can you visit the japanese internment camps

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Japanese Internment Camps

By: History.com Editors

Updated: April 17, 2024 | Original: October 29, 2009

Japanese internment camps were established during World War II by President Franklin D. Roosevelt through his Executive Order 9066 . From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent, including U.S. citizens, would be incarcerated in isolated camps. Enacted in reaction to the Pearl Harbor attacks and the ensuing war, the incarceration of Japanese Americans is considered one of the most atrocious violations of American civil rights in the 20th century.

Executive Order 9066

On February 19, 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 with the stated intention of preventing espionage on American shores.

Military zones were created in California, Washington and Oregon—states with a large population of Japanese Americans. Then Roosevelt’s executive order forcibly removed Americans of Japanese ancestry from their homes. Executive Order 9066 affected the lives about 120,000 people—the majority of whom were American citizens.

Canada soon followed suit, forcibly removing 21,000 of its residents of Japanese descent from its west coast. Mexico enacted its own version, and eventually 2,264 more people of Japanese descent were forcibly removed from Peru, Brazil, Chile and Argentina to the United States.

Anti-Japanese American Activity 

Weeks before the order, the Navy removed citizens of Japanese descent from Terminal Island near the Port of Los Angeles.

On December 7, 1941, just hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the FBI rounded-up 1,291 Japanese American community and religious leaders, arresting them without evidence and freezing their assets.

In January, the arrestees were transferred to prison camps in Montana, New Mexico and North Dakota, many unable to inform their families and most remaining for the duration of the war.

Concurrently, the FBI searched the private homes of thousands of Japanese American residents on the West Coast, seizing items considered contraband.

One-third of Hawaii’s population was of Japanese descent. In a panic, some politicians called for their mass incarceration. Japanese-owned fishing boats were impounded.

Some Japanese American residents were arrested and 1,500 people—one percent of the Japanese population in Hawaii—were sent to prison camps on the U.S. mainland.

Photos of Japanese American Relocation and Incarceration

John DeWitt

Lt. General John L. DeWitt, leader of the Western Defense Command, believed that the civilian population needed to be taken control of to prevent a repeat of Pearl Harbor.

To argue his case, DeWitt prepared a report filled with known falsehoods, such as examples of sabotage that were later revealed to be the result of cattle damaging power lines.

DeWitt suggested the creation of the military zones and Japanese detainment to Secretary of War Henry Stimson and Attorney General Francis Biddle. His original plan included Italians and Germans, though the idea of rounding-up Americans of European descent was not as popular.

At Congressional hearings in February 1942, a majority of the testimonies, including those from California Governor Culbert L. Olson and State Attorney General Earl Warren , declared that all Japanese should be removed.

Biddle pleaded with the president that mass incarceration of citizens was not required, preferring smaller, more targeted security measures. Regardless, Roosevelt signed the order.

War Relocation Authority

After much organizational chaos, about 15,000 Japanese Americans willingly moved out of prohibited areas. Inland state citizens were not keen for new Japanese American residents, and they were met with racist resistance.

Ten state governors voiced opposition, fearing the Japanese Americans might never leave, and demanded they be locked up if the states were forced to accept them.

A civilian organization called the War Relocation Authority was set up in March 1942 to administer the plan, with Milton S. Eisenhower from the Department of Agriculture to lead it. Eisenhower only lasted until June 1942, resigning in protest over what he characterized as incarcerating innocent citizens.

Relocation to 'Assembly Centers'

Army-directed removals began on March 24. People had six days notice to dispose of their belongings other than what they could carry.

Anyone who was at least 1/16th Japanese was evacuated, including 17,000 children under age 10, as well as several thousand elderly and disabled residents.

Japanese Americans reported to "Assembly Centers" near their homes. From there they were transported to a "Relocation Center" where they might live for months before transfer to a permanent "Wartime Residence."

Assembly Centers were located in remote areas, often reconfigured fairgrounds and racetracks featuring buildings not meant for human habitation, like horse stalls or cow sheds, that had been converted for that purpose. In Portland, Oregon , 3,000 people stayed in the livestock pavilion of the Pacific International Livestock Exposition Facilities.

The Santa Anita Assembly Center, just several miles northeast of Los Angeles, was a de-facto city with 18,000 incarcerated, 8,500 of whom lived in stables. Food shortages and substandard sanitation were prevalent in these facilities.

Life in 'Assembly Centers'

Assembly Centers offered work to prisoners with the policy that they should not be paid more than an Army private. Jobs ranged from doctors to teachers to laborers and mechanics. A couple were the sites of camouflage net factories, which provided work.

Over 1,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans were sent to other states to do seasonal farm work. Over 4,000 of the incarcerated population were allowed to leave to attend college.

Conditions in 'Relocation Centers'

There were a total of 10 prison camps, called "Relocation Centers." Typically the camps included some form of barracks with communal eating areas. Several families were housed together. Residents who were labeled as dissidents were forced to a special prison camp in Tule Lake, California.

Two prison camps in Arizona were located on Native American reservations, despite the protests of tribal councils, who were overruled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Each Relocation Center was its own "town," and included schools, post offices and work facilities, as well as farmland for growing food and keeping livestock. Each prison camp "town" was completely surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers.

Net factories offered work at several Relocation Centers. One housed a naval ship model factory. There were also factories in different Relocation Centers that manufactured items for use in other prison camps, including garments, mattresses and cabinets. Several housed agricultural processing plants.

Violence in Prison Camps

Violence occasionally occurred in the prison camps. In Lordsburg, New Mexico , prisoners were delivered by trains and forced to march two miles at night to the camp. On July 27, 1942, during a night march, two Japanese Americans, Toshio Kobata and Hirota Isomura, were shot and killed by a sentry who claimed they were attempting to escape. Japanese Americans testified later that the two elderly men were disabled and had been struggling during the march to Lordsburg. The sentry was found not guilty by the army court martial board.

On August 4, 1942, a riot broke out in the Santa Anita Assembly Center, the result of anger about insufficient rations and overcrowding. At California's Manzanar War Relocation Center , tensions resulted in the beating of Fred Tayama, a Japanese American Citizen’s League (JACL) leader, by six men. JACL members were believed to be supporters of the prison camp's administration. 

Fearing a riot, police tear-gassed crowds that had gathered at the police station to demand the release of Harry Ueno. Ueno had been arrested for allegedly assaulting Tayama. James Ito was killed instantly and several others were wounded. Among those injured was Jim Kanegawa, 21, who died of complications five days later.

At the Topaz Relocation Center , 63-year-old prisoner James Hatsuki Wakasa was shot and killed by military police after walking near the perimeter fence. Two months later, a couple was shot at for strolling near the fence.

In October 1943, the Army deployed tanks and soldiers to  Tule Lake Segregation Center  in northern California to crack down on protests. Japanese American prisoners at Tule Lake had been striking over food shortages and unsafe conditions that had led to an accidental death in October 1943. At the same camp, on May 24, 1943, James Okamoto, a 30-year-old prisoner who drove a construction truck, was shot and killed by a guard.  

Fred Korematsu

In 1942, 23-year-old Japanese-American Fred Korematsu was arrested for refusing to relocate to a Japanese prison camp. His case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where his attorneys argued in Korematsu v. United States that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment . 

Korematsu lost the case, but he went on to become a civil rights activist and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. With the creation of California’s Fred Korematsu Day, the United States saw its first U.S. holiday named for an Asian American. But it took another Supreme Court decision to halt the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Mitsuye Endo

The prison camps ended in 1945 following the  Supreme Court decision,  Ex parte Mitsuye Endo . In this case, justices ruled unanimously that the War Relocation Authority “has no authority to subject citizens who are concededly loyal to its leave procedure.”

The case was brought on behalf of Mitsuye Endo, the daughter of Japanese immigrants from Sacramento, California. After filing a habeas corpus petition, the government offered to free her, but Endo refused, wanting her case to address the entire issue of Japanese incarceration.

One year later, the Supreme Court made the decision, but gave President Truman the chance to begin camp closures before the announcement. One day after Truman made his announcement, the Supreme Court revealed its decision.

Reparations

The last Japanese internment camp closed in March 1946. President Gerald Ford officially repealed Executive Order 9066 in 1976, and in 1988, Congress issued a formal apology and passed the Civil Liberties Act awarding $20,000 each to over 80,000 Japanese Americans as reparations for their treatment.

Japanese Relocation During World War II . National Archives . Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites. J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord and R. Lord . Lordsburg Internment POW Camp. Historical Society of New Mexico . Smithsonian Institute .

Watch the documentary event, FDR . Available to stream now.

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History Cooperative

Japanese Internment Camps: WWII, Reasons, Life, Conditions, and Deaths

The story of Japanese internment camps in the United States represents a complex chapter marked by fear, prejudice, and a struggle for justice. Amid the global conflict, the U.S. government made the controversial decision to relocate and imprison thousands of Japanese Americans, casting a long shadow over the principles of liberty and justice.

This key moment, driven by wartime hysteria and racial discrimination, led to the uprooting of families, the loss of homes and businesses, and the creation of a stark reality behind barbed wire.

Table of Contents

Events Leading Up to the Foundation of Japanese Internment Camps

The road to the establishment of Japanese internment camps was paved with a blend of international tensions and domestic fears. The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, by the Empire of Japan marked a turning point, thrusting the United States into World War II amidst a wave of panic and suspicion.

READ MORE: Pearl Harbor: A Day in Infamy

Overnight, Japanese Americans, many of whom were U.S. citizens or legal residents who had lived in the country for decades, were viewed with distrust and hostility. This fear was not born in a vacuum but was the culmination of years of anti-Japanese sentiment , exacerbated by economic competition and racial prejudices that had simmered on the American West Coast.

The swift move toward internment was further influenced by government and military leaders who argued that Japanese Americans could pose a security threat. Among them, General John L. DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command, played a key role in advocating for the exclusion and detention of Japanese Americans, claiming military necessity .

This atmosphere of fear and suspicion was codified with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. This order authorized the Secretary of War and military commanders to designate military areas from which any or all persons could be excluded, laying the groundwork for the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps.

This decision, fueled by wartime paranoia and racial bias, led to one of the most contentious civil liberties issues of the 20th century, challenging the American ideals of justice and equality.

Executive Order 9066

Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, marked a decisive moment in American history, granting military commanders the authority to exclude any persons from designated military areas.

READ MORE: US History Timeline: The Dates of America’s Journey

Though the order did not specify Japanese Americans, it was implemented to target and relocate them from the West Coast, under the guise of national security. The swift enactment of this order reflected the heightened fear and prejudice against Japanese Americans following the Pearl Harbor attack, culminating in a policy that would affect the lives of thousands.

The implications of Executive Order 9066 were profound and immediate. It led to the creation of military zones and the forced removal of Japanese Americans to internment camps scattered across the interior of the U.S. Families were given mere days to dispose of their properties, businesses, and belongings, often at significant losses.

The order stripped them of their freedoms, rights, and dignity , casting a shadow over the principles of liberty and justice the nation purported to uphold. This chapter in American history serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of wartime hysteria and racial prejudice, highlighting the need for vigilance in protecting the rights and freedoms of all citizens, especially in times of crisis.

Anti-Japanese American Activity

In the years leading up to World War II, anti-Japanese sentiment had been brewing, particularly on the West Coast of the United States, where the majority of Japanese immigrants and their descendants lived. This animosity was deeply rooted in a mixture of racial prejudice, economic envy, and cultural misunderstanding.

READ MORE: WW2 Timeline and Dates

Japanese Americans, despite contributing to the agricultural and economic development of the region, faced discriminatory laws and societal exclusion. The tensions escalated with Japan’s growing military aggression in Asia, further fueling suspicion and xenophobia among the American public.

The attack on Pearl Harbor acted as a catalyst, transforming pre-existing biases into outright hostility. Politicians, media outlets, and influential community leaders began to advocate for the removal of Japanese Americans from the Pacific Coast, falsely accusing them of espionage and sabotage without evidence. This climate of fear and suspicion was not only endorsed but amplified by the federal government’s actions, including Executive Order 9066.

The ensuing anti-Japanese American activity was not merely a grassroots movement but a state-sanctioned policy that legitimized racism and set the stage for the mass incarceration of an entire ethnic group based solely on their ancestry. This period underscores the impact of wartime hysteria combined with racial prejudice, leading to one of the most significant violations of civil liberties in American history.

John DeWitt and His Role in the Internment of Japanese-Americans

Major General John L. DeWitt played a key role in the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. As the commanding officer of the Western Defense Command, DeWitt was tasked with the defense of the Pacific Coast following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Citing concerns over espionage and sabotage, he became one of the most vocal proponents for the removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. DeWitt’s influence was instrumental in shaping the narrative that Japanese Americans posed a national security threat , despite the lack of evidence to support such claims.

DeWitt’s reports and recommendations to the War Department emphasized the perceived impossibility of distinguishing loyal from disloyal Japanese Americans, arguing that, because of their race, they could not be trusted.

His stance was fortified by racial prejudices and a belief in the necessity of drastic measures to ensure national security. His advocacy was a critical factor leading to the issuance of Executive Order 9066 by President Roosevelt.

DeWitt subsequently oversaw the implementation of the order, orchestrating the forced removal and internment of over 110,000 Japanese Americans . His actions, driven by a mixture of wartime hysteria and racial bias, have been widely criticized by historians as unjust and unnecessary, reflecting a dark chapter in the history of civil liberties in the United States.

War Relocation Authority

The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was established on March 18, 1942, through Executive Order 9102 , signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Tasked with managing the forced relocation and internment of Japanese Americans, the WRA represented the bureaucratic machinery behind the internment process .

It was responsible for the logistics, administration, and oversight of the camps, ensuring the implementation of government policy. Under the direction of Milton S. Eisenhower, initially, and later Dillon S. Myer, the WRA navigated the complex logistics of uprooting over 120,000 individuals, two-thirds of whom were American citizens , from their homes and moving them to isolated internment camps across the interior of the United States.

The establishment of the WRA marked a critical phase in the internment process, transitioning from the chaotic initial roundup to a more structured, though still harsh, system of incarceration . The Authority attempted to mitigate the harsh conditions through education and employment opportunities within the camps, but these efforts did little to mask the reality of imprisonment.

The WRA’s role in overseeing the daily lives of internees, from providing basic necessities to enforcing camp rules, highlighted the extent of government involvement in this dark chapter of American history.

Despite its attempts to portray the camps in a positive light, the legacy of the WRA remains intertwined with the violation of civil liberties and the suffering of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Relocation to ‘Assembly Centers’

Before their final transfer to internment camps, Japanese Americans were initially relocated to temporary “ assembly centers .” These were often hastily converted facilities such as racetracks, fairgrounds, and other public buildings, ill-equipped to house the thousands of people who were uprooted from their communities.

Families were given only days to settle their affairs before being evacuated, forcing them to sell their possessions at significant losses or leave them behind entirely. Upon arrival at these centers, they were met with overcrowded conditions, inadequate privacy, and insufficient sanitation facilities, a stark departure from their previous lives and an ominous introduction to their forthcoming internment experience.

The assembly centers served as a transitional phase in the internment process, where individuals were registered and assigned to one of the more permanent internment camps managed by the War Relocation Authority.

Life in these temporary quarters was marked by uncertainty and anxiety, as internees awaited their fate in the unknown conditions of the permanent camps. The use of assembly centers highlighted the logistical challenges and bureaucratic indifference faced by Japanese Americans during their relocation.

This phase of the internment process underscores the disruption of normal life and the rapid deprivation of rights and freedoms experienced by Japanese American families, setting the stage for their prolonged internment under challenging and unjust conditions.

Life in ‘Japanese Concentration Camps’

Life within the Japanese concentration camps was a stark departure from the freedoms of American society, defined by the physical and psychological barriers of barbed wire and guard towers .

READ MORE: Twisted Legacy: Uncovering Who Invented Barbed Wire and Why was Barbed Wire invented?

Despite being labeled as “relocation centers,” these facilities functioned as prisons, where internees faced a daily existence marked by a loss of privacy, autonomy, and dignity. Families, often accustomed to their own homes, were crammed into small, sparsely furnished barracks with little insulation against harsh weather conditions.

The communal facilities for eating, bathing, and using the restroom further eroded personal privacy and comfort.

Yet, within these confines, the Japanese American community strove to maintain a sense of normalcy and resilience. Schools were established for children, and adults engaged in various jobs within the camps to support the community and earn a small income.

READ MORE: Who Invented School? The Story Behind Monday Mornings

Internees organized cultural and recreational activities, such as art classes, sports competitions, and traditional Japanese festivals , to preserve their heritage and bolster spirits. However, these efforts could not fully mitigate the underlying strain and injustice of their situation.

The internment experience left lasting scars on the community, impacting generations with memories of discrimination, loss, and resilience in the face of adversity.

U.S. Propaganda Film Shows ‘Normal’ Life in WWII Japanese Internment Camps

During World War II, the U.S. government engaged in a propaganda campaign to shape public perception of the internment camps housing Japanese Americans. One notable effort was the production of films that depicted a sanitized and misleading portrayal of life inside these camps.

These films aimed to pacify criticism and concern among the American public and international community by showing internees not as prisoners but as beneficiaries of government benevolence .

Through carefully crafted scenes, the films showcased internees engaging in educational activities, farming, and leisure—painting a picture of a harmonious and productive life far removed from the reality of internment.

This strategic use of propaganda served multiple purposes: it sought to justify the government’s internment policy, alleviate growing unease about the treatment of Japanese Americans, and counter any negative impressions that could affect the United States’ international standing during the war.

However, these films starkly contrasted with the testimonies of internees and reports from civil rights advocates, who highlighted the overcrowded living conditions, inadequate facilities, and the psychological toll of imprisonment.

The propaganda films obscured the harsh realities of internment, the stripping away of rights , and the deep wounds inflicted upon thousands of Japanese American families.

Conditions in ‘Relocation Centers’

The conditions in the so-called “ relocation centers ” or internment camps where Japanese Americans were confined during World War II were far from the idyllic scenes portrayed by U.S. government propaganda.

The reality of life in these camps was characterized by hardship, uncertainty, and a stark departure from the principles of freedom and justice. Internees faced a variety of challenging living conditions, from extreme weather to insufficient food and medical care.

The barracks that served as living quarters were poorly constructed and offered little protection against the searing summers and freezing winters common in the remote areas where many camps were located.

Moreover, the camps were designed with a minimum level of infrastructure, leading to overcrowded living spaces, shared latrines with no privacy, and inadequate medical facilities. Despite the efforts of internees to improve their living conditions through community organization and personal initiative, the scarcity of resources and the constant surveillance by military guards underscored the oppressive nature of their confinement.

The psychological impact of internment, including stress, anxiety, and loss of identity, compounded the physical hardships. Stories of resilience, community support, and cultural preservation emerged from within the camps, but these could not negate the injustice of the internment experience.

Violence in Prison Camps

Within the confines of the internment camps, instances of violence were relatively rare but notably significant, marking the tension and desperation that sometimes boiled over among the internees.

The stress of imprisonment, the erosion of community and family structures, and the frustration with unjust incarceration occasionally led to conflicts both among the internees and between internees and camp guards.

One of the most notable incidents of violence occurred at the Manzanar internment camp in December 1942 , known as the Manzanar Riot or Uprising, where tensions between the camp administration and the internees escalated into violence, resulting in the death of two Japanese Americans and injuries to several others.

These instances of violence were symptomatic of the broader issues within the camps: the struggle for leadership and representation among the internees , the inadequacy of the administration to address the internees’ concerns, and the underlying injustice of their situation. The presence of armed guards and the enforcement of strict regulations heightened the atmosphere of repression and control.

While the camps were not violent places on a day-to-day basis, these incidents of unrest underscored the inherent conflict of detaining loyal American citizens and residents without due process.

The violence that did erupt within the camps serves as a reminder of the profound impact of internment on the psyche and social dynamics of the Japanese American community , illustrating the complex interplay of resilience, despair, and resistance under the shadow of unjust incarceration.

The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II , while not characterized by the mass violence seen in other wartime atrocities, still led to loss of life under the harsh conditions and psychological strain of unjust incarceration.

Deaths in the internment camps occurred due to a variety of reasons, including inadequate medical care , the stress and despair of long-term confinement, and, in rare instances, violence. Elderly internees, children, and those with pre-existing health conditions were particularly vulnerable to the camps’ inadequate living conditions and limited access to healthcare.

The exact number of deaths across all the internment camps is difficult to ascertain, as records were not always meticulously kept or have been lost over time . However, each death within these camps represents a personal tragedy and a stark reminder of the human cost of policies born out of fear and prejudice.

Memorials and monuments have been erected in several former camp sites and cemeteries, serving as somber reminders of those who died as a result of their internment. These sites encourage reflection on the fragility of civil liberties in times of crisis and the importance of remembering the individuals and families affected by this chapter of American history.

10 Japanese Internment Camps

The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II led to the establishment of ten major camps across the United States, primarily located in remote areas far from the Pacific coast.

These camps were designed to house over 120,000 Japanese Americans forcibly removed from their homes in the wake of Executive Order 9066.

The locations of these camps were chosen based on their isolation and the government’s ability to control the internees, often placing them in harsh and unforgiving environments. Here is a brief overview of the ten major internment camps:

Manzanar War Relocation Center in California became one of the most well-known camps, symbolizing the hardships and resilience of the interned population.

Tule Lake Segregation Center in California, designated for those considered “disloyal,” was the largest of the camps and witnessed significant unrest and protest.

Minidoka War Relocation Center in Idaho, where internees worked in agriculture to support the war effort despite their confinement.

Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah, known for its harsh climate and the vibrant arts community that emerged among the internees.

Heart Mountain War Relocation Center in Wyoming, notable for its high school, which became the largest in the state due to the interned population.

Granada War Relocation Center (Amache) in Colorado, where internees faced some of the harshest living conditions.

Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas, one of the two camps located in the humid and mosquito-infested swamps of the Mississippi Delta.

Jerome War Relocation Center in Arkansas, the other camp in the Delta, marked by its brief operation period and challenging conditions.

Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona, distinguished by its leadership in agriculture and relatively better relations with the surrounding community.

Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona, the largest camp by area, located on an Indian reservation and suffering from extreme summer heat.

Each of these camps has its own history, marked by the resilience of the Japanese American community in the face of adversity. Today, they serve as poignant reminders of the need for vigilance against the erosion of civil liberties and the importance of remembering the lessons of the past.

Memorials and educational centers at some of these sites continue to educate the public about this dark chapter in American history, ensuring that the stories of those who were interned are not forgotten.

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Japanese-american internment: executive order 9066.

On December 7, 1941, Japanese naval and air forces attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, bringing the U.S. into World War II. In the weeks following the attack, fear and suspicion grew of the sizable Japanese American community in the U.S. Might these immigrants and first generation Americans side with Japan against the United States? Based on those fears, combined with a long history of anti-Japanese immigrant sentiment, the U.S. government forced more than 110,000 Japanese Americans living along the West Coast into Internment Camps for the duration of the war. In a war that the U.S. fought to preserve liberty around the world, this event stands out starkly as a violation of the civil and human rights of tens of thousands right here at home.

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066—an order that gave the War Department the authority to declare any part of the country a restricted military area “from which any or all persons may be excluded.” California, Oregon, Washington, and southern Arizona were soon designated as such. The persons to be excluded were Japanese Americans.

Beginning in March of 1942, Japanese Americans were ordered to register with the War Relocation Authority (WRA) for “evacuation.” Families were told they could only bring what they could carry. Businesses, homes, and possessions had to be sold or entrusted to neighbors or friends. Pets had to be left behind. Of the more than 110,000 people sent to Internment Camps, two-thirds were Nisei—first generation Americans—and the other third were Issei—born in Japan. A great many of the internees were children and teenagers.

By October 1942 nearly all internees were housed in ten hastily built camps run by the WRA. These camps were located in isolated, often desolate locations. Barbed wire and military police surrounded them. Along with loss of freedom, families shared a single room (often without plumbing and little heat), ate in communal dining halls, endured harsh weather, and suffered mental and physical stresses of being confined against their will. Nutrition, education, and health care were all inadequate. Despite these sub-standard conditions, people did their best to make life in the camps as “normal” as possible. They established schools and governing bodies, organized baseball teams, created music and art groups, planted vegetable gardens, and held religious services—anything they could do to make life in the camps bearable.

In 1943 the U.S. government reversed its exclusion of Japanese Americans from the draft (they had been considered enemy aliens) and asked for volunteers from the camps to serve in the military. More than 800 men volunteered and became part of the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat team. The 442nd, which fought in Italy, Southern France, and Germany, became one of the most highly decorated units of WWII. While these men fought for America, their families were living behind barbed wire in their own country.

In challenging the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, Fred Korematsu argued that his rights and those of other Americans of Japanese descent had been violated. In Korematsu v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the government, saying that military necessity overruled those civil rights. In his dissent, however, Justice Frank Murphy stated that the exclusion of Japanese Americans “falls into the ugly abyss of racism.”

Executive Order 9066 was finally rescinded on January 2, 1945, and internees slowly began to return home to rebuild their lives. In 1988 the U.S. government issued a formal apology to all former internees and paid $20,000 to each surviving internee. The government acknowledged that the internment had been based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” To this day, Japanese American Internment during WWII is studied as a cautionary tale of the need for vigilance when maintaining the constitutional rights of all Americans.

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History Resources

Japanese Internment Camps of WWII

By luke michel.

Since Japanese people began migrating to America in the mid-nineteenth century, there has been resentment and tension between Americans and Asian immigrants. In California at the turn of the century laws were passed making it difficult for Japanese to own land in America, become naturalized, or to even migrate to America. By the 1920s California had banned almost all immigration from Japan, and laws made interracial marriage illegal. After World War I and the failed attempts of America to create and join the League of Nations, there were strong national feelings of isolationism and nationalism that only added fuel to this fire.

The 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan exacerbated the tension and animosity between people of Japanese descent and white Americans on the west coast. Many Americans were convinced that Japan was going to invade the U.S. by way of California and that the Japanese there were loyal to Japan and would aid its efforts. On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which gave military leaders the authority to create military areas from which groups of people could be excluded. Eventually, more than 110,000 people of Japanese descent, half of whom were children and two-thirds of whom were American citizens, were removed from their homes and relocated to internment camps until the camps were closed in January 1945.

• Students will understand the social and racial climate of the United States from the beginning of the twentieth century up to World War II.
• Students will understand the effects that the bombing of Pearl Harbor had on the United States and American society.
• Students will understand the Japanese internment camps that were instituted in the United States during World War II.
• Students will analyze primary source photographs in order to understand daily life in the Japanese internment camps
• Students will understand the legal arguments for the Japanese internment camps and the legal arguments for discontinuing the camps through analysis of primary source materials.

Activity One: Post-Pearl Harbor America

Briefly review and explore racial tensions in America after the Civil War, including Plessy v. Ferguson, up to World War II. Discuss the effects of Pearl Harbor on America in terms of race and national security.

Use the sources below to introduce the the Japanese internment camps. Have students read primary source documents on FDR's Executive Orders 8022 and 9066 and respond to questions in small groups. Bring the class back together to discuss the sources as a whole.

Introduction to the topic:

• “From Citizen to Enemy: The Tragedy of Japanese Internment” by Julie Des Jardins, History Now 14 (Winter 2007), The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
• WWII - Japanese Internment Camps in the USA , HistoryOnTheNet.com, Salem Media

Activity Two: Life in the Japanese Internment Camps

Using images from the website below, have students analyze the photographs and complete the photo analysis sheets. Either print out copies of some of the pictures to use in small groups or display the images by projector and have the students complete the work individually.

Discussion questions:

• What was life like in the internment camps?
• How do these images make you feel? Why?
• What evidence did you see that confirms the fears and reasoning for removing these people from American society? What evidence did you see that contradicts the fears and reasoning for removing these people from American society?
• Japanese-American Internment Camps during WWII , J. Willard Marriott Library, the University of Utah 
• Photo analysis sheet from National Archives

Activity Three: The Legality of Internment Camps

Review the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, and research the Japanese American court cases Korematsu v. US and Endo v. US. A good source for studying these cases is the University of Dayton's page on Japanese Internment .

Follow-Up Questions

• To what extent did the internment camps violate the rights of American citizens?
• To what extent do you agree with the national security argument?
• To what extent do the events of and surrounding Japanese internment have relevance in America today?

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• About OurStory
• Resources for Parents & Educators

Our Story: American History Stories and Activities You Can Do Together

• Field Trips

Historic time period: 1929–1945

• Life in a WWII Japanese-American Internment Camp

During World War II, the United States was at war with Japan. By an executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, all Americans of Japanese descent living in military exclusion zones on the West Coast were forced to leave their homes and move to internment camps.

Since the end of the war, the Japanese American community has loaned a large collection of objects to the National Museum of American History. These artifacts, which relate to the experiences of Americans of Japanese descent during the war, are shown in the exhibition A More Perfect Union.

Baseball Saved Us is a story about a young American boy of Japanese descent named Shorty who is forced to leave his home and move to an army prison camp for the duration of the war. You can learn more about the Japanese American experience during World War II by reading Baseball Saved Us , exploring A More Perfect Union online , and by trying out the activities below.

Read more about life in the internment camps »

Read This Book

You can learn more about the internment of Japanese Americans in these books. Click on the book titles below for more information, or visit our complete bibliography .

More Recommended Books

• So Far From the Sea by Eva Bunting
• The Eternal Spring of Mr. Ito by Shelia Garrigue
• A Carp for Kimoko by Virginia Kroll
• A Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II by Ellen Levine
• The Children of Topaz: The Story of a Japanese-American Internment Camp by Michael O. Tunnel and George W. Chilcoat
• The Bracelet by Toshiko Uchida
• Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp by Michael L. Cooper
• The Journey of Ben Uchida by Barry Denenberg
• Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata
• A Boy at War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor by Harry Mazer
• A Boy No More by Harry Mazer
• Heroes Don't Run: A Novel of the Pacific War by Harry Mazer
• Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference by Joanne Oppenheim
• Stanley Hayami, Nisei Son by Joanne Oppenheim
• Journey Home by Yoshiko Uchida
• Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese American Evacuation by Yoshiko Uchida
• A Place Where Sunflowers Grow by Amy Lee-Tai

Download a PDF of this book list »

Featured Book

Baseball saved us, by ken mochizuki.

• About this book »
• Download the reading guide PDF »

Baseball Saved Us . Text copyright 1993 by Ken Mochizuki. Illustration copyright by Dom Lee. All rights reserved. Used by permission from Lee & Low Books.

Recommended Book

Read Baseball Saved Us

Meet Shorty, who is forced to leave his home and move to an army prison camp during World War II. Find out more about the book, its author, and its illustrator.

Honoring Japanese Americans

Learn from objects.

What would a medal for the kids who lived in internment camps look like? Learn about the award for Japanese American soldiers and create your own.

Connecting Food and Stories

Play and create.

Try your hand at Weenie Royale or Spam Musubi, foods that some families ate while living in an internment camp.

Take a Trip

Can math make you better at baseball? Find and explore a baseball field near you to practice hitting, pitching, and running the bases.

Real People, Real Stories

Use technology.

Hear stories of the internment camps from people who lived there as children. Make a baseball card to retell their stories in your own words.

Leaving Things Behind

What would you take with you if you were forced to move to an internment camp? Answer questions and draw pictures of your most precious belongings.

Make Your Own Fish Kite

Follow these ten simple steps and create your own Japanese kite in the shape of a fish.

Need the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® ? Download it here .

Need the Adobe® Flash® Player? Download it here .

See all OurStory activities »

Activities:

Select a subject.

• A Letter to Abraham Lincoln
• A Puerto Rican Carnival
• All Aboard the Train!
• An American Story in Dance and Music
• Building Beautiful Buildings
• Coming to America
• Discover and Protect Nature
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nonviolence
• Duke Ellington and Jazz
• Exploring the Sky
• First Lady for the Environment
• Full Steam to Freedom
• Great Women of Our Pasts
• Life in a Sod House
• Life on the Water
• Making the Star-Spangled Banner
• Money Makers
• Pueblo Pots
• September 11, 2001
• Slave Life and the Underground Railroad
• Students Sit for Civil Rights
• Winning the Vote for Women
• By Historic Era »
• By Activity Type »

Smithsonian National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center

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• HISTORY & CULTURE

The U.S. forced them into internment camps. Here’s how Japanese Americans started over.

The hardships didn’t end with their incarceration. Japanese Americans lost their homes and livelihoods during the war. Here’s how they fought for—and won—reparations for those losses.

When the Tomihiro family left Minidoka War Relocation Center in south-central Idaho in 1945, they didn’t head home to Portland, Oregon, where they’d lived for decades. “Home” didn’t exist anymore—they had lost everything during the internment of people of Japanese ancestry in World War II. Before the war, the family had owned a half-block of houses and stores and a hotel. Now, they had nothing.

Their new apartment in Chicago was “really miserable, dark and dank, and roach- and rodent-infested,” Chiye Tomihiro recalled during a public hearing in Chicago about the harsh toll of internment in 1981. “We did not even have a sink.” Her mother, who got work as a seamstress, washed the family’s dishes in a hand basin in the hall; her father, once a powerful businessman, was never able to find steady employment again. Chiye eventually became her family’s sole breadwinner, an excruciating reversal of roles that pained her proud family.

The Tomihiros were just one family among the tens of thousands who were detained for years by their own government. Beginning in 1942, the U.S. forced Japanese Americans into internment camps in far-flung parts of the country, depriving them of their freedom and livelihoods. After the war, they were forced to start over—and began to demand compensation for their suffering.

'Enemy aliens'

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt paved the way for internment with Executive Order 9066 , which gave military leaders the authority to create wide-reaching military zones and exclude “any or all persons” from them. Fearing a land invasion by Japan, the government put the entire West Coast and Hawaii under military authority, paving the way for the “evacuation” of about 120,000 people of Japanese descent, 70,000 of them U.S. citizens, who were now dubbed “enemy aliens.” They could bring along only what they could carry, and lived in isolated, bare-bones internment camps monitored by military guards.

By 1943, it had become clear that a Japanese invasion was unlikely, and the War Department in Washington found it increasingly difficult to justify detaining thousands of people indefinitely, even as anti-Japanese sentiment raged throughout the country. The War Department began offering some detainees leave opportunities to pursue higher education or work in seasonal agricultural jobs. Then, officials dangled the possibility of indefinite leave to those willing to declare their loyalty to the United States. Almost 35,000 Japanese Americans left the camps in 1944, but tens of thousands remained.

Finally, amid growing pressure and legal challenges to shut down the camps, Roosevelt suspended Executive Order 9066—after he won re-election in November 1944. In a cabinet meeting on December 17, the administration announced it would end exclusion as of January 1, 1945. The next day, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in the Ex Parte Mitsuye Endo   case, ruling that the government could not detain loyal U.S. citizens. Though it took nearly a year to close down all the camps, Japanese Americans were now free to return home.

We don’t want them, and since they know that, they shouldn’t want to come back. If they do, there will be trouble. Leonard Goldsmith , Seattle janitor

In the years after internment, the word “home” had a very different meaning for the former detainees. Many didn’t have a home to return to at all—many had been forced to sell their property, belongings, and businesses at steep discounts in the rushed days before their incarceration; some lost them during the war. Others returned to find their homes had been vandalized, destroyed, or foreclosed upon.

For Hungry Minds

Alien land laws that forbade Asian Americans from owning certain land and redlining, a practice that prevented minority groups from getting loans to buy homes in certain neighborhoods, made economic recovery difficult. Internees instead settled in cities that had been reshaped dramatically by the war, making housing and good jobs scarce. People found themselves living in trailers, cheap hostels, and even repurposed military barracks.

“When the Japanese arrived in the United States they were at the bottom of the economic ladder,” the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians wrote in its 1983 report on Japanese internment. “The impact of evacuation is made more poignant by the fact that it cut short the life and strength of the immigrants, frequently destroying the fruit of years of effort.”

Economic hardship wasn’t the only peril the released internees faced. Stoked by decades of intolerance and Japan’s enemy status during the war, anti-Japanese sentiment was further fanned by the announcement internment would end. White citizens formed anti-Japanese clubs—and joined existing organizations like the Japanese Exclusion League—to lobby against Japanese Americans’ return to their communities.

“Somebody should be arrested for even thinking of bringing the J--- back,” Seattle janitor Leonard Goldsmith told the Seattle Daily Times , employing a common slur used to describe Japanese Americans. “We don’t want them, and since they know that, they shouldn’t want to come back. If they do, there will be trouble.”

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Some returning detainees were met with threats. In Hood River, Oregon, white farmers falsely claimed Japanese Americans had engaged in a conspiracy to corner the orchard business before the war, and returning internees were met with boycotts, racial slurs, and physical attacks. Hood River’s American Legion post even removed the names of 16 Japanese American servicemen from its honor roll.

Many Japanese Americans who once held white-collar jobs or owned businesses could only get post-war jobs doing menial labor or domestic service—a blow not only to pride, but to a traditional patriarchal structure of most Japanese American families, which prized fathers as breadwinners and valued financial status and community leadership. For many, it was too painful to revisit what had been taken away during internment.

Recovery and redress

Though the Japanese American community inched toward economic recovery, “this appearance of normalcy was achieved by ‘forgetting’ the evacuation experience,” sociologist Tetsuden Kashima, who was incarcerated at the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah as a child, wrote in 1980. As families struggled to regain footing, they prioritized assimilation over pride and maintained a code of silence about their experiences. A generation gap developed between the older Issei, or Japanese-born immigrants; the Nisei, or second generation, who grew up in the United States; and the Sansei, a third generation who were interned as small children or born “after camp.”

Only in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s did the tide turn as Japanese Americans began demanding answers about their families’ mass detention. Though the U.S. government had paid out about $38 million to Japanese Americans who claimed losses from the “evacuation” after the war starting in 1948, the payments represented only a fraction of the actual losses from internment. The successes of the Civil Rights Movement energized the Sansei, who began to pressure Congress to pay former internees and apologize for their incarceration.

In 1980, Congress created the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, a bipartisan commission that conducted intensive historical research and public hearings across the country with more than 750 witnesses. Three years later, the commission issued a landmark report calling out internment as “a grave injustice” and recommended internees be individually compensated.

After years of public controversy and Congressional foot dragging, the U.S. adopted the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 , which granted $20,000 in financial redress and a presidential apology to every surviving U.S. citizen or legal resident who had been incarcerated. By then, though, many of the older generation had already died, making it a bitter victory for Japanese Americans.

The anti-Asian sentiment that enabled internment still lives on: Between March 2020 and February 2021, Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit organization that tracks incidents of discrimination and harassment against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States, received almost 3,800 reports of hate incidents. Nearly 80 years after internment, Japanese Americans still must fend off threats to their civil rights, and even their lives.

Today, there are about 1.5 million people of Japanese ancestry in the United States, and the generations that came after internment watched their elders both survive and rebuild.

“The journey from silence to redress has shown that some forms of resilience evolve over decades,” psychologists Donna K. Nagata and Yuzuru J. Takeshita wrote in 1998. Japanese Americans are still affected by internment and its legacies—but resilience and strength are also part of their heritage.  

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‘A Continuum of Love’: Telling the Story of WWII Japanese-American Internment Camps

Emma atkinson, university of denver professor of anthropology esteban gomez and recent alumna whitney peterson’s new film, “snapshots of confinement,” premieres this month on pbs..

Photo courtesy of Esteban Gomez.

If you search online for the history of World War II Japanese American internment camps in the United States, you’ll find a wealth of photos, some taken by famed photographers like Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams. But a new documentary film, produced by a University of Denver professor and his former student, digs deeper.

“ Snapshots of Confinement ,” produced by anthropology professor Esteban Gomez and DU graduate Whitney Peterson (MA ’18), tells the stories of survivors by examining their personal photo albums from time spent in Japanese American internment camps across the country—including Colorado’s Camp Amache, now a national historic site.

The film follows both survivors of the camps and their families and descendants, focusing mainly on the stories of those who were held at Amache.

“There's been a lot of focus on professional and government photography of the time, but really, little attention has been paid to the photographs and albums that the people who were incarcerated were able to take and curate through that experience,” says Peterson.

A journey to filmmaking

Peterson says the project is a long time in the making. More than a decade ago, she worked at Manzanar National Historic Site, a former Japanese American internment camp in Inyo County, California, that is now a museum. There, Peterson participated in the site’s oral history program and worked to curate photographs that people had donated to the museum.

“I had an opportunity to meet so many people who experienced this firsthand—and their family members—and I was just so moved by their stories,” Peterson remembers. “And I was able to continue that work when I came to DU as a grad student.”

Gomez says that Peterson’s work at Manzanar was what really made her grad school application stand out from the rest. When he reviewed her application materials with fellow anthropology professor Bonnie Clark, he says he knew immediately that she was the right fit.

“That’s rare, given the number of applications we review every year, but it just seemed like it made sense,” Gomez says.

And Peterson’s place within the anthropology program at DU did make sense—so much sense, in fact, that her time with Gomez and Clark led to the creation of the film, which is funded by a grant from the National Park Service.

The stories that moved them

One of the interviewees, Rosie Kakuuchi, was incarcerated at Manzanar as a high school student. Her photo album tells the stories of her siblings—a brother who loved to play baseball and a sister who tragically died giving birth to twin girls.

“There are questions about [her death], if that would that have happened if this whole incarceration didn't happen,” Peterson says. “I think it just really shed light on the significant impact that this had on individuals and people's families.”

Another interviewee, Diana Tsuchida, shared photos of her grandfather and father from when they were incarcerated. Tsuchida does her own oral history work about the internment of Japanese Americans during the war.

“I think the photos have been really instrumental in her exploring her own family history and the complex history involved in incarceration,” Peterson says. “I think those photographs are really a touchstone for exploring the complexities of that experience and the identity related to that time.”

Gomez says Tsuchida’s participation in the film was particularly moving.

“The reason why she does this work, this oral history work, is because it's part of this ‘continuum of love,’ this idea that she is renewing this love and attention for this topic, but also reaffirming her identity.”

The film also touches on the singling out of those who came to be known as the “No-No Boys,” boys and men who answered “no” to two questions on a survey given to every Japanese American who was forced into the camps.

The questions were , “Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?” and “Will you swear unqualified allegiances to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or other foreign government, power or organization?”

Those who answered “no” to both questions were prosecuted.

“One of the things that we really focused on during the second half of the film is this question of what it means to be American,” Gomez says. “Diana Tsuchida’s grandfather was one of the No-No Boys. It created a lot of tension between different communities of Japanese Americans [in the camps]. And so, in the film, we explore that tension and how this had a long-standing impact on the Japanese American community long after the war.”

Making history accessible to everyone

Gomez says he hopes the film and its story of discrimination against Japanese Americans will attract young audiences who are interested in the history of social justice.

“I think there are so many different movements across the country right now to limit the number of voices that highlight the critical nature of our history, with more and more conservative school boards, trying to limit what type of history we understand,” he says. “So, I think, in that sense, we wanted to make sure that we created a film that can continue this narrative and make sure that a younger generation can relate to it.”

Hearing from those who experienced discrimination firsthand, Peterson adds, is part of what makes the film so powerful.

“I think we're at this really critical moment where the generations of people who experienced World War II are almost gone; they're reaching 100 years old at this point,” she says. “I think it is this transition—for folks who are now tasked with carrying out carrying on that legacy—I think that's why the photo albums are interesting, because they're this tangible connection to this past, that people physically pass on to younger folks in their family and to new generations.”

Gomez and Peterson say they hope the film inspires viewers to dig into their own family histories—to open the shoeboxes of old photos we all have in our closets or under our beds—because photos can tell a powerful story.

“It's this thing that we often take for granted, these everyday mementos,” Peterson reflects. “I think everyone can relate to having family heirlooms or things in their homes that might tell a story about their own legacy, and maybe their own history as well, and I think these photo albums do tell the story of resilience and community in a way that's really important to reflect on.”

Where to watch

“Snapshots of Confinement” will premiere on PBS SoCal Plus on May 1 at 8 p.m. PST. The film will also be available to stream for free on the PBS website . 

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Photo Credit: Japanese American children at the Raphael Weill Public School in San Francisco recite the Pledge of Allegiance, April 1942. The two girls in the front row were both sent to internment camps along with their parents.

“Justice for All”

The forced relocation and internment of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans was a blot on America’s credo of ‘justice for all.’

This article appears in: Fall 2022

By Susan Zimmerman

In the fall of 1941, as relations worsened between the United States and Japan and war became imminent, the presence of 110,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast pushed the issue of internment to the forefront. President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to know where their allegiances stood in the event of a war and tasked John Franklin Carter, the head of his newly formed White House intelligence and “fact-finding” operation, with the assignment. The question of loyalties and internment was a ticking time bomb.

Almost two months into the investigations, the loyalties of the Japanese Americans proved to be in good standing. Then a time bomb went off. Pearl Harbor was attacked, leaving 2,403 Americans dead and a nation in shock and more suspicious than ever of their Japanese American neighbors. While the country’s attention was riveted on the devastation from the attack, hours later another time bomb went off about 100 miles northwest of Honolulu on the island of Niihau.

During the attack’s second wave, a Mitsubishi Zero that was escorting the Japanese bombers back to their carrier was hit by an American P-36 Hawk and damaged. The pilot, Shigenori Nishikaichi, was instructed by his superiors to land on Niihau and await rescue on what was believed to be an uninhabited island. But the westernmost and second smallest of the Hawaiian Islands was a privately owned ranching island and home to 136 residents, three of whom were Japanese Americans.

The first islander at the crash scene was native Hawaiian Howard Kaleohano, who confiscated the pilot’s gun and papers as he emerged from his plane. Although news of the attack on Pearl Harbor had not yet reached Niihau, the islanders were aware of tensions with Japan and planned to transport the pilot by boat to authorities in Kauai. There was no electricity on the island, so those in Kauai were also unaware of the crash. After rough seas postponed the trip, the pilot was placed under house guard for the next three days with Yoshio Harada, a Japanese American citizen, and his wife, a Japanese alien. During this time, loyalties changed.

After Kaleohana refused to return the papers to the pilot, Harada helped the pilot escape from the house guard. Harada and the pilot got hold of guns and started terrorizing the islanders, taking several as hostages and threatening to kill them in an attempt to retrieve the papers. During the attack, they burned Nishikaichi’s plane and also burned down Kaleohano’s house, hoping to destroy the papers they believed were there. It all came to a brutal end the next day.

According to the report filed by Lieutenant C.B. Baldwin of the 14th Naval District, Benny Kanahele [one of the hostages] attempted to grab the pilot’s pistol but failed. Benny’s wife, also a hostage, attempted to take the pistol but Harada pulled her away, and seized the pistol. After Benny Kanahele was shot three times by Harada, Benny picked up the pilot bodily and dashed his head on a stone wall, killing him. [Some sources suggest that Benny’s wife killed the pilot after he was knocked unconscious.] Then Harada, committing suicide, shot himself in the abdomen twice and died soon afterward.

The Niihau incident and the issue of Japanese American loyalties were both brought to the forefront during the Roberts Commission, which Roosevelt created to determine responsiblity for Pearl Harbor. At the hearings, United States attorney for Hawaii, Angus M. Taylor, Jr., was asked by the Chairman, “What is your attitude as to the Japanese here, should there be any Japanese victories or should there be a threat of a real invasion by the Japanese on this island?”

Taylor responded, “The incident at Niihau should have convinced anyone if they needed convincing, because they went right over to help that aviator … the minute that aviator landed they gave him assistance…. Based on my experiences of the Japanese in this territory and on my information, I think that if there were an invasion or something of that sort that they would go over to the other side.”

Although similar work was already afoot under the auspices of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), Roosevelt had also sourced the job to his “informal” intelligence operation, run by John Franklin Carter, a journalist and government official. The man selected from Carter’s “cadre of agents” was Curtis B. Munson, a wealthy Chicago businessman who operated under the guise of working for the State Department.

Munson spent four weeks traveling to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle, then another nine days in Hawaii, investigating the loyalties of the Japanese Americans. Roosevelt received regular updates from Carter, along with Munson’s field notes. On December 8, 1941, the day Roosevelt gave his “day of infamy” speech and asked Congress for a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan, Carter delivered a memo to Roosevelt along with Munson’s 17-page “Report on Hawaiian Islands,” that confirmed the loyalties of the islanders. There was no mention of Niihau. Baldwin’s official intelligence report would not be filed for another eight days.

In a December 20, 1941, report, Munson noted, “Your reporter, fully believing that his original reports are still good after the [Pearl Harbor] attack, makes the following observations about handling the Japanese ‘problem’ on the West Coast.”

What followed were seven pages of suggestions about how “loyal Japanese citizens should be encouraged.” Munson’s findings indicated the Japanese Americans were on the same side as their fellow Americans, but the push for internment was gaining momentum.

Words of caution from Assistant Attorney General James H. Rowe, Jr., did nothing to change the course of events. On February 2, 1942, Rowe sent a memorandum to Roosevelt’s secretary Grace Tully: “Please tell the President to keep his eye on the Japanese situation in California. It looks to me like it will explode any day now.

“There is tremendous public pressure to move all of them out of California—citizens and aliens—and no one seems to worry about how or to where. There are about 125,000 of them, and if that happens, it will be one of the great mass exoduses of history … My only point now is to give him some warning.”

Twelve days later, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the evacuation and internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of them citizens by birth. At the time that the Executive Order was issued, Munson had already produced copious amounts of material that established the loyalty of the Japanese Americans. The proof was in the President’s hands, and still he signed.

The Munson Memos (now at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library) document this black mark in American history. In Carter’s first report of Munson’s findings to Roosevelt, he wrote: “The essence of what he has to report is that, to date, he has found no evidence which would indicate that there is danger of wide-spread anti-American activities among this population group. He feels that the Japanese are more in danger from the whites than the other way around.”

The day after Pearl Harbor, Carter sent Roosevelt Munson’s 17-page Hawaii investigation report. Wrote Munson, “This reporter believes there is this fundamental difference between the Japanese ‘Problem’ on the Coast and the Japanese ‘Problem’ in the Hawaiian Islands. On the [West] Coast, the Japanese are discriminated against on a racial basis. In Hawaii it is really on a social and economic basis … The consensus of opinion is that there will be no racial uprising of the Japanese in Honolulu.”

Eleven days later, Carter informed Roosevelt that five Los Angeles Japanese Americans had committed suicide because their honor could not stand the suspicion of their loyalty. Munson quickly headed to Washington to propose a program “for maintaining the loyalty of Japanese Americans and establishing wholesome race-relations… [and] to utilize Japanese filial piety as hostage for good behavior.” The first point stated: “Encourage the Nisei [Japanese American citizens] by a statement from high authority.”

Roosevelt had all the information he had asked for. The country’s Japanese Americans would be loyal.

Where the Munson Report ended, the Ringle Report picked up. On January 26, 1942, the Chief of Naval Operations requested a report from Lt. Cmdr. Kenneth D. Ringle of the 11th Naval District in Los Angeles “concerning his views on Japanese.”

Ringle, an ONI officer who had been looking into the loyalty issue since July 1940, was well ensconced in the Japanese communities and had also assisted Munson in his investigation by introducing him to some of his Nisei contacts within the Japanese communities. Ringle noted in his report: “A very great many of the Nisei have taken legal steps … to officially divest themselves of Japanese citizenship … even though by doing so they become legally dead in the eye of the Japanese law.”

The Ringle Report was submitted on January 30, 1942, and strongly advocated against mass confinement of the Japanese Americans. Ringle noted “that, in short, the entire ‘Japanese Problem’ has been magnified out of its true proportion, largely because of the physical characteristics of the people; that it is no more serious than the problems of the German, Italian, and Communistic portions of the United States population, and finally that it should be handled on the basis of the individual, regardless of citizenship, and not on a racial basis.”

In October 1942, Ringle published an article in Harper’s Magazine that was based on his original report. Entitled “The Japanese in America: The Problem and Solution,” it identified him only as “An Intelligence Officer.” He wrote, “Had this war not come along at this time, in another 10 or 15 years there would have been no Japanese problem, for the Issei [first-generation Japanese Americans not eligible for U.S. citizenship] would have passed on, and the Nisei taken their place naturally in American communities and national life.”

On February 17, 1942, two days before Roosevelt signed the executive order, Attorney General Francis Biddle sent a letter to the President, which summed up the racial prejudices on the West Coast: “It is extremely dangerous for the columnists, acting as ‘Armchair Strategists and Junior G-Men,’ to suggest that an attack on the West Coast and planned sabotage is imminent when the military authorities and the F.B.I. have indicated that this is not the fact. It comes close to shouting FIRE! in the theater; and if race riots occur, these writers will bear a heavy responsibility.”

Two days later, “one of the great mass exoduses of history” became a reality. The executive order authorized Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson to establish “military areas” from which “any or all persons may be excluded.”

The language used in the edict was vague and never specifically stated the Japanese, but they were clearly the intended persons. Colonel Karl Robin Bendetsen of the Wartime Civil Control Administration then ordered anyone in California with 1/16th or more Japanese lineage be interned. Bendetsen went so far as to say that anyone with “one drop of Japanese blood” qualified.

Just two days after the order was signed, Munson sent Roosevelt’s personal secretary, Grace Tully, a memo on the “Japanese Situation on West Coast at Present,” saying “we are drifting into a treatment of the Japanese corresponding to Hitler’s treatment of the Jews.”

On March 29, 1942, under the authority of Executive Order 9066, Lt. General John L. DeWitt of the U.S. Army’s Western Defense Command issued Public Proclamation No. 4, which began the forced evacuation and detention of West Coast residents of Japanese American ancestry on a 48-hour notice. At the start, 17 temporary assembly centers were established at racetracks, fairgrounds in Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona.

By November 1942, the relocation was complete, with ten centers in remote areas in six western states and Arkansas: Heart Mountain in Wyoming; Tule Lake and Manzanar in California; Topaz in Utah; Poston and Gila River in Arizona; Granada in Colorado; Minidoka in Idaho; and Jerome and Rohwer in Arkansas. The evacuees lost their personal liberties, homes, and property.

The U.S. internment camps were overcrowded and, according to a 1943 report published by the War Relocation Authority (the administering agency), Japanese Americans were housed in “tar paper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind.”

In the Manzanar camp, the 500-acre housing section was surrounded by barbed wire and eight guard towers with searchlights and was patrolled by military police. By September 1942, more than 10,000 Japanese Americans were crowded into Manzanar’s 504 barracks. Some 200 – 400 people lived in each of the 36 blocks, made up of 14 barracks divided into four rooms, each about 20-by-25 feet in area.

In stark contrast, in Hawaii, where some 160,000 Japanese Americans lived, by war’s end only 2,000 people of Japanese ancestry were interned. Although martial law was declared, the military governor, Lt. Gen. Delos Emmons, refused to implement mass internment.

In a radio broadcast soon after the Pearl Harbor attack, Emmons assured Japanese Americans: “There is no intention or desire on the part of the federal authorities to operate mass concentration camps. No person, be he citizen or alien, need worry, provided he is not connected with subversive elements. While we have been subjected to a serious attack by a ruthless and treacherous enemy, we must remember that this is America, and we must do things the American way. We must distinguish between loyalty and disloyalty among our people.”

There were at least three legal challenges by Japanese Americans in 1943 and 1944 that went to the Supreme Court. Gordon Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu, and Minoru Yasui were each arrested for ignoring a curfew for Japanese Americans, or refusing to report to their assigned internment camp. Each lost their case due to the suppression of evidence by U.S. Solicitor General Charles Fahy, who told the court that all U.S. government and military assessments were in favor of internment. In 1981, a researcher for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, discovered the tenth and only remaining “Final Report on Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast” issued under DeWitt’s name, which revealed this original 1942 report had been altered so as not to appear racist. Almost 40 years later, this lie was exposed, and justice was served.

The two red flags in the report that resulted in the “rewriting” were statements that it was “impossible to establish the identity of the loyal and the disloyal with any degree of safety,” and that, “It was not that there was insufficient time … it was simply a matter of facing the realities that a positive determination could not be made, that an exact separation of the ‘sheep from goats’ was unfeasible.”

So Bendetsen convinced DeWitt to insert a claim that time was indeed a factor in order to avoid appearing racist. This falsification of information was the basis for reopening the cases under the writ of coram nobis (i.e., reconsidering a verdict based on new evidence), allowing the court to correct its original judgment.

In 1985, Edward Ennis, a former Justice Department attorney, testified in the coram nobis hearing of Hirabayashi, who was charged with violating a curfew and refusing to report to an internment camp. This non-jury trial was held to decide whether the government had misrepresented evidence. At the time the Supreme Court upheld the conviction, it was not aware of contradictory evidence information in Ennis’ 1943 memo that would have changed the course of history. Fahy had insisted it be withheld.

In his memo, Ennis revealed that the naval officers believed that “It was necessary to evacuate only about 10,000 people they could have identified by name; they did not feel that it was necessary to evacuate all of the Japanese. Presumably, they had not made this view known immediately because [Navy] Secretary [Frank] Knox was at that time greatly exercised about the Japanese Fifth Column, and since it was the Army’s problem, it was safer to keep quiet than to brave the political storm then raging.”

“In retrospect, it appears that this Department made a mistake 14 months ago in not bringing the Office of Naval Intelligence into the controversy. I suppose that the reason that it did not occur to any of us to do this was the extreme position then taken by the Secretary of the Navy… Thus, had we known that the Navy thought that 90% of the evacuation was unnecessary, we could strongly have urged upon General Dewitt that he could not base a military judgment to the contrary upon Intelligence reports, as he now claims to do.”

Several weeks before the Ennis memo, Justice Department lawyer John Burling wrote a memo involving the Korematsu case: “We are now therefore in possession of substantially incontrovertible evidence that the most important statements of fact advanced by General DeWitt to justify the evacuation and detention were incorrect, and furthermore that General DeWitt had cause to know, and in all probability did know.”

This time, Fahy participated in changing a footnote regarding false claims of espionage. The footnote included reports from J. Edgar Hoover of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Communications Commission of the Navy that confirmed claims by the Army were false. The lights on California hillsides were not signals to Japanese submarines, but people using flashlights going to outdoor toilets. A power outage in Oregon was not sabotage, but the result of cattle scratching their backs against power lines. And the “arrows of fire” were not signals, but farmers burning brush.

Hirabayashi’s exclusion and curfew convictions were overturned in 1986 and 1987, respectively. Korematsu’s case was overturned in 1983, and Yasui’s conviction was overturned in 1986. In 2011, U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal wrote a public repudiation of Fahy’s actions.

In December 1944, two and a half years after signing Executive Order 9066, Roosevelt suspended the order, but it was not officially terminated by proclamation until February 17, 1976. In 1982, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) issued its final report, “Personal Justice Denied,” saying that the internment was motivated by “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.

It also reported “that not a single documented act of espionage, sabotage or fifth-column activity was committed by an American citizen of Japanese ancestry or by a resident Japanese alien on the West Coast.” In 1988, Congress offered an apology and individual reparations of $20,000 to surviving Japanese Americans who had been wrongfully interned.

December 7, 1941, and February 19, 1942, will both live on in infamy as tragedies in American history. A total of 2,403 Americans died during the attack on Pearl Harbor. A total of 1,862 Japanese Americans died in internment camps. The causes of death differed, but they all died on American soil, all victims of war. They were all Americans.

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A Smithsonian magazine special report

The Injustice of Japanese-American Internment Camps Resonates Strongly to This Day

During WWII, 120,000 Japanese-Americans were forced into camps, a government action that still haunts victims and their descendants

T.A. Frail; Photographs by Paul Kitagaki Jr.; Historical Photographs by Dorothea Lange

Jane Yanagi Diamond taught American History at a California high school, “but I couldn’t talk about the internment,” she says. “My voice would get all strange.” Born in Hayward, California, in 1939, she spent most of World War II interned with her family at a camp in Utah.

Seventy-five years after the fact, the federal government’s incarceration of some 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent during that war is seen as a shameful aberration in the U.S. victory over militarism and totalitarian regimes. Though President Ford issued a formal apology to the internees in 1976, saying their incarceration was a “setback to fundamental American principles,” and Congress authorized the payment of reparations in 1988, the episode remains, for many, a living memory. Now, with immigration-reform proposals targeting entire groups as suspect, it resonates as a painful historical lesson.

The roundups began quietly within 48 hours after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941. The announced purpose was to protect the West Coast. Significantly, the incarceration program got underway despite a warning; in January 1942, a naval intelligence officer in Los Angeles reported that Japanese-Americans were being perceived as a threat almost entirely “because of the physical characteristics of the people.” Fewer than 3 percent of them might be inclined toward sabotage or spying, he wrote, and the Navy and the FBI already knew who most of those individuals were. Still, the government took the position summed up by John DeWitt, the Army general in command of the coast: “A Jap’s a Jap. They are a dangerous element, whether loyal or not.”

That February, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, empowering DeWitt to issue orders emptying parts of California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona of issei—immigrants from Japan, who were precluded from U.S. citizenship by law—and nisei, their children, who were U.S. citizens by birth. Photographers for the War Relocation Authority were on hand as they were forced to leave their houses, shops, farms, fishing boats. For months they stayed at “assembly centers,” living in racetrack barns or on fairgrounds. Then they were shipped to ten “relocation centers,” primitive camps built in the remote landscapes of the interior West and Arkansas. The regime was penal: armed guards, barbed wire, roll call. Years later, internees would recollect the cold, the heat, the wind, the dust—and the isolation.

There was no wholesale incarceration of U.S. residents who traced their ancestry to Germany or Italy, America’s other enemies.

The exclusion orders were rescinded in December 1944, after the tides of battle had turned in the Allies’ favor and just as the Supreme Court ruled that such orders were permissible in wartime (with three justices dissenting, bitterly). By then the Army was enlisting nisei soldiers to fight in Africa and Europe. After the war, President Harry Truman told the much-decorated, all-nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team: “You fought not only the enemy, but you fought prejudice—and you have won.”

If only: Japanese-Americans met waves of hostility as they tried to resume their former lives. Many found that their properties had been seized for nonpayment of taxes or otherwise appropriated. As they started over, they covered their sense of loss and betrayal with the Japanese phrase Shikata ga nai —It can’t be helped. It was decades before nisei parents could talk to their postwar children about the camps.

Paul Kitagaki Jr., a photojournalist who is the son and grandson of internees, has been working through that reticence since 2005. At the National Archives in Washington, D.C., he has pored over more than 900 pictures taken by War Relocation Authority photographers and others—including one of his father’s family at a relocation center in Oakland, California, by one of his professional heroes, Dorothea Lange. From fragmentary captions he has identified more than 50 of the subjects and persuaded them and their descendants to sit for his camera in settings related to their internment. His pictures here, published for the first time, read as portraits of resilience.

Jane Yanagi Diamond, now 77 and retired in Carmel, California, is living proof. “I think I’m able to talk better about it now,” she told Kitagaki. “I learned this as a kid—you just can’t keep yourself in gloom and doom and feel sorry for yourself. You’ve just got to get up and move along. I think that’s what the war taught me.”

Subject interviews conducted by Paul Kitagaki Jr.

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T.A. Frail | READ MORE

Tom Frail is a senior editor for Smithsonian magazine. He previously worked as a senior editor for the Washington Post and for Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.

Paul Kitagaki Jr. | READ MORE

Paul Kitagaki Jr. is a senior photographer at The Sacramento Bee . His work has won numerous awards, including a shared Pulitzer Prize in 1990.

Archive of Japanese Americans detained in internment camps is available online

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

During World War II, the United States rounded up more than 125,000 people of Japanese descent. The U.S. imprisoned those people inside what were called internment camps until the end of the war. Courts upheld that security measure at the time, though the United States much later apologized and paid compensation. The names of those interned have been published and searchable online through the Irei Project, which is dedicated to memorializing the internment.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And now it's also available on ancestry.com. The database includes photographs, newspaper archives and other information about life in the camps. The Irei Project's digital list also corrects a lot of errors.

DUNCAN RYUKEN WILLIAMS: Roughly about 28,000, perhaps even up to 30,000, names have some level of misspelling or error or discrepancy that we ended up correcting.

INSKEEP: Duncan Ryuken Williams is director of the Irei Project.

RYUKEN WILLIAMS: When there were errors in government rosters, we checked World War II draft records, prewar and postwar U.S. federal census records, in Ancestry's collections.

INSKEEP: The searchable data might include, for example, information about what year a person came to the United States or how much time they spent in Japan or what their parents did for work.

MARTIN: Ryuken Williams says he hopes it can help repair some of the harm to detainees and their families.

RYUKEN WILLIAMS: This kind of ability to acknowledge people, give their personhood and dignity back when the government took that away from them, is in itself an act of reparation.

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• Lesson Plans
• Teacher's Guides
• Media Resources

Japanese American Internment Camps during WWII

Watercolor painting depicting three figures, two children and one adult, walking towards a road lined with barracks and electrical poles (Tule Lake, 1942).

California State University Japanese American Digitization Project

This lesson examines the incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during WWII. Students will analyze primary sources to learn about the consternation caused by the questionnaire that was used to determine the loyalty of the Japanese and Japanese Americans incarcerated in War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps, and the subsequent removal of “disloyals” to the Tule Lake Segregation Camp.

Guiding Questions

What did loyalty mean to Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during WWII?

What powers should a President have during a time of war?

What is the legacy of the Japanese American internment camps?

Learning Objectives

Examine the motives for moving Japanese Americans to interment camps during WWII.

Analyze the complexity of life experienced by Japanese Americans incarcerated in Tule Lake and other internment camps.

Analyze archival documents to determine the consequences of incarcerating Japanese Americans during a time of war.

Evaluate the legacy of the internment camps and government actions against Japanese Americans during WWII. 

Lesson Plan Details

After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 and the U.S. declaration of war, 80,000 thousand American citizens of Japanese ancestry, and 40,000 Japanese nationals, who were barred from naturalization by race, were imprisoned under the authority of Executive Order 9066 in War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps. There were approximately 11,000 people of Japanese descent, who were actually interned following a recognized legal procedure and the forms of law. They were citizens of a nation against which the United States was at war, seized for reasons supposedly based on their behavior, and entitled to an individual hearing before a board. Whereas, the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese American men, women, and children in the WRA camps had no due process of law and this violation of civil and human rights was justified on the grounds of military necessity.

Within four months of the Executive Order, all persons of Japanese descent had been removed from the western portions of California, Oregon, and Washington to supposedly protect against sabotage and espionage. While some Italians and Germans were imprisoned in the U.S., they posed no threat on the west coast and faced nothing like the racial animosity borne by the Japanese. Without any due process, Japanese families were forced to leave their homes and sent first to Temporary Assembly Centers and then routed to any of ten hastily constructed War Relocation Authority camps located on large tracks of federal land in remote areas of the western United States far from strategic areas. The camps were built from scratch of wooden barracks with tarpaper walls surrounded by barbed wire fences and guard towers. The unsatisfactory living and working conditions were communal with little privacy and minimum comforts in extreme climates.

By October of 1942, the WRA began to develop leave clearance procedures to enable about 17,000 Japanese American citizens (majority 18-30 years-old) to re-enter civilian life as students or workers (about 7% of the total number of Japanese American incarcerees). The WRA reviewed their loyalty, prospects for self-support, and the reception of the community where they intended to move, the majority went to Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City, or New York, far from their west coast birthplaces.

Then in early 1943, the War Department developed a questionnaire to identify possible military volunteers and the War Relocation Authority decided to use it to identify incarcerees who might be released from the camps. Called the “Application for Leave Clearance,” it was distributed to all the WRA camps to determine the loyalty of the incarcerees. The “loyalty questionnaire” was given to all Japanese Americans age 17 and over in the War Relocation Authority camps. Two clumsily worded questions caused confusion and consternation. Refusal to complete the questionnaire, qualified answers, or “no” answers to a question about serving in the armed forces (number 27) and foreswearing allegiance to the Japanese emperor/foreign governments (number 28) were treated as evidence of disloyalty. These questions resulted in a great deal of outrage and controversy. Japanese American citizens (Nisei) resented being asked to renounce loyalty to someone who had never been their Emperor. First generation Japanese Americans (Issei) could not gain U.S. citizenship, thus renouncing their Japanese citizenship would leave them stateless. Asking people to assume stateless status is a violation of the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of enemy aliens. Those who answered “no” to one or both of the questions were designated as “disloyal” to the U.S. The spurious nature of these two survey items, led to these questions being hastily rewritten, but the damage was done.

This loyalty review program was the most divisive crisis of the incarceration and led to the transformation of the Tule Lake camp into a high-security Segregation Center to house those who refused to register or answered the loyalty questions “no-no.” This meant that about 12,000 “disloyals” and their families were transferred to Tule Lake, which required that 6,500 people already living in the Tule Lake WRA Camp were to sent to other WRA camps to make room for them. About 6,000 pre-segregation people decided to stay in the transformed Tule Lake Segregation Center so as to not be separated from their families or for other practical reasons. Tule Lake became a trouble spot with this mixture of “disloyals” from various WRA Camps and there were conflicts, not only with the camp keepers, but within the community.

Security at Tule Lake was increased with military police, a jail, a stockade (prison before jail built in 1944), and fencing to turn it into a maximum security facility, all of which contributed to the turmoil. The segregation turned Tule Lake into a very complicated place with factions forming such as Hoshi Dan, a Japanese nationalist group. A work stoppage after a farm truck accident in which 29 people were injured (5 seriously and 1 died), escalated into a strike and a series of events that led to the Army declaring martial law and taking over the camp. Repression, imprisonment, shortages, and other hardships were endured while disillusionment grew as draft notices began arriving. Only a total of 1,256 people volunteered for service from all the WRA camps, whereas over 10,000 volunteered from Hawaii alone (where people of Japanese descent were not incarcerated).

Those segregated at Tule Lake were caught in a situation where Japanese nationalism offered a positive alternative, further dividing the camp population. Many immigrants and citizens determined that it was possibly safer to be “repatriated” to Japan rather than stay in the U.S. The concept of giving up United States citizenship, though shocking to some, was a choice of serious consideration and implications. Many feared for their safety in hostile white communities if they were released from the camps before the war was over and so thought Japan would be safer than the U.S. Others were outraged with their imprisonment and disillusioned. Renunciation was made easier by an Act of Congress, the so-called Denaturalization Act of 1944. Initially, fewer than two-dozen Tule Lake incarcerees applied to renounce their citizenship, but when the WRA announced that the camp would close in a year, panic and confusion ensued resulting in 7,222 (1/3 of the Tule Lake camp population) Nisei and Kibei renouncing, 65 percent of whom were American-born. In contrast, only 128 people from the nine other WRA camps renounced their American citizenship. Ultimately, many were repatriated to Japan, while others who signed up to go to Japan realized it was a mistake. Wayne Mortimer Collins, a Civil Liberties Attorney, prevented the Department of Justice from deporting en masse the people of Japanese descent who renounced their U.S. citizenship. But the effort to restore citizenship took 22 years—eventually nearly all, except about 40-50 people had their citizenship restored.

Tule Lake became the largest of the WRA camps with 18,700 incarcerees, although it was built for 15,000. Within the microcosm of Tule Lake, the complexity and consequences of the Japanese American WWII incarceration was played out on the most dramatic of stages. The Tule Lake Segregation Center was the last of the WRA camps to close on March 20, 1946.

For a more in-depth discussion with illustrations and summary tables, see Appendix A, and/or the timeline in Appendix B.

CCSS.RH 2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.

CCSS.RH 6. Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence.

CCSS.RH 9. Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

NCSS.D2.His.1.9-12. Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.

NCSS.D2.His.2.9-12. Analyze change and continuity in historical eras.

NCSS.D2.His.3.9-12. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to assess how the significance of their actions changes over time and is shaped by the historical context.

NCSS. D2.His.12.9-12. Use questions generated about multiple historical sources to pursue further inquiry and investigate additional sources.

NCSS.D2.His.14.9-12. Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past.

NCSS.D2.His.15.9-12. Distinguish between long-term causes and triggering events in developing a historical argument.

NCSS.D2.His.16.9-12. Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.

Archival materials used throughout this lesson are made available through the California State University Japanese American History Digitization Project (CSUJAD) . 

Use the  CSUJAD exhibit “Before the War” to learn about the lives of Japanese Americans in the United States prior to the outbreak of WWII. Students can also use  the background reading assignment ( Appendix A ) and the timeline ( Appendix B ) to establish a context for why these camps were created and how the U.S. Government justified their need during WWII. Include  President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order no. 9066 that authorized the relocation of Japanese Americans within this background history. 

Activity 1. Determining Loyalty

What does it mean to be loyal? Do circumstances matter when determining whether to remain loyal? Using Merriam Webster's online dictionary , discuss the meaning of the words “loyalty” and “loyal" and examine the importance of context when determining what loyalty entails. 

Considering what was covered in Appendix A (Background Reading) and Appendix B (Timeline) , what might it feel like to be a Japanese American who was required to complete a loyalty questionnaire after having been in a War Relocation Authority camp for a year? Review the " loyalty questionnaire”  available at CSUJAD before discussing the following questions:

How might one's definition of loyalty change during times of war?

• Do you have to agree with all of the policies of the government at all times?
• How might you appropriately demonstrate your discontent?
• If necessary, how should a citizen’s loyalty be determined?
• If you were an Issei woman (1st generation, not allowed to become an American citizen), how might you respond to number 27 about serving in the armed forces?
• If you were a Nisei (2nd generation, American citizen), what might your reaction be to number 28 forswearing allegiance to the Japanese emperor/foreign governments?
• If you were an Issei (1st generation, not allowed to become an American citizen), what would giving up any allegiance to Japan leave you with?

Activity 2. Types of Internment Camps

After reviewing the different types of camps used during WWII and which U.S. government organizations administered them ( Appendix C ), explore the Densho Encyclopedia to learn about the various sites of WWII incarceration in the U.S.  D iscuss the differences in the camp populations and treatment of the prisoners (working conditions, security, detention facilities, etc.) with the following questions:

What different types of camps were developed to house these prisoners and how did they evolve as the war progressed?

Who was incarcerated during WWII and why were the Japanese and Japanese Americans singled out for incarceration during WWII?

When you focus specifically on the War Relocation Authority Camps where people of Japanese descent were incarcerated, what made Tule Lake different?

Activity 3. Perspectives and Experiences in the Camps

Students work with photographs and letters from the camps made available through the CSUJAD database. Students can be assigned one subtopic and then brought together with students responsible for the other topics to discuss their findings, or students can be assigned each of the subtopics within this activity. When working with the primary sources, students can also access the "Terminology Differentiating People of Japanese Ancestry"   ( Appendix A ) and "6 C's of Primary Source Analysis" ( Appendix E ). 

A. Analyzing Photographs

An information card indicates that Toshio Kuratomi, 28 years old, was moved from San Diego via the Jerome, Arkansas WRA Camp to Tule Lake. Analyze the intake photographs of Kuratomi and Mitsuho Kumra that were taken during their transfer to Tule Lake from other War Relocation Authority Camps and compare them with what you have learned about the camps thus far. 

• Intake photographs of Toshio Kuratomi and Mitsuho Kumra, 1943
• What do the photographs reveal  about the process of being checked in to the Tule Lake Camp in 1943?
• How might experiencing this process change your understanding of your relationship with the U.S. government?

The three photographs below show different elements of what living in Tule Lake was like. Notice the dates that the pictures were taken and look at the Timeline ( Appendix B ). Consider the transition of Tule Lake from a War Relocation Authority Camp to a Segregation Center.

• Tule Lake Fashion Show, 1942
• Soldiers of Tule Lake, 1943
• Police Officers of Tule Lake, 1943
• What did the photographer want you to see in these images?
• What can you learn about daily life in Tule Lake from these photographs?
• What do they tell us about the changes to the Tule Lake camp over time?

B. Analyzing Letters

In December of 1944, before the war was over, the War Relocation Authority announced that the incarceration would end and the camps would close within a year. There was much confusion in the camps about where the incarcerees would go and anxiety about the safety of people of Japanese ancestry once released. At Tule Lake, 7,222 Nisei and Kibei renounced their citizenship thinking it would be safer for their families to be in Japan, whereas only 128 from all the other WRA camps renounced. The effort to restore citizenship took 22 years in U.S. courts.

Read Tsugitada Kanamori’s written declaration , given under oath, that provides extended background information to support cancelling his renunciation and reinstating his U.S. citizenship. (U se the expansion button with arrows in the upper right corner of the image to see the entire document).

How many different places were Kanamori and his family incarcerated?

How does Kanamori explain the changes in his view of loyalty to country?

What political and social pressures can you identify that influenced this family’s journey?

What were the reasons why Kanamori renounced his American citizenship?

In this letter from Aiko Takaoka , sister of Yoshio Takaoka, she request news about her brother’s safety and a release from the Tule Lake Stockade (prison before the jail building was built) from the Camp Director, Raymond Best. 

What does Aiko's letter reveal about her family situation?

What information is Aiko providing to help her with her brother’s potential release?

What can you learn about Tule Lake camp policies and procedures from this letter?

What does Aiko express about loyalty in this letter?

After completing the lesson, have individual students, or groups of students working together, search and use archival materials in CSUJAD  t o participate in the following activities:

Assessment Option 1:

Students should research and create an investigative report to communicate to the American people news about what the conditions were like in the WRA camps during WWII. Use the CSUJAD online historical archive images, text, etc., to build and illustrate the story. They can then download and share the archival materials discovered to support their views and create a type of digital storyboard or narration using Google slides and speaker notes, MS Powerpoint, or other presentation tools.

Assessment Option 2:

Have your students write their official U.S. representatives, in Congress or the Senate, a letter expressing their views on the incarceration of people of Japanese descent during WWII. Have them pretend that it is 1943 after the loyalty questionnaire has been distributed and people in the camps are being drafted for military service. Encourage them to share actual quotes from the people who were in the WRA camps, use images, or any other archival information from the CSUJAD project. An illustrated letter can be created using Open Office, MS Word or other word processing tools.

Analyzing Primary Sources:

 If your students are still developing primary source analysis skills, Appendix E provides a tool, called the 6Cs of primary source analysis, to guide their analysis of any given archival object. When using the CSU Japanese American Digitization project to find archival materials to analyze, see also Appendix D, which provides a guide to assist with effective searching of the database.

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to write brief responses (1-2 paragraphs) or a longer essay (1-2 pages) about the following questions:

• What did loyalty mean to the people of Japanese ancestry incarcerated during WWII?
• Who was incarcerated in the U.S. during WWII? Discuss some of the different types of camps that were developed and/or the government agencies that ran them? What made Tule Lake in California different?

Have students search the CSUJAD online database of archival objects   to find primary sources that further illuminate the issues associated with the loyalty questionnaire and events/conditions at Tule Lake Segregation Center ( User Guide - Appendix D ). 

Search Terms and Topics:

• application for leave clearance
• segregation
• farm truck accident
• martial law
• renunciation
• Wayne Collins
• leaving camp
• California State University Japanese American Digitization Project (CSUJAD)
• CSUJAD Online Exhibit
• CSUJAD Printable Illustrative Posters (also available in the Online Exhibit
• Discover Nikkei
• Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles
• Supreme Court of the United States case Korematsu v. United States (1944)

Materials & Media

Appendix a--background reading, appendix b--timeline, appendix c--types of camps, appendix d--guide to csujad, appendix e--analyzing primary sources, related on edsitement, asian american & pacific islander perspectives within humanities education, american diplomacy in world war ii, holocaust and resistance.

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Archive of Japanese Americans detained in internment camps is available online

A list of over 125,000 Asian Americans incarcerated in Japanese internment camps during WWII is now searchable online.

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The archeology of japanese american internment.

Stacey Camp

Dr. Stacey Camp, University of Idaho

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Stacey Camp, 10/4/2012, ArcheoThursday

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Last updated: July 21, 2021

Archive of Japanese Americans detained in internment camps is available online

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

During World War II, the United States rounded up more than 125,000 people of Japanese descent. The U.S. imprisoned those people inside what were called internment camps until the end of the war. Courts upheld that security measure at the time, though the United States much later apologized and paid compensation. The names of those interned have been published and searchable online through the Irei Project, which is dedicated to memorializing the internment.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And now it's also available on ancestry.com. The database includes photographs, newspaper archives and other information about life in the camps. The Irei Project's digital list also corrects a lot of errors.

DUNCAN RYUKEN WILLIAMS: Roughly about 28,000, perhaps even up to 30,000, names have some level of misspelling or error or discrepancy that we ended up correcting.

INSKEEP: Duncan Ryuken Williams is director of the Irei Project.

RYUKEN WILLIAMS: When there were errors in government rosters, we checked World War II draft records, prewar and postwar U.S. federal census records, in Ancestry's collections.

INSKEEP: The searchable data might include, for example, information about what year a person came to the United States or how much time they spent in Japan or what their parents did for work.

MARTIN: Ryuken Williams says he hopes it can help repair some of the harm to detainees and their families.

RYUKEN WILLIAMS: This kind of ability to acknowledge people, give their personhood and dignity back when the government took that away from them, is in itself an act of reparation.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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• Mapping Japanese American internment with Densho

Visualizing internment in detention sites during WWII with Sites of Shame and Manzanar CloseUp

In 2021, Stamen began working with Densho, a nonprofit committed to documenting the oral histories of Japanese Americans who were incarcerated on American soil during WWII. Sites of Shame tells the stories of the 125,000 imprisoned individuals and how they were transported around the country, often separated from their families.

Manzanar CloseUp is an extension of Sites of Shame that Stamen and Densho created to showcase daily life at the Manzanar internment camp in California. With this tool, most of the 10,000+ individuals imprisoned at Manzanar are mapped at the apartment level. You can see how the population changes over time, view different demographic information about individuals, read biweekly newspapers written by prisoners, and find specific people by name.

Last published: May 10, 2024

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Archive of Japanese Americans detained in internment camps is available online

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

During World War II, the United States rounded up more than 125,000 people of Japanese descent. The U.S. imprisoned those people inside what were called internment camps until the end of the war. Courts upheld that security measure at the time, though the United States much later apologized and paid compensation. The names of those interned have been published and searchable online through the Irei Project, which is dedicated to memorializing the internment.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And now it's also available on ancestry.com. The database includes photographs, newspaper archives and other information about life in the camps. The Irei Project's digital list also corrects a lot of errors.

DUNCAN RYUKEN WILLIAMS: Roughly about 28,000, perhaps even up to 30,000, names have some level of misspelling or error or discrepancy that we ended up correcting.

INSKEEP: Duncan Ryuken Williams is director of the Irei Project.

RYUKEN WILLIAMS: When there were errors in government rosters, we checked World War II draft records, prewar and postwar U.S. federal census records, in Ancestry's collections.

INSKEEP: The searchable data might include, for example, information about what year a person came to the United States or how much time they spent in Japan or what their parents did for work.

MARTIN: Ryuken Williams says he hopes it can help repair some of the harm to detainees and their families.

RYUKEN WILLIAMS: This kind of ability to acknowledge people, give their personhood and dignity back when the government took that away from them, is in itself an act of reparation.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

WWII veteran who was forced into a Japanese internment camp given France's Legion of Honor

A Chicago WWII veteran who was forced into a Japanese internment camp was given France's Legion of Honor for his military work to liberate France from German occupation.

Enoch Kanaya was 16 years old when he and his family were forced into an Idaho Japanese internment camp. Three years later, he volunteered to join the U.S. Army to fight for his country.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

"I was 19 when I went overseas to join the 442nd," he said. "We were all Japanese Americans.

The 442nd "Go for Broke" unit was full of fierce frontline fighters, including Sgt. Kanaya. They battled the Axis powers in Europe and bigotry at home.

"All we were trying to do was prove that we were Americans," Kanaya said. "President Truman said that we not only fought the enemy but we fought prejudice, and that we won, so I thought that was a pretty good speech."

He remembers sneaking across the Gothic Line in Italy, fortified with German troops.

"It took us eight hours to climb that mountain and when we finally got up there, and we were on top, and they were below us so it didn't take us long to clear out all those machine gunners," Kanaya said.

Thursday he was honored for his unit's work to liberate France from German occupation, receiving France's Legion of Honor.

"Mr. Kanaya, you are a true hero. Thanks to you, I grew up in a free country," said Chicago Consul General of France Yannick Tagand.

As he was pinned there was roaring applause and a standing ovation.

"This medal really all doesn't belong to me, because I think all the GI veterans of World War II deserve this medal as much as I do," Kanaya told the attendees.

Sgt. Kanaya still stands at salute, humble at nearly 100 years old as he remembers his fallen comrades.

"They're the ones that made me able to come back," he said. "I'm one of the fortunate ones that came back."

Kanaya now holds the highest distinction for service to the French Republic. He said it's the honor of a lifetime.

  This newscast is updated weekdays at 6am, 9am, noon, 3pm, and 6pm.  

Archive of Japanese Americans detained in internment camps is available online

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

During World War II, the United States rounded up more than 125,000 people of Japanese descent. The U.S. imprisoned those people inside what were called internment camps until the end of the war. Courts upheld that security measure at the time, though the United States much later apologized and paid compensation. The names of those interned have been published and searchable online through the Irei Project, which is dedicated to memorializing the internment.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And now it's also available on ancestry.com. The database includes photographs, newspaper archives and other information about life in the camps. The Irei Project's digital list also corrects a lot of errors.

DUNCAN RYUKEN WILLIAMS: Roughly about 28,000, perhaps even up to 30,000, names have some level of misspelling or error or discrepancy that we ended up correcting.

INSKEEP: Duncan Ryuken Williams is director of the Irei Project.

RYUKEN WILLIAMS: When there were errors in government rosters, we checked World War II draft records, prewar and postwar U.S. federal census records, in Ancestry's collections.

INSKEEP: The searchable data might include, for example, information about what year a person came to the United States or how much time they spent in Japan or what their parents did for work.

MARTIN: Ryuken Williams says he hopes it can help repair some of the harm to detainees and their families.

RYUKEN WILLIAMS: This kind of ability to acknowledge people, give their personhood and dignity back when the government took that away from them, is in itself an act of reparation.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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