On February 19, 1942, shortly after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and United States entry into WWII, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, calling for the exclusion of all civilians of Japanese descent from "designated military areas." More than 9,000 Japanese and Japanese American people living in the Pacific Northwest were forced into incarceration at camps in Idaho and California until 1945.

In this image a man stacks cameras, radios, and other equipment surrendered by Japanese Americans at Seattle Police Headquarters. Two days before, the Department of Justice had ordered the surrender of cameras and short-wave radio sets by "Axis Aliens," or nationals of the three nations with which America was at war: Japan, Germany, and Italy. Police officials said that more than 1,200 men and women appeared, even though "many didn't understand what we wanted." Many insisted on also turning over firearms and other weapons despite them not being required in this order. Of those who appeared, all were of Japanese descent, except for one German American.

Handwritten on negative: Jap camera & radio.
Handwritten on sleeve: Japanese - Seattle - property (Surrendering cameras, radios, etc.).

Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): January 6, 1942.