the total evacuation close to the halfway mark in California.

The orders, issued by Lieut. Gen. DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command, raised the number of Japanese moved or in the process of being moved to 35,000 for the Pacific Coast.

Meanwhile, almost two-thirds of the Japanese in San Francisco and the East Bay who are being evacuated to the Tanforan assembly center under earlier orders have already been transferred.

The evacuation was coast wide, covering zones from Alaska to Arizona. Approximately 100,000 Japanese were living in the Pacific defense zone when the exclusions began. Of these, possibly 5000 to 8000 moved out voluntarily. In addition, Japanese formed the majority of the dangerous aliens seized in the area by the FBI, a total of under 5000 on the Pacific Coast.

General DeWitt has announced the evacuations would be completed before the end of May; those affected by the new orders today were to be removed to assembly centers by noon Thursday, May 7. The announcement covered five separate civilian exclusion orders running from Order No. 27 to 31, inclusive; Orders 27-28 affect 1900 Japanese in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties. The other three, 3200 in Los Angeles County.

Civilian Exclusion Order No. 27—Affecting Japanese in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties living in the area beginning at the southerly limits of Berkeley at San Francisco Bay, then easterly along the southerly limits to College-av, then southerly on College-av to Broadway, then southerly on Broadway to the south limits of the city of Oakland, and then along the Oakland southerly limits westerly and northerly and following the shoreline of San Francisco to the point of beginning.
A Civil Control Station was established at 530 18th-st, Oakland, to which heads of families and individuals living alone were directed to report May 1 and 2 to make arrangements for removal to Tanforan Assembly Center by May 7. They were advised they would be permitted to use private automobiles in the evacuation.
Civilian Exclusion Order No. 28—Affecting Japanese living in those portions of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties within an area beginning at the point where College-av meets the southerly limits of the city of Berkeley, then along the south limits easterly to State Highway No. 24 to Walnut Creek, then south on the State Highway No. 21 to its intersection with U.S. Highway No. 50 to the south limits of Oakland, then following the south Oakland limits west to San Francisco Bay, then north following the shoreline west to Bay Farm Island and Alameda to the northwestern entrance of the channel entering Oakland Inner Harbor, then along the channel southeasterly to Broadway in the city of Oakland, then northeast on Broadway to College-av, then north on College to the point of beginning.
A civil control station was established at 1117 Oak-st, Oakland, for aliens to report for processing May 1 and 2 prior to removal to Tanforan by Noon May 7. Private automobiles will be permitted.

Today’s orders were the second group issued this week; Tuesday General DeWitt ordered two areas in Oregon—including all of Portland—cleared of 1900 Japanese by May 5.


San Francisco News
April 30, 1942

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