Question Twenty-Seven, Question Twenty-Eight/”Question 27, Question 28″

In the wake of America’s entry into World War II, more than 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were forced to leave their homes, possessions, and communities and report to relocation centers and internment camps. This federal action, authorized by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 through Executive Order 9066, led to the suspension of many civil rights of Japanese Americans. Every February 19, the internment of Japanese Americans is remembered both for the hardship it caused and the lessons that can be learned with the hope that history will not repeat itself. One lasting legacy of the internment experience was the so-called “loyalty questionnaire,” which was designed to test the loyalty of the incarcerated Japanese Americans. Two questions, #27 (willingness to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces) and #28 (willingness to swear unqualified allegiance to the United States and forswear allegiance to any other nation or government), were both disturbing and confusing to the internees. Using these questions as a focal point to reveal the unfair treatment of the internees, Question 27, Question 28 vividly brings to life not only the experiences of the imprisoned Japanese Americans, but also of their non-Japanese contemporaries and how some of them reacted to this violation of civil rights. Told exclusively through the perspectives of women, Question 27, Question 28 is based on verbatim excerpts from oral histories and interviews. - Artist's website