Prisoners Without Chains: The Forced Relocation of Japanese Mexicans, 1942-1945

• In Event: Another Side of Mestizaje: Mexicans of African and Asian Descent

Abstract

On December 7, 1941, the day the Japanese Empire attacked Pearl Harbor, approximately 18,000 Mexicans of Japanese ancestry resided in Mexico. Since the early twentieth century thousands of Japanese had immigrated to Mexico as an alternative destination to the United States. After nearly fifty-years of integration into Mexican society, the Mexican government faced a delicate situation regarding its Japanese population after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The notion of due process and constitutional guarantees were secondary once Mexico broke diplomatic relations and declared war against the Axis powers. Japanese Mexicans and nationals were first rounded up and sent to “megacity” relocation camps known as Mexico City and Guadalajara. Japanese Mexicans were hunted, arrested, and detained on suspicion of being spies. Japanese Mexicans were also interned in a variety of concentration camps throughout Mexico. My paper will examine Mexico’s differentiated experience with its Japanese population that on the one hand resembled the Japanese American experience, but on the other, Mexico viewed its Japanese in a different light than U.S. society. This paper addresses many of the wartime measures taken by the Mexican government that directly impacted the Japanese in Mexico. More important, my paper will address how Japanese Mexicans and nationals reacted to their treatment during World War II.

Author

• Jerry Garcia, University of Washington