'I am an American' sign in the window of the Wanto Co. store, Oakland

A large hand-lettered sign in a shop window reads 'I AM AN AMERICAN.' The owner, a University of California graduate of Japanese ancestry, displayed it on 8 December 1941; the tell is the national label itself, pasted onto the storefront as a public claim of identity and loyalty before the owner's forced removal.

Date: March 1942
Period: Second World War
Made by: Owner of the Wanto Co. store, Oakland, California (photographed for the U.S. War Relocation Authority)
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Signs and banners
Issuer type: Individual
Regime: Roosevelt Administration
Leader: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Persuade or win support
Themes: Race and ethnicity, Home front
Event: Japanese American Incarceration
Techniques: Transfer
Regime: Roosevelt administration
Leader: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Library of Congress, retrieved October 2, 2026
Rights: Public domain (U.S. federal work; LOC: 'No known restrictions on publication.')
Dorothea Lange for the War Relocation Authority (NARA 210-G-A35); Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-23602.

Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

I AM AN AMERICAN

GROCERY
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
WANTO CO.
VEGETABLES
PHILIP MORRIS
[partial: 'WANT...' at right edge of the shop fascia]
[partial: 'by WHITE & POLLARD' on a sign above the fascia]

Transcribes the large hand-lettered sign (the subject) first, then the other legible lettering on the storefront.