Farmers, fishermen, doctors, businessmen, graduate students, and artists, these interned Japanese-Americans who represented .03% of the total population, and 1% of California’s, sustained almost incalculable economic losses as a result of relocation. Forced to settle their affairs in a matter of days or weeks, they sold their property for a fraction of its worth or left possessions in the care of trustees, where they were often stolen, vandalized, or unloaded for next to nothing. The $400,000,000 in property losses later calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco—of which the U. S. government paid about ten percent in claims—would not take into account the wages, income, interest, and appreciation that the evacuees lost during their incarceration. Nor would it be possible to measure the even greater psychological damage. (Judith Fryer Davidov)
Erik M. Bachman 