Jeanne Wakatsuki lived with her family in Southern California during the summer of 1942. Jeanne had a typical American middle class childhood; her father owned a small fishing boat and her mother worked in a cannery. She lived in a predominately white neighborhood and went to a white school. Although Jeanne's family had some typical Japanese traditions, none of the children spoke any Japanese. Jeanne was a second generation Japanese American along with her brothers and sisters. This meant she was an American citizen, something her parents and other first generation Japanese Americans could not become. Her citizenship did not matter when Executive Order 9066 was signed by Franklin Roosevelt in February of 1942. The order was activated after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The order called for 110,000 Japanese Americans to be relocated into internment camps throughout the U.S. Prior to being sent to actual camps, Japanese Americans were forced to live in specific communities which were chosen by the U.S. government. (Dower 79). Jeanne and her family were given a few days to pack up and move from their house in the predominantly white neighborhood into an all Asian quarter. The Wakatsuki's and other Japanese Americans had now become a threat to the nation in the minds of the government. Both the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Federal Bureau of Investigation established surveillance efforts, and compiled a list of suspected Japanese subversives. Any Japanese American who posed a threat of espionage was arrested within weeks of Pearl Harbor. (Dower 80). The U.S. government and voice of mainstream white America had taken away Jeanne's normal American life in a matter of days. The beginning of the war in the Pacific was the first time Jeanne witnessed anti-Japanese sentiment and hatred against her family by other Americans.
Much like Jeanne, the bombing of Pearl Harbor changed Ira Hay's quiet life in Arizona.