Based on the “I AM AN AMERICAN” sign that Tatsuro Matsuda, an Asian American, installed on his family business, the Wanto Co. grocery store in Oakland, California, in an attempt to emphasize his family’s “Americanness” one day after Pearl Harbor (December 8, 1941). The store was closed following orders for the evacuation of Americans of Japanese ancestry. Evacuees were forcibly deported to relocation centers.