Announced by Lieut. Gen. John L. DeWitt, commander of the Western Defense Command, the order is intended to facilitate enforcement of measures against sabotage and fifth column activity.

It was contained in the third public proclamation by General DeWitt since the war started.

The proclamation also extended the ban on possession of firearms, war materials, short-wave radio receiving and transmitting sets and other contraband to Japanese-Americans. Enemy aliens already had been forbidden to have such articles.

The new regulations superseded those ordered for certain areas last January by Atty. Gen. Francis Biddle. Curfew exemptions granted by United States attorneys were revoked, effective Friday.

Under the new edict Japanese, German and Italian aliens and Japanese-Americans must remain at home between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Persons affected may not travel more than five miles from their homes except to settle their affairs at wartime civilian control offices. Under a law approved by President Roosevelt last week violators face penalties of a $5000 fine or one year’s imprisonment or both.

Warning that the curfew would be enforced “rigidly,” General DeWitt said:

“Military necessity dictates such action and military necessity requires strictest enforcement. As a patriotic duty, each citizen is urged to report without delay to local authorities or the FBI any violation he may observe.”

Governor E.P. Carville of Nevada echoed the reception given the Northwestern Japanese colony proposal when he announced yesterday: “If Japanese evacuees come into Nevada they will go into concentration camps.”

He described the 1940 blue book and directory of Japanese in southwestern United States as “nine-tenths subversive,” although it had been published by his company.

Since the Pearl Harbor attack, he declared, American-born Japanese had broken away from the strong “pro-Mikado influence” exerted by the Japanese born.

Go to the Japanese Internment page.