Application for Leave Clearance form, WRA-126

Application for Leave Clearance form, WRA-126

California
Japanese Internment
Loyalty Questionnaire

The source, informally known as the “Loyalty Questionnaire” is an example of the questionnaires the War Relocation Authority sent into internment camps to assess the loyalty of Japanese people. This form needed to be filled out before the individual could be considered for leave away from the camps. It contained a number of questions probing people’s loyalties such as asking if they were willing to serve on combat duty wherever ordered. As a result some Japanese answered No as they were not allowed to become U.S. Citizens on the basis of race and more Japanese men refused to say they would serve the army while family were in camps. As a result those who answered yes could see themselves eligible for leave away from the camps and in some cases military service and those whom “failed” the test sometimes found themselves sent to segregation centres like Tule Lake, California.

War Relocation Authority

Application for Leave Clearance, form WRA-126 part of the collection; CSU Japanese American Digitization Project, California State University, Image link

https://calisphere.org/item/c7e0eab85e032a6bf4338c659634c53d/

1943

Michael Wilsher

Application for Leave Clearance, form WRA-126 part of the collection; CSU Japanese American Digitization Project, California State University, Image link; https://calisphere.org/item/c7e0eab85e032a6bf4338c659634c53d/

English

Textual - printed government document

20th century California