History Unplugged Podcast · History Unplugged

American Civilians Caught Behind Enemy Lines After Pearl Harbor, and How They Were Repatriated

·48 min·4 clips

President Roosevelt invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to round up thousands of Japanese immigrants immediately after Pearl Harbor.

This episode explores the little-known WWII program where the US and Japan exchanged civilians trapped behind enemy lines after Pearl Harbor. Author Evelyn Iritani discusses the diplomatic challenges, the asymmetry between expatriate Americans and the Japanese diaspora, and the personal stories of those caught in the swap, including teachers accused of spying and a Peruvian barber used as a pawn.

As heard by us

A civilian exchange shows how war turned nationality, ancestry, and home into competing claims.

History Unplugged treats Pearl Harbor's aftermath less as a tidy prisoner swap than as a knot of citizenship, ancestry, and wartime logistics.

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Why you'd press play

You get a wartime rescue plan where the hardest question is who still counts as going home.

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