United States. Wartime Civil Control Administration

Agency of the Western Defense Command of the United States Army.

From the description of Wartime Civil Control Administration miscellaneous records, 1942-1943. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 754869731

In 1942, to carry out Executive Order No. 9066, Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt was designated military commander for the western half of the United States. He created the Wartime Civil Control Administration; its mission was to evacuate and relocate people of Japanese ancestry. DeWitt placed the Administration under the immediate direction of Col. Karl R. Bendetsen, in San Francisco.

From the description of Records, 1940-1942 (bulk 1942). (University of Arizona). WorldCat record id: 28249033

Biography / Administrative History

On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 providing broad powers for the War Department to create exclusion zones and to initiate an evacuation program for the Western Defense Command (WDC). Under the leadership of General John Dewitt of the WDC, the Civil Affairs Division (CAD) and the Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) were created in order to provide for the transition of voluntary evacuees, enemy aliens and United States citizens alike, from exclusion areas to other parts of the country. The failure of the voluntary evacuation plan led President Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 9102, which established the civilian run War Relocation Authority (WRA). The WRA was mandated to institute enforced evacuations. Due to the recalcitrance of states on the interior of the country to accept the Japanese evacuees or to provide for their safety, the WRA also constructed internment centers in order to house the evacuees. Between 1942-1945 the WRA, the WCCA, the CAD and the Office of the Commanding General of the Western Defense Command segregated and housed approximately 110,000 Japanese-American men, women and children.

Though the initial exclusion plan put forth by General Dewitt included both German and Italian citizens, the Japanese Americans bore the brunt of Executive Order 9066.

From the guide to the Flaherty Collection: Japanese Internment Records, 1921-1966, bulk 1942, (San José State University Library, Special Collections & Archives)

Historical Note

The Wartime Civil Control Administration operated under the Western Defense Command of the United States Army, provided for the evacuation and temporary resettlement of Japanese and Japanese-Americans in areas of the Pacific coast during World War II. The department oversaw all aspects of the evacuation operations, including assembly centers, transportation, and the transfer of evacuees the jurisdiction of the War Relocation Authority, which was responsible for the relocation, maintenance, and supervision of evacuees and operated the internment camps. Source: Federal Records of World War II, Vol. II: Military Agencies, Sec. 1096

From the guide to the Wartime Civil Control Administration miscellaneous records, 1942-1943, (Hoover Institution Archives)