While the majority of Japanese evacuees from the West Coast were interned in relocation camps administered by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), certain Issei (first generation Japanese immigrants), along with some individuals of German and Italian descent, were incarcerated in camps operated by the Department of Justice. These inmates— classified as "dangerous enemy aliens"—were generally older men who were suspected by the FBI of having ties with the government of Japan. Some were diplomats, and the majority of them were leaders in the Japanese community who were rounded up in the days immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On numerous occasions Japanese American children came home from school to find the FBI searching their homes and taking their fathers away. Families sometimes went weeks without being able to communicate with loved ones that were taken into custody. Barry...