The loyalty registration of early 1943 was part of a poorly planned and implemented program to determine the allegiance of the Nikkei in the incarceration camps. Realizing that life in the camps was damaging people who would eventually have to be released, government authorities devised a loyalty questionnaire with several goals: to determine who could leave camp to resettle in a community in the interior to discern who was loyal enough to work in a defense-related job to improve public opinion by allowing Nisei men to demonstrate their Americanism through military service and to segregate people considered disloyal. Authorities failed to explain the purpose of the questionnaires and posed two controversial questions. Question 27 asked if Nisei would be willing to serve in the U.S. armed forces; Question 28 asked people to swear unqualified allegiance to the United States and “forswear” loyalty to the Emperor of Japan. Some Nisei were incensed at being asked to fight for a country that had imprisoned them. Since the Issei could not become U.S. citizens, disavowing Japan would leave them stateless, while embracing Japan could lead to deportation. The American-born Nisei were angered that officials assumed they had ever been loyal to Japan. People who answered “no, no” in anger or protest were generally declared disloyal. The same was true for anyone who qualified their answer, for example, a Nisei saying he would serve in the army if his parents were freed. As flawed as the questionnaire was, authorities still treated it as a true test of loyalty and divided the Nikkei accordingly, with terrible results for thousands.
The so-called "Loyalty Questionnaire"（1943）
Courtesy of Densho, the Ikeda Family Collection
Excerpt from Densho Archive
I don't remember how they passed out those questionnaires. But I remember questions twenty-seven and twenty-eight, "Would you be loyal to this country?" And the other one is "Would you serve in the United States military in whatever division that you're asked?" And that's what I think was the beginning of dividing the Japanese people. Because especially the Kibei would say, no, they would never want to serve this country. The Nisei didn't know what to say, and the parents didn't know what to tell the kids. The parents, of course, would not serve the United States, because U.S. wouldn't even let them become citizens. But over that question, the Americans who felt they should fight for the U.S., they really let the camp people know. Those who were totally angry at the U.S., they would let the camp know, "No, we would never serve." So there were fights among the Japanese after that. And it was hard because that's such a political question, but it's such a personal question. It could be a very divisive, even among one family, there's different feelings. Families began to fall apart.
Nisei from San Pedro, California, became civil rights activist after release from Jerome, Arkansas, incarceration camp