Links go to DocsTeach , the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives. It highlights the th Infantry Battalion, composed largely of Japanese-Americans. Following the attack at Pearl Harbor, government suspicion arose not only around aliens who came from enemy nations, but around all persons of Japanese descent, whether foreign born issei or American citizens nisei.
During congressional committee hearings, representatives of the Department of Justice raised logistical, constitutional, and ethical objections. Regardless, the task was turned over to the U. Army as a security matter. The entire West Coast was deemed a military area and was divided into military zones. Executive Order authorized military commanders to exclude civilians from military areas. Although the language of the order did not specify any ethnic group, Lieutenant General John L. Next, he encouraged voluntary evacuation by Japanese Americans from a limited number of areas; about seven percent of the total Japanese American population in these areas complied.
Because of the perception of "public danger," all Japanese within varied distances from the Pacific coast were targeted. Unless they were able to dispose of or make arrangements for care of their property within a few days, their homes, farms, businesses, and most of their private belongings were lost forever.
From the end of March to August, approximately , persons were sent to "assembly centers" — often racetracks or fairgrounds — where they waited and were tagged to indicate the location of a long-term "relocation center" that would be their home for the rest of the war.
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 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, , 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, , a riot broke out in the Santa Anita Assembly Center, the result of anger about insufficient rations and overcrowding. 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 , 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 , 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 At the same camp, on May 24, , James Okamoto, a year-old prisoner who drove a construction truck, was shot and killed by a guard.
In , 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. Korematsu lost the case, but he went on to become a civil rights activist and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in But it took another Supreme Court decision to halt the incarceration of Japanese Americans.
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. The last Japanese internment camp closed in March National Archives.
Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord and R. Historical Society of New Mexico. Smithsonian Institute. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! From the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Return to Sender: U. This article provides insight into the recruitment of censors, their duties, and the strange bureaucracy of the censor's job. Includes information on the particular challenges of censoring Japanese-American citizens who wrote in Japanese.
Beyond Barbed Wire: Japanese Internment through Salem Eyes Multimedia exhibit presenting the experience of being interned in a Japanese relocation camp.
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