Japanese-Americans had to board trains with no idea of

their destination bringing only what they can carry.

 

 

 

February 19, 1942 is a date that changed the lives of thousands of American citizens; a date that is the start of a disgrace. On this day in history, sparked by Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt declared Executive Order 9066 stating that all Japanese-Americans were to be rounded up and sent to live in an internment facility. Given a mere 48 hours, families had to either sell or abandon everything that could not fit in a backpack and begin the journey of a bleek existence. 112,000 people were forcefully evacuated from their homes and sent to live in temporary settings until the camps were built. Two out of every three evacuees were legal American citizens. Throughout the total four years of imprisonment, only ten people were charged with various charges dealing disloyalty to the country, none of whom were Japanese.

 

 

 

Buildings Diet: Work:  Daily Life: Variety among camps: References

 

 

When President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, he declared the internment

of Japanese-Americans, "an interest of national security".

    

 

 

Buildings

 

     

     The buildings and homes of the camps added to the rough lives in the camps. When internment began, there were not sites prepared for the people. At the beginning of internment, people were forced to relocate to pavilions that housed livestock or large parking lots for fairs and events (Ewers). Approximately a year later, Japanese-Americans were sent off to live in what a prisoner described as, “10 hastily prepared internment camps in the harsh interior of the country”  (Japanese American Internment Camps). Unlike concentration camps, each family had their own room in the barracks. All rooms were twenty feet wide, and, depending on the size of the family, rooms ranged from eight to twenty-four feet in length (Burgan). Each room contained one or two army cots, a blanket per bed, a pot-bellied stove, and a single light that hung from the ceiling (Sinnott).

     Privacy was unheard of in these camps. Poorly constructed shacks served as the restroom, which did not have any barriers or doors for toilets and showers (Ewers). Guards paced the grounds, all of whom were armed with guns (Uschan). Due to harsh weather, the buildings, constructed with materials such as tar, paper, and wood, were often damaged or destroyed (Uschan).

 

 

 

 

 

Diet:

 

     The Japanese-American internment camps were hardly known for fine cuisine. Typically, the average meal before internment consisted of meat or fish and a vegetable, so many of those imprisoned could not even stomach the camp food (Ewers). In the camps, prisoners were served mutton and mashed potatoes for the typical meal (Ewers). Meat was really served in the camps because it would often spoil, leading to illnesses (Burgan). Disease would spread through rotten food and led one survivor to claim, "The dining halls had another unintened consequence" (Ewers). Breakfast began promptly at seven in the morning each day, and anyone who was not present on time for any meal simply did not get to eat that meal (Sinnott). Despite having a small stove in their baracks, families were not permitted to cook (Ewers). Even if someone would like to prepare their own meals from their personal gardens grown outside their barack, there was no hot water available to prisoners for any reason (Sinnott). Some families were lucky enough to know people from the 'outside', so the occasional food basket was donated to certain families from non-imprisoned friends (Sinnott).

 

 

 

Work: 

 

     Although the opportunities were not the same as those outside the camps, certain people were permitted to leave for work. Some would leave the camp for a period of time to attend a job while others worked within the camps. In total, 30,000 prisoners left the camps for work (Uschan). One third of these people worked on nearby farms and fields and few were permitted to take a portion of the crops back to the camps (Burgan). Also, 8,000 of the 30,000 served in the war as their duty (Uschan). Few younger students were actually permitted to attend select colleges and use their degrees to choose from an even more diverse set of jobs (Sinnott). Some of the other jobs taken were things like teachers, doctors, chefs, and clerks (Ewers). The original limit on pay was $16 a month (Ewers). After much protest and debate, the number was raised to $19 per month (Ewers). A security guard was convinced that, "No evacuee should make more than the $21-per-month salary of an army private" (Ewers).

 

 

 

Many Japanese-Americans took advantage of opportunities to

join the war in order to leave the camps.

                           

Daily Life:

 

 

    Life in these camps was definitely difficult, yet it was made easier by the effort of the people. Days began at seven in the morning each day by a loud siren blast (Sinnott). Someone could choose to stay in, but they would miss breakfast that also began at seven (Sinnott). After the morning meal, children were sent off to school. Each camp had an education area, which included schools and auditoriums (Ewers). Some high schools in these camps also had their own marching bands that paraded through the camps as entertainment for the people (Ewers). Adults were not given free time during these hours, yet they weren’t assigned to do any labor. Many men and women opened clothes-making shops and hair-dressers (Ewers). Others who were not so skilled in a particular field occasionally formed camp newspapers or police forces (Ewers). The citizens of Manzanar even opened and worked in their own tofu factory (Ewers).

     Although Japanese-Americans were still given minimal advantages over those in concentration camps, they were forbidden from talking in any language other than English, especially Japanese (Ewers). Even these slight freedoms didn’t lighten the burden on some prisoners. A survivor of the camps went on to claim, “Few ever became accustomed to living behind barbed wire and being watched by guards,” (Japanese American Internment Camps). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Variety among camps:

 

 

     Although all internment camps were equally horrible, they did have their separating differences.  Camps were located across the western side of the country in California, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Arkansas (Uschan). The goal achieved by the placement of these camps is the fact that the camps were intentionally built great distances from civilization with no roads, trains, or residents around (Burgan). A citizen of a camp in Topaz, Utah describes the area as, "bleak as a bleached bone" (Sinnott). Weather was a certain issue in some of these camps. Extreme heat was an issue in the Arizona camps where temperatures during the summertime reached up to 100°F(Burgan). Other camps, such as those in Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado, had winter temperatures drop as far as   -30°F (Burgan). Family members were occasionally separated, but not always. Tule Lake was the only camp that majorly stood out. Japanese-Americans of age were forced to take a loyalty oath test, and those who failed were sent off to Tule Lake (World War II). Because of this, Tule Lake was later named a segregation center (World War II). Mr. Sulu, a survivor of Tule Lake, recalls, "Here there was gritty gravel and cutting little shards of hard fossils and rocks...We had to come to a hard landscape barren of any foliage except for the spiny tumbleweeds that rolled aimlessly around the stark, flat surface....Life in the camps was usually boring...But the mess hall was the social focal point and cultural center of the block....Sometimes, after dinner, movies were shown in the mess hall. A big white sheet would be hung up at one end and a bulky, black projection machine set up at the opposite end. Because we were right across from the mess hall, we always had the best seats" (Burgan 43).

 

 

 

 

 

Cruel encampment wasn't enough for some citizens. These Japanese-Americans were

highly discriminated against throughout the community.

 

 

References

 

 

Americans of Japanese ancestry being relocated. 2005. Discovery Education Streming. Discovery Education , 2005. Web. 10 May 2010. <http://player.discoveryeducation.com>.

 

Burgan, Michael. ’Snapshots in History: The Japanese American Internment - Civil Liberties Denied. United States in America: Compass Point Books, 2007. Print. Number 9.

 

Camp Santa Fe Dedication. N.d. Personal photograph by author. Flickr . Creative Commons, 19 Feb. 2007. Web. 10 May 2010. <http://www.flickr.com>.

 

Corbis. Japanese Americans in a Bus Being Taken to Internment Camps. 2006. Discovery Education Streaming. Discovery Education , 2006. Web. 10 May 2010. <http://player.discoveryeducation.com>.

 

Ewers, Justin. “Journey into a Dark Past.” U.S. News and World Report 19 May 2008: 32-35. Web. 3 May 2010. <http://web.ebscohost.com>. Number 1

 

Executive Order 9066: Japanese Internment Camps. Summer Productions, 2006. Discovery Education Streaming. Web. 5 May 2010. <http://player.discoveryeducation.com/>. Number 5.

 

Japanese American . N.d. Personal photograph by author. Flickr.  Creative Commons, 24 June 2008. Web. 10 May 2010. <http://www.flickr.com>.

 

Japanese American Internment Camps. OnDeck Home Entertainment, 2003. Discovery Education Streaming. Web. 6 May 2010. <http://player.discoveryeducation.com>. Number 7.

 

Minidoka Administratino area, ca. 1943. N.d. Personal photograph by author. Flickr . Creative Commons, May 2010. Web. 10 May 2010. <http://www.flickr.com>.

 

“Nisei.” Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Scholastic Inc., 2010. Web. 3 May 2010. <http://go.grolier.com/>. Number 3

 

Nisei: Hapanese Americans During Wartime. Media Rich Learning , 2004. Discovery Education Streaming. Web. 5 May 2010. <http://player.discoveryeducation.com/>. Number 6.

 

Pint, Lil 1/‌2. Executive Order 9066. N.d. Flickr. Creative Commons, 14 Sept. 2008. Web. 19 May 2010. <http://www.flickr.com>.

 

Rohwer Cemetery. N.d. Personal photograph by author. Flickr. Creative Commons, 15 Aug. 2007. Web. 10 May 2010. <http://www.flickr.com>.

Sign at the Manzanar Concentration Camp in eastern California. N.d. Personal photograph by author. Flickr. Creative Commons, 29 Nov. 2007. Web. 10 May 2010. <http://www.flickr.com>.

 

Sinnott, Susan. Our Burden of Shame: Japanese-American Internment during World War II. United States of America: Franklin Watts, 1995. Print. Number 8.

 

Two women walking with ice skates, Minidoka, Ca. 1943. N.d. Personal photograph by author. Flickr . Creative Commons , 7 May 2010. Web. 10 May 2010. <http://www.flickr.com>.

 

Uschan, Michael V. “Japanese Americans.” A Cultural History of the United States: Through the Decades. The 1940’s ed. 1999. Print. Number 4.

 

“World War II - Japanese Internment in the USA.” History on the Net. The History on the Net Group, 5 Feb. 2010. Web. 3 May 2010. <http://www.historyonthenet.com>. Number 2.

 

 

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