Japanese group at the 1949 Festival of Nations

Japanese group at the 1949 Festival of Nations, sponsored by the International Institute in St. Paul and held at the St. Paul Civic Auditorium, May 20‒23, 1949. Japanese people first arrived in Minnesota in large numbers beginning in 1942. They were moving inland to leave concentration camps established by President Roosevelt’s Executive Order #9066 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The 1947 Festival of Nations was the first in which Japanese people participated.