An inside look at Japanese ancestry at Sutter County Museum

After President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 during World War II, thousands of people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the West Coast – including Nisei, or those born in America – were evicted from their homes and forced to live in internment camps.

Families were given one large duffle bag to pack their belongings before they left and were only allowed to take items from a list authorized by the U.S. Army, according to Jessica Hougen, director and curator of the Sutter County Museum.

“They were only allowed to take what they could carry, and these bags are not that big considering how much

people pack just to go on a trip nowadays,” said Hougen.

The duffle bag used by the T. Itamura family is among the many artifacts on display in the Japanese-american exhibit at the Sutter County Museum in Yuba City.

According to information obtained at the museum, before leaving, many Japanese families quickly dispersed the belongings they had to leave behind into the care of

neighbors or friends.

“Sometimes those belongings were well cared for while they were imprisoned, and, more often, their land and belongings were gone when they returned at war’s end,” according to museum documents.

One such internment camp was established about five miles outside of Marysville at the Arboga Assembly Center. That location housed 2,500

Japanese residents of Placer and Sacramento counties among the 160 buildings at the facility. The location was only in existence for a few months, as the internees located here were reassigned to a permanent relocation camp at Tule Lake. There is now only a marker at the sight of the camp to show that it ever existed.