Update: The poster of the flyers contacted The Triton at around 10 p.m. to explain their meaning. Read their full statement here.
Flyers calling for the evacuation of all Muslims in San Diego County on April 8 were found on campus on Wednesday, March 1. The flyers, titled “Instructions to All People of Islamic Belief,” were formatted in the same manner as notices for Japanese evacuation posted in San Francisco in April 1942.
“All Muslim persons, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated from the above designated area by 12:00 o’clock noon Wednesday, April 8, 2017,” the flyer reads.
Spotted in Marshall College and a bulletin board in Argo Hall, the flyers instructed all Muslims to go to the “Civil Control Station” on April 2 and 3 to receive further instructions.
The flyer also stated that no Muslim would be able to enter or leave San Diego County without “obtaining special permission from the Provost Marshal at the Civil Control Station.”
The flyer lists the address of the Civil Control Station at 1919 India Street in San Diego. According to Google Maps, this is the address of Cecil’s House of Photography, about two miles north of Gaslamp Quarter, not a government-affiliated building.
The header of the flyers contained the name of the Western Defense Command and Fourth Army Wartime Civil Control Administration, the command which recommended to Secretary of War Henry Stimson that all Japanese people be removed from the west coast in 1942.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the notice that preceded the internment of 120,000 Japanese living in the United States. The flyers found on campus call for the evacuation of Muslims on April 8, just one day after the original notice targeting Japanese people on April 7, 1942.
This article was compiled with information and reporting from Shine Cho, News Editor, and Gabriel Schneider, Editor-in-Chief. Aleena Karamally is the Managing Editor of The Triton.