There is a single number of 5,000 out there regarding the number of Japanese-American citizens held by Japan through the war, and that will show up sometimes as the number of KIBEI ~ which is erroneous.
There were a few thousand Kibei. Most of them ended up staying in the US once Japan sent them "back home" to America. Some then went back to Japan having stronger ties there ~ many of them having married, or who had elderly relatives to care for.
Be very careful of the discussions of Kibei. Everything has been said about them that can be said.
The one thing for certain is that NO SERIOUS AMOUNT of repatriation of Japanese to Japan or Americans to the USA from Japan occurred in WWII. ALL the agreements are 1946 or later ~ WHICH IS AFTER THE WAR.
Think about it ~ we were sinking every Japanese ship we could find. They were sinking all our ships. What boat would you put those deportees on?
Think about it ~ we were sinking every Japanese ship we could find. They were sinking all our ships. What boat would you put those deportees on?
Early in the war I believe our respective diplomats and their families took ocean liners back to their home countries. I assume those wishing to return could've been returned the same way. If not this way, then there was a route open west fm Japan and East fm the US. Admittedly, I need to do a little more research.
Though at war, the U.S. and Japan negotiated a plan for the repatriation of their diplomatic corps. In July 1942, Grew and 1,450 other Americans and foreign nationals sailed from Tokyo to Lourenço Marques in Portuguese East Africa (now Maputo, Mozambique) aboard the Japanese liner Asama Maru and its backup, the Comte di Verdi. Japan's ambassador to the United States, Kichisaburo Nomura, along with 1,096 other Japanese dignitaries, sailed from New York to Lourenço Marques on the Gripsholm, a liner registered to neutral Sweden. On July 22, the exchange took place, and the Gripsholm sailed to Rio de Janeiro and then to New Jersey. [10].