Okubo was in Europe on an art fellowship from University of California when England and France declared war in 1939. With national borders secured, Okubo was stuck in Switzerland until she was able to acquire passage on a boat to France. She had learned that her mother was ill, and she was desperate to find her way back to the US as soon as possible. When she finally arrived in Berkeley in the San Francisco Bay region of California, her mother had already passed. Okubo continued to live with her brother for the next several years.

In 1941, Okubo and her brother heard on the radio that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. Several days after that announcement, the US declared war on Germany and Italy. Okubo heard rumors of “possible sabotage and invasion by the enemy” (10) regarding suspicion of Japanese American loyalty. Several citizens and noncitizens of Japanese ancestry were being “evacuated” (11) to an internment camp. This included Okubo’s father.

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 in 1942 ordered for the evacuation of every American citizen and noncitizen of Japanese ancestry in the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Utah.