The U.S. did not enter the second world war for several years after its beginning, but it did begin to worry about nationals from the Axis countries living on its land. Two years before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI issued a directive to begin tracking “both aliens and citizens of the United States, [whose] presence at liberty in this country in time of war or national emergency would be dangerous to the public peace and the safety of the United States Government.”

On this day, January 14, in 1942 President Roosevelt issued Proclamation No. 2537, requiring Americans from Germany, Italy or Japan to register with the Department of Defense. It was the first step toward eventual internment of the Japanese in camps along the West Coast.

Follow-up proclamations expanded to include those of Japanese ancestry, even American-born citizens, froze their assets, and set up “exclusion zones” where the registered could not ago. All told, some 120,000 were removed from their homes in California, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Arizona.