SDC News One | Sunday Historical Edition
Before the Barbed Wire: Black and Japanese Americans on the West Coast Before World War II
By SDC News One Historical Desk
In 1936, Los Angeles was a city of promise and contradiction.
On Central Avenue, Black-owned jazz clubs echoed with the sounds of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and local musicians building a vibrant cultural scene. Just a few miles away, Little Tokyo bustled with Japanese-owned grocery stores, flower markets, restaurants, newspapers, and family businesses that had become part of Southern California's growing economy.
Neither community enjoyed equal treatment under American law.
Both experienced discrimination, housing segregation, employment barriers, and racial prejudice. Yet the legal system often treated them differently, especially as the nation moved closer to World War II.
Then came Pearl Harbor.
Within weeks, thousands of Japanese American families—many of them U.S. citizens with ordinary American surnames through marriage or adoption—would find themselves under suspicion simply because of their ancestry.
A California Divided by Race
California in the 1930s was governed by racial restrictions that affected nearly every aspect of daily life.
Neighborhoods used restrictive housing covenants.
Many jobs openly excluded minorities.
Schools often reflected segregation through neighborhood boundaries.
Restaurants, hotels, and businesses frequently discriminated even when no law specifically required it.
California also enforced anti-miscegenation laws.
These laws were designed primarily to prevent marriages between white Americans and people classified as non-white.
Black Americans could not legally marry white Americans in California before the landmark 1948 Perez v. Sharp decision.
Japanese Americans likewise faced restrictions on marrying white Americans.
Interestingly, California law generally did not prohibit marriages between Black Americans and Japanese Americans. While such marriages were uncommon and often met with social hostility, they were typically legal under California's statutes because the laws focused on preserving what lawmakers called "white racial purity."
That legal distinction did not eliminate prejudice.
Many county clerks refused licenses.
Some ministers refused ceremonies.
Families sometimes opposed the unions.
Couples occasionally traveled elsewhere to marry when local officials resisted issuing licenses.
Two Communities Living Side by Side
Black Americans and Japanese Americans often lived near one another in parts of Los Angeles because discriminatory housing practices limited where minority communities could buy or rent homes.
While their histories differed, they shared many common struggles.
Both communities experienced:
Employment discrimination
Residential segregation
Limited political representation
Racial violence
Exclusion from many neighborhoods
Barriers to higher-paying occupations
Many Black residents shopped in Little Tokyo.
Japanese merchants served diverse customers.
Community organizations occasionally cooperated on neighborhood issues, even while each group confronted different forms of discrimination.
Then Came War
Everything changed on December 7, 1941.
Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor immediately transformed public opinion.
Fear quickly became suspicion.
Suspicion became government policy.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942.
The order authorized military commanders to remove civilians from designated military zones.
Although the order never specifically mentioned Japanese Americans, it overwhelmingly targeted people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast.
American Citizens Became Prisoners
More than 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes.
Approximately two-thirds were American citizens by birth.
Many had never visited Japan.
Some spoke only English.
Many had surnames that sounded entirely American because of interracial marriages, adoption, or family history.
None of that mattered.
Government officials generally based removal on ancestry rather than citizenship, language, or loyalty.
Entire families received notices giving them only days to prepare.
Businesses were sold at enormous losses.
Homes were abandoned.
Pets were left behind.
Families carried only what they could hold.
The Assembly Centers
Before being transported inland, many Japanese Americans were first sent to temporary detention centers.
In Southern California, the Santa Anita Racetrack became one of the largest.
Families slept inside converted horse stalls.
The smell of livestock lingered.
Privacy disappeared.
Armed guards watched over American citizens who had never been charged with a crime.
These were temporary facilities before transfer to larger incarceration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority.
What About Mixed Families?
One of the least discussed chapters involved interracial families.
The federal government created what became known as a Mixed Marriage Policy.
Officials attempted to determine whether families should remain together based on ancestry, household leadership, and bureaucratic classifications.
Some mixed-race families remained outside the camps under certain circumstances.
Others were separated.
Some spouses stayed behind while children entered camps.
Every case required government review.
Families often endured months or years of uncertainty.
Black-Japanese families, white-Japanese families, and families of other mixed ancestries all faced complicated decisions imposed by federal authorities.
Black Americans Watched Carefully
For many Black Americans, the incarceration of Japanese Americans raised troubling questions.
If citizenship could be suspended because of ancestry, what protections truly existed for any minority community?
Black newspapers reported extensively on the removal.
Some editorials condemned the policy as inconsistent with constitutional principles.
Others recognized the growing fear after Pearl Harbor while warning that racial panic could undermine civil liberties.
The contradiction was difficult to ignore.
The United States was fighting fascism abroad while restricting the rights of thousands of its own citizens at home.
Military Service Did Not End the Barriers
Ironically, thousands of Japanese Americans volunteered to serve in the U.S. military.
The 442nd Regimental Combat Team became one of the most highly decorated units in American military history.
Meanwhile, Black Americans continued serving in segregated military units throughout much of the war.
After the war, many Black servicemen stationed in occupied Japan formed relationships with Japanese women.
Although marriage was not universally prohibited, military regulations, non-fraternization policies in the early occupation, administrative delays, and command decisions often created significant obstacles. Some couples eventually married, while others were separated by transfers or bureaucratic barriers.
The Legal Picture
Contrary to common assumptions, most states did not specifically outlaw marriage between Black Americans and Japanese Americans.
Instead, anti-miscegenation laws generally focused on marriages involving white people and people classified as non-white.
There were exceptions.
Oklahoma adopted broad language that prohibited marriages between people of African descent and persons not of African descent.
Louisiana also enacted laws that restricted certain marriages across racial classifications.
California, however, generally permitted marriages between Black and Japanese Americans even while prohibiting many marriages involving white Californians.
Legal permission did not mean social acceptance.
Racial prejudice often made such marriages difficult despite the absence of a direct statutory prohibition.
A Lesson From History
The incarceration of Japanese Americans remains one of the most significant violations of civil liberties in modern U.S. history.
In 1988, Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act, formally apologizing for the wartime incarceration and providing compensation to surviving detainees. The law concluded that the policy had resulted from "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership," rather than military necessity.
Today, historians continue to study the experiences of Japanese Americans, Black Americans, and other communities whose lives intersected during one of the nation's most turbulent periods.
Their stories remind us that constitutional rights are tested most severely during times of fear. They also show how different minority communities, though facing distinct forms of discrimination, often shared common struggles against exclusion, prejudice, and unequal treatment.
History's enduring lesson is that protecting civil liberties requires vigilance, especially when public anxiety is at its highest.
Yes, in most of the United States, Black Americans were legally allowed to marry Japanese Americans. [1]
American anti-miscegenation laws were primarily designed by white lawmakers to protect white supremacy and white racial purity. Because of this, the vast majority of these laws only banned marriages between white people and non-white people. They rarely regulated marriages between two different minority groups. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
However, there were important legal exceptions, geographic hurdles, and severe military restrictions that made these marriages difficult. [6, 7, 8, 9]
## The Exceptions: States That Banned Non-White Intermarriage
While rare, a few states explicitly drafted broad laws to stop any form of race-mixing, which legally prevented Black and Japanese Americans from marrying: [4, 10, 11]
* Oklahoma: In 1908, Oklahoma passed a law blanket-banning marriage between any "person of African descent" and "any person not of African descent". This legally prohibited Black Americans from marrying Japanese Americans, Native Americans, or white Americans alike. [4, 12]
* Louisiana: The state passed laws banning marriages and cohabitation between Black Americans and Native Americans, alongside strict rules that broadly limited marriages outside one's defined race. [4]
## The West Coast Context
The majority of Japanese Americans lived on the West Coast, particularly in California. California’s anti-miscegenation laws were strictly aimed at preventing white people from marrying Black, Asian, Filipino, or Native American people. [1, 7, 13, 14, 15]
* Because the law did not forbid Black and Asian couples from marrying, a Black American and a Japanese American could legally marry in California. [1, 14, 16]
* However, finding an official willing to issue the license could still be difficult due to deep-seated social prejudice. In those cases, couples would travel to states like Washington, which had repealed its restrictions early on. [17]
## World War II and Military Roadblocks
Even where it was technically legal, the U.S. government implemented structural barriers that kept Black and Japanese Americans apart, particularly during and after World War II: [18]
* Incarceration Camps: During WWII, the U.S. government forcibly relocated over 125,000 people of Japanese descent into concentration camps. The government implemented a strict ["Mixed-Marriage Policy,"](https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Mixed-Marriage_Policy/Mixed-Blood_Policy/) which forced several hundred Black-Japanese and white-Japanese families into long, traumatic separations. [9, 19, 20, 21]
* Military Red Tape: After WWII, many Black U.S. servicemen stationed in occupied Japan fell in love with and wanted to marry Japanese women. The U.S. military heavily scrutinized these relationships, purposefully using a [non-fraternization policy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob7_RLNTMJ8) and sudden reassignments to separate Black soldiers from their Japanese partners before they could wed. [22, 23]
Ultimately, while the legal code of most states did not block a marriage between a Black American and a Japanese American, societal racism and institutional military policies often served as a powerful barrier. [1, 23]
If you are interested, I can provide more details if you let me know:
* Do you want to know more about the experiences of Black soldiers and Japanese war brides after World War II?
* Are you looking for information on how children of Black and Japanese heritage (often called "Blasian") navigated this era?
* Do you want to look into the legal history of a specific state?
[1] [https://www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1lng3yy/how_did_antimiscegenation_laws_affect/)
[2] [https://www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/zgjgd0/back_in_the_day_did_the_antiinterracial_marriage/)
[3] [https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu](https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/question/2010/may.htm)
[4] [https://en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws_in_the_United_States)
[5] [https://www.ebsco.com](https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/interracial-marriage-laws)
[6] [https://www.facebook.com](https://www.facebook.com/melindazoshTVNews/videos/interracial-marriage-in-america/1450248882663897/)
[7] [https://www.cschs.org](https://www.cschs.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/History-Resources-Articles-Caragozian-Ban-on-Interracial-Marriages.pdf)
[8] [https://www.ebsco.com](https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/law/miscegenation-laws-us)
[9] [https://encyclopedia.densho.org](https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Mixed-Marriage_Policy/Mixed-Blood_Policy/)
[10] [https://www.encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/black-white-intermarriage)
[11] [https://www.orlandosentinel.com](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1990/01/14/us-laws-social-taboos-unkind-to-mixed-couples/)
[12] [https://study.com](https://study.com/academy/lesson/interracial-marriage-definition-history-laws.html)
[13] [https://americancommunitymedia.org](https://americancommunitymedia.org/mixed-race/in-california-a-long-and-pivotal-history-of-interracial-marriage/)
[14] [https://epc2024.eaps.nl](https://epc2024.eaps.nl/uploads/240327)
[15] [https://law.digital.georgetown.edu](https://law.digital.georgetown.edu/downloads/4f3fc206-cfd8-410a-9bb8-8bd000ac4483)
[16] [https://en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_miscegenation)
[17] [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2992438/)
[18] [https://papers.ssrn.com](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1785365.)
[19] [https://time.com](https://time.com/6987463/interracial-families-loving-virginia-japanese-wwii/)
[20] [https://densho.org](https://densho.org/catalyst/racial-obsession-family-separation-and-the-mixed-marriage-policy-of-americas-wwii-concentration-camps/)
[21] [https://democracyjournal.org](https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/80/reparations-black-americans-dorothy-brown-book-review/)
[22] [https://www.youtube.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbSWPF_NOQE&t=26)
[23] [https://www.youtub
e.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob7_RLNTMJ8)
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