JAPANESE INTERNMENT CAMPS
The surprise attack and bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan in 1941, set into motion far-reaching
measures to prevent the reoccurrence of such treachery. Impelled by military necessity, and for
the security of the Pacific West Coast, people of Japanese descent in the tens of thousands were
forcibly relocated from the region.
As the United States entered World War II, there were
approximately 5,000 Japanese Americans in the U.S.
armed forces. They were immediately classified as 4-C,
or enemy aliens — despite their U.S. citizenship. Based
on secret army intelligence reports indicating an
"espionage network containing Japanese aliens, first- and
second- generation Japanese working together
underground..." a military decision was made to
summarily discharge many of those 5,000 servicemen.
Those who remained played a vital role in the war as the
100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team,
winning numerous citations for conspicuous bravery.
Considering it to be of utmost importance to the national
security, the government began the registration of enemy
aliens on February 2, 1942. At the same time, the FBI
began secret, random search-and-seizure raids at the
homes and businesses of Japanese residents, rounding up
dangerous members of the Japanese Black Dragon
Society. The Secretary of War met with President
Franklin D. Roosevelt to ask for authorization to remove alien and citizen Japanese to detention
camps. General John L. DeWitt, commander of the Fourth Army headquarters at the Presidio of
San Francisco, expressed his concern about an "expected violent outburst of coordinated and
controlled sabotage" among the Japanese
population.
A Civil Control Station was set up, to which a
responsible member from each Japanese family
was to report for registration and further
instructions. Fearing more Japanese attacks on
their cities, homes, and businesses, government
leaders in California, Oregon, and Washington,
insisted that the Japanese residents be removed
and placed in isolation farther inland. Facing the
uncertainty of war and mounting pressure from
the people, President Roosevelt signed
Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942,
which resulted in the forcible internment of
people of Japanese ancestry.
The military moved in on what they thought to be the enemy in a timely and dignified manner.
With time of the essence, the Justice Department announced that strategic locations must be
cleared of any such aliens by February 24th.
It was without serious incident that one of the largest migrations in history took place in early
spring of 1942. Under military supervision, the U.S. Government evacuated more than 110,000
people of Japanese descent and placed them into 10 wartime enclaves. More than two thirds of
those interned under the executive order were U.S. citizens, and none had ever demonstrated any
disloyalty.
Forced to carry on their lives under harsh weather conditions and unfamiliar surroundings, the
exiles took up residence in the internment camps. Leaving behind their homes and businesses,
they were scattered all over the interior West in isolated desert areas.
The 10 camps (relocation centers) were located at:
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Amache, Colorado;
Gila River, Arkansas;
Heart Mountain, Wyoming;
Jerome, Arkansas;
Manzanar, California;
Minidoka, Idaho;
Poston, Arizona;
Rohwer, Arkansas;
Topaz, Utah; and
Tula Lake, California.
The last 274 internees were removed from San Francisco, California, on May 20th, 1942. Only
six seriously ill people remained in local
hospitals.
The 10 internment camps resembled prisons
with poor food, cramped quarters, and
communal facilities. The housing provided was
tarpaper covered barracks without plumbing or
cooking facilities. A family of five or six
occupied a single room of 25 by 20 feet. A bath,
laundry and toilet building was shared by more
than 250 people. Older immigrants, known as
Issei, were deprived of traditional status and
respect when their American-born children,
Nisei, were permitted positions of authority within the camps. When internees were given an
opportunity to leave the camps by joining the U.S. Army, approximately 1,200 did so.
Each camp had government-owned or -leased farmland that was utilized by the internees to
produce poultry, eggs and pork. A few of the centers also produced beef and dairy products. The
cost of food per day averaged about 45 cents per resident. At each sitting, 250 to 300 people
were fed cafeteria style in crowded conditions. Workers earned an average of $16 per month for
a 44-hour week with little possibility of economic gain.
Medical care was provided without charge at the centers with hospitals built on site. Education
was provided through high school with many of the internees recruited as teachers, and
vocational training was available in connection with employment programs. Essential to the
community, work opportunities were offered to make the fullest possible use of each internee’s
skills and manpower. Also located at the camps were stores, canteens, barber shops and shoerepair establishments managed by the residents.
The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was created as a civilian agency responsible for assisting
the internees to become acclimated to their new way of life. It was hoped as well that a
considerable number of residents would eventually move out of restricted areas and resettle
inland of their own initiative. About 8,000 were allowed to move; however, mounting resistance
and hostility in surrounding communities, plus the general uncertainty of the war, caused all
further voluntary relocation to be halted by the Western Defense Command.
The WRA was designed to maintain the relocation centers for as long as necessary. Not intended
to be merely places of confinement, they were to provide communities for the evacuees to live,
work and contribute and eventually mainstream back into society. Despite the fact that most
residents were U.S. citizens, many of them buying war bonds and making significant donations
to the American Red Cross, they were now denied the right to become U.S. citizens.
WRA relocation officers and supervisors worked closely with employment agencies to match up
jobs with the most suitable internees, working toward a steady depopulation of the camps,
encouraging able-bodied residents with good records of behavior to reenter employment in
agriculture or industry.
Internal security was maintained at each center with a
resident "special police force" headed by a non-internee
chief, while the exterior boundaries were guarded by
military police. One of the most infamous camps was
located in Tule Lake, California. There the detainees
held frequent demonstrations and strikes demanding their
rights under the U.S. Constitution. As a result, it became
a “segregation camp,” where other camp internees were
sent for refusing to take the loyalty oath, or had been
known to cause disturbances within their original camps.
At its peak, the Tule Lake camp held 18,789 noncompliant detainees.
Most residents of the relocation centers, never being
found guilty of any such wrongful acts or intentions,
were merely a group of American citizens of Japanese
ancestry who happened to be living in a potential combat
zone. Executive Order 9066 was rescinded by President Roosevelt in 1944, and the last of the
camps was closed in March 1946.
The Japanese-descent evacuees left behind an estimated $200,000,000 worth of real,
commercial, and personal property. While the WRA was a mediator for the evacuees in that
regard, their properties and personal items were sold for much lesser value, and they suffered
great financial losses.
Forty-six years after the harsh conditions, dislocated lives, and pain, the U.S. government
formally acknowledged, apologized, and provided token financial restitution of $20,000 to each
of the affected families. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was signed by President Ronald Reagan.
Japanese Relocation Centers
During World War II, nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans were under lock and key
by Ricco Villanueva Siasoco and Shmuel Ross
On February 19, 1942, soon after the beginning of World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive
Order 9066. The evacuation order commenced the round-up of 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage
to one of 10 internment camps—officially called "relocation centers"—in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona,
Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas.
Why Were the Camps Established?
Roosevelt's executive order was fueled by anti-Japanese sentiment among farmers who competed
against Japanese labor, politicians who sided with anti-Japanese constituencies, and the general public,
whose frenzy was heightened by the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. More than two-thirds of the
Japanese who were interned in the spring of 1942 were citizens of the United States.
Similar Orders in Canada
In Canada, similar evacuation orders were established. Nearly 23,000 Nikkei, or Canadians of Japanese
descent, were sent to camps in British Columbia. It was the greatest mass movement in the history of
Canada.
Though families were generally kept together in the United States, Canada sent male evacuees to work in
road camps or on sugar beet projects. Women and children Nikkei were forced to move to six inner British
Columbia towns.
Conditions in the U.S. Camps
The U.S. internment camps were overcrowded and provided poor living conditions. According to a 1943
report published by the War Relocation Authority (the administering agency), Japanese Americans were
housed in "tarpaper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities
of any kind." Coal was hard to come by, and internees slept under as many blankets as they were alloted.
Food was rationed out at an expense of 48 cents per internee, and served by fellow internees in a mess
hall of 250-300 people.
Leadership positions within the camps were only offered to the Nisei, or American-born, Japanese. The
older generation, or the Issei, were forced to watch as the government promoted their children and
ignored them.
Eventually the government allowed internees to leave the concentration camps if they enlisted in the U.S.
Army. This offer was not well received. Only 1,200 internees chose to do so.
Legal Challenges to Internment
Two important legal cases were brought against the United States concerning the internment. The
landmark cases were Hirabayashi v. United States (1943), and Korematsu v. United States (1944). The
defendants argued their fifth amendment rights were violated by the U.S. government because of their
ancestry. In both cases, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the U.S. government.
Closure of the Camps
In 1944, two and a half years after signing Executive Order 9066, fourth-term President Franklin D.
Roosevelt rescinded the order. The last internment camp was closed by the end of 1945.
Government Apologies and Reparations
Forced into confinement by the United States, 5,766 Nisei ultimately renounced their American
citizenship. In 1968, nearly two dozen years after the camps were closed, the government began
reparations to Japanese Americans for property they had lost.
In 1988, the U.S. Congress passed legislation which awarded formal payments of $20,000 each to the
surviving internees—60,000 in all. This same year, formal apologies were also issued by the government
of Canada to Japanese Canadian survivors, who were each repaid the sum of $21,000 Canadian dollars.
Other Groups in the Camps
While Japanese-Americans comprised the overwhelming majority of those in the camps, thousands of
Americans of German, Italian, and other European descent were also forced to relocate there. Many
more were classified as "enemy aliens" and subject to increased restrictions.