1942 – 1945

The growing Japanese resentment during World War II, coupled with the longstanding American notion that the Japanese were racially unassimilable, led to the forcible relocation and incarceration of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans. President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19th, 1942, authorizing the evacuation of more than 120,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry from their homes on the West Coast as they were deemed threats to national security. President Roosevelt created the War Relocation Authority (WRA) federal agency to forcibly remove and confine Japanese Americans in isolated, fenced, and guarded relocation centers, known as internment camps.

Close to home: Located in southern New Jersey, Seabrook Farms was one of the largest U.S. agribusinesses famous for its frozen vegetables. Although not labeled as an internment camp, Seabrook Farms recruited the targeted Japanese Americans in the internment camps as new sources of labor. The WRA's Philadelphia office oversaw the relocation of more than 2,500 Japanese American citizens (Nisei) and immigrants of Japanese descent (Issei) to Seabrook Farms. At Seabrook, they worked alongside immigrant guest workers and prisoners of war. While Seabrook Farms was a sanctuary for groups with little to no choice, it was also a place where Japanese Americans were subject to racial discrimination and constant surveillance.